AustLit

'Bestselling children's author and internationally respected literacy expert Mem Fox reveals the incredible emotional and intellectual impact reading aloud to children has on their ability to learn to read.

'With passion and humor, Fox speaks of when, where, and why to read aloud and demonstrates how to read aloud to best effect and how to get the most out of a read-aloud session. She discusses the three secrets of reading, offers guidance on defining and choosing good books, and addresses the challenges that can arise. And this new edition boasts twenty pages of fresh material, including two new chapters on boy readers and phonics, a foreword, and a list of "Twenty Books that Children Love."

'Filled with practical advice, activities, and inspiring true read-aloud miracles, this book is a favorite of educators and parents and a must-have for anyone interested in how children learn to read.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Born in Sydney and brought up in Greece, Martin Johnston’s experience of two languages and two cultures led him to produce a body of work that is both very Australian and quintessentially European.

'This selection includes his two previously published volumes, some of his early poems and Greek translations and the work he produced in the period before his death in 1990. It shows the range of Martin’s voice, the clarity of his perception, and the breadth of his passions.'

Source: publisher's blurb

'As a boy Arai Sunaomi was known as the Miracle Child and crossed between the worlds to walk among the dead. Now he has put aside his past to follow the way of the warrior. His aunt, Kaede, is considering making him her heir, and her General, Miyoshi Kahei, hopes to betroth Sunaomi to his daughter, Kinu. But there is one girl whom Sunaomi cannot forget: Utahime, who has been dead for seven years. Will he dare bring her back to life?

'Utahime's brother, Masao, is Sunaomi's oldest friend and the only surviving relative of the great warlord Saga Hideki. When Masao disappears after a fight in the city, Sunaomi is charged with finding him. With his cousins, Kiyoko and Kichizo, sibling assassins from the Tribe, Sunaomi sets out on a journey which will take him into an enthralling and dangerous world of spirits and supernatural beings, rebels, pirates and saints - the extraordinary and enchanting world of the Tales of the Otori.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

''It was as if they were pieces on a board which had been kicked over, each scattered in the dirt and alone.'

'Orphaned or left fatherless: such is the fate of many children of the Otori and the Tribe. Sunaomi and Chikara, sons of Arai Zenko, also carry the burden of their father's treachery, but their aunt, Kaede, is able to save their lives on condition they become novice monks and never leave the temple at Terayama.

'Sunaomi has been brought up as a warrior, yet his grandmother is Muto Shizuka. He cannot escape that he is also a child of the Tribe. As he discovers unimagined talents within himself he comes up against Hisao, Takeo's son, the ghostmaster, as well as Saga Hideki, the most powerful warlord in the realm, the Emperor's General.

'Taking place in the magical medieval world of Tales of the Otori and following on from The Harsh Cry of the Heron, Orphan Warriors is a coming-of-age adventure story in a human world of courage and sacrifice behind which always hovers a supernatural world of danger and dread.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Dorothy Porter's fourth poetry collection is an exhilarating ride through passions found, imagined and richly lived.

'From a modern, petrol-headed Carmen and Don José to pairs of polar explorers and silent twins, an intersection of birds and asylums, reflections on vanished love and new desire, Driving Too Fast bursts with vitality, a horsepower rhythm and language that turns on a dime.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Alex Leefson is astronomy's glamour girl, in love with the satellite Europa and the equally unreachable Phoebe. Meanwhile, her husband Daniel mourns the demise of his marriage and his life. Full of Dorothy Porter's customary bite and sensuality, Wild Surmise is an engrossing duet between two passionately estranged voices. An intensely moving verse novel of passions and vulnerabilities, love and death.' (Publication summary)

'Dorothy Porter’s sixth poetry collection (1997–2001) travels the solar system for comets, distant moons and other heavenly bodies before returning to South America and the Northern Territory and finishing with a selection of commissioned works—including one for the 2000 Sydney Olympics and one for the collection Dick for a Day.

'This collection sees a number of emerging themes and images that Dorothy Porter would further explore in later works such as her verse novel Wild Surmise—which was short-listed for the Miles Franklin Award in 2003 and won the Adelaide Festival Award in 2004. It is a wonderful collection illustrating a key era in the evolution of one of Australia’s most cherished poets.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'As the new Superintendent at Callan Park Psychiatric Hospital, Dr Peter Cyren must perform medical alchemy - turn diseased minds into healthy ones. But in the case of his own soul, this sacred process works irrevocably in reverse.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Garry Disher’s first novel is a reflection on a long life from childhood to late middle age, with all its ambition and disappointment, its opportunities tragically seized and missed, its triumphs and consolations.

'Robert Saxby looks back on his life in a series of fragments that build into a map of wrong turns and false waymarks that have led him to a point of crisis. He remembers his parents’ compromised marriage, his father’s unrealised dreams, Robert’s exuberant rejection of their limitations and his eventual repetition of their mistakes and his own, and the way his children flirt with those old patterns.

'This is a fully realised portrait of a life and all its contradictions and connections, still as fresh as it was on its debut.'

Source : publisher's blurb (Ligature)

'A collection of award-winning short stories by Garry Disher spanning the continents of Australia, Africa and Europe, the extremes of loneliness and connection, and all the relationships between people and places.

'Stories in this collection have won the National Short Story Award, the Alan Marshall Award and the Henry Lawson Award, and have been published and broadcast across Australia and in the UK, Canada and Denmark.'

Source : publisher's blurb (Ligature)

'The unsettled South Australian frontier near Mount Gambier is a strange and difficult place for a Galway family trying to make sense of their new world.

'Rosanna and brother Skelly long to escape. Their older brother Edwin races against poets in steeplechases and schemes over cattle, carts and cards to get ahead. They are all half in love with a visiting priest and a disturbing Irish play about their ancestors. 

'When she goes to work at a nearby station, Rosanna is caught up in a string of events—throwing a horserace, the allure of a visiting actor, violent threats to her Boandik friends, and the wreck of the Admella—that lead to a reckoning with the land, its histories, its religions and its ancient and recent cultures.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Almost a century after the Catastrophe, a group of survivors have built a new society deep in the safety of the underground network.

'Marri knows the rules are there to keep their population healthy and growing, but they don’t leave much room for attraction—let alone love. Her duty is no match for her desire, and now her life is in danger. Can she escape the world below—and what will she find if she does?

'The Earth Below is a dystopia, an adventure and a love story that introduces a thrilling new voice in young adult fiction.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'The story of two boys' adventures while trying to find a dog called Brut. The novel raises questions about the nature of fear and intimidation and the possibility of confronting them without resorting to violence.'

Source: Publisher's blurb (Mammoth ed.).

'Space Demons is a computer game with a difference - a prototype directly imported from Japan, and designed to lock four unlikely protagonists, Andrew Hayford, Elaine Taylor, Ben Challis and Mario Ferrone, in deadly combat with the sinister forces of its artificial intelligence. As the game draws them into its powerful ambit, Andrew, Elaine, Ben, and Mario must confront the darker sides of their own natures.' (Publication summary)

'Through revolution and empire, war and bloodshed, France remained fascinated with Australia, sending expeditions of dedicated young men to explore the utopian Paradise of the Pacific and Australia to the frozen hell of Antarctica. Voyages to the South Seas reveals the true stories of explorers who risked, and often lost, their lives in pursuit of their passion. It is the story of noble men impoverished by their passion, nobodies made famous by courage and intellect and young men–and some women–who often risked their lives for adventure and excitement but above all, in the pursuit of knowledge and discovery.

This is Australia through French eyes–beautiful, mystifying, untouched nature–an Australia few Englishmen ever saw.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.