AustLit

'Red Read doesn’t set out to find trouble, but trouble sure has a way of finding him. Expelled from school, he is whisked off by Captain Black Bowen, one of  the most infamous smugglers ever to ply the coast of northern Australia in the early years of the twentieth century. Together they battle demon storms, crazed pirates and killer diseases while hunting down a great lost treasure. Non-stop action, adventure and excitement!'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Red Read’s life takes an alarming turn when his mother sells him to an infamous smuggler plying his trade off the north-west coast in the closing days of the 19th century. From terrifying encounters with cut-throat pirates to battling the forces of nature in a tropical typhoon, Red is in for the adventure of a lifetime.' (Publication summary)

'Josh is as brave as a Viking warrior. And not much can scare a Viking. But when the two littlest Vikings go berserk, Josh, Grandpa and Viking World are all in for a rocky ride.' (Publication summary)

'The door of the boatshed creaked slowly open and a young boy peered inside. His face lit up in wonder as he looked around.When Tom Stevenson meets the Captain he enters and extraordinary world of blisters and barnacles, pirates and gun-runners, shipwrecks and sea creatures. Working side by side to slowly restore an old steam boat, their friendship grows and strengthens.' (Publication summary)

'Michael Hardy and Woody Decker have a talent for creating disaster. While testing a replica Roman catapult they accidentally fire a brick through the church window, and so a month of mayhem is unleashed. The school library burns down, the principal is knocked unconscious, a huge dog runs amok, a wedding is totally wrecked and a regiment of garden gnomes is massacred. Could anything else go wrong?Uproariously funny and witheringly witty, A Fine Mess! will have you laughing out loud and begging for mercy.' (Publication summary)

'Early on Christmas morning the guns stop firing. A deathly silence creeps over the pitted and ruined landscape. A young soldier peers through a periscope over the top of the trench. Way out in no-man's-land, he sees a small red shape moving on the barbed wire. A brightly coloured robin is trapped. One wing is flapping helplessly.

'An eloquent counterpoint to the senselessness and inhumanity of war, In Flanders Fields tells the story of a young homesick World War I soldier, who risks his life to cross the no-man's land and rescue a robin caught in the barbed wire that separates the opposing forces, dug into their trenches. This moving picture book is a plea for compassion.'

Source: Penguin Books.

'Three terrorists escape from Fremantle Prison in a homemade helicopter, determined to get their revenge on Ashe of the Outback. If they had known the disasters to befall them by becoming involved with Captain Ashe they would have locked themselves up and thrown away the keys. With the escaped crocodile still on the loose, dangerous bulls, a punctured airship plummeting to earth and wild nuns to contend with, life on the outside in Ashe’s world is one big death trap just waiting to ensnare them.' (Publication summary)