AustLit

'Award-winning writer Katrina Nannestad transports us to Russia and the Great Patriotic War and into the life of Sasha, a soldier at only six years old ...

'Wood splinters and Mama screams and the nearest soldier seizes her roughly by the arms. My sister pokes her bruised face out from beneath the table and shouts, 'Run, Sasha! Run!'

'So I run. I run like a rabbit.

'It's spring, 1942. The sky is blue, the air is warm and sweet with the scent of flowers.

'And then everything is gone.

'The flowers, the proud geese, the pretty wooden houses, the friendly neighbours. Only Sasha remains.

'But one small boy, alone in war-torn Russia, cannot survive.

'One small boy without a family cannot survive.

'One small boy without his home cannot survive.

'What that small boy needs is an army.' (Publication summary)

'The right book might just change your life ...

'Mim Cohen roams the world in a travelling bookshop, with her dad and brother and a horse called Flossy. Flossy leads them where she will, to the place where they're needed most ... the place where the perfect book will find its way home.

'Now Mim has arrived in a pretty Dutch village where she meets Willemina, a kind and gentle child, who is being bullied by a girl named Gerda.

'Mim knows they're here to help Willemina. To change her life. To make her strong and brave and happy.

'If only Dad would find her the right book. If only he would stop giving everyone else the wrong book!'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Sometimes it's good to be wild.

'Sometimes you have to be wild.

'When the Russian Army marches into East Prussia at the end of the war, the Wolf family must flee. Liesl, Otto and their baby sister Mia find themselves lost and alone, in a blizzard, in the middle of a war zone. Liesl has promised Mama that she will keep her brother and sister safe.

'But sometimes, to survive, you have to do bad things. Dangerous things. Wild things.

'Sometimes to survive, you must become a wolf.' (Publication summary)

'At last, Freja and her mother, Clementine, are together again. Tobias and Vivi are in love. And Lucerne, their new home, is a paradise of snowy alps, sapphire lakes, white swans and delicious Swiss chocolate!

'It all seems perfect, until poor Lady P appears, bandaged from head to toe after a fall (or was it a push?). Crimes break out across the city, all involving chocolate. Clementine doesn't seem her usual self. And still Freja has not solved the biggest mystery of all - who is Tobias Appleby?

'All will be revealed in the girl, the dog and the writer's final adventure by award-winning Australian author Katrina Nannestad.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Our class is learning the three times table.

'But I'm not listening.

'I'm designing a dress.

'A fabulous dress for Mrs Dawson.

'My name's Charlotte, but you can call me Lottie. I'm a fashion designer. At least, that's my thing this week.

'Charlotte Perkins is seven years old and can't wait to grow up - if only she could decide what she wanted to be!

'Luckily, no dream is too big for little Lottie Perkins!' (Publication summary)

'When Freja and Tobias arrive in Claviers, Provence, it feels like home. The hilltop village is surrounded by olive groves, lavender fields and drifts of red poppies. The market square hides a world-famous pâtisserie and an antique merry-go-round. Pippin, their precocious young neighbour, and Vivi, the beautiful chef, fill their lives with chatter and laughter and love.

'For a moment, the girl, the dog and the writer are happy.

'But a spate of criminal activity casts a cloud over the village. Freja is determined to solve the mystery and uncover the villain, but the closer she gets, the more impossible things seem to become ...' (Publication summary)

'I'm wearing a glittering tutu and a sparkling tiara.

'I pirouette. Three times.

'And I don't even trip.

'My name's Charlotte, but you can call me Lottie. I'm a ballerina.

'At least, that's my thing this week.

'Charlotte Perkins is seven years old and can't wait to grow up - if only she could decide what she wanted to be!

'Luckily, no dream is too big for little Lottie Perkins!'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

''Lights! Camera! Action!'

'That's my cue.

''Harold,' I sigh. 'I think I'm in love.'

'My name's Charlotte, but you can call me Lottie. I'm a movie star.

'At least, that's my thing this week.

'Charlotte Perkins is seven years old and can't wait to grow up - if only she could decide what she wanted to be!

'Luckily, no dream is too big for little Lottie Perkins!'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'For the first ten years of Freja's life, she and her mother Clementine have roamed the Arctic in search of zoological wonders. Happy, content, together. Freja and Clem. Clem and Freja. But now, everything is changing, and Clementine must send Freja away to live with her old friend Tobias, a bestselling crime writer and, quite possibly, the most absent-minded man on earth. Tobias isn't used to life with a child, and Freja isn't used to people at all, but together they'll stumble into an Italian adventure so big that it will change things forever ... Award-winning Australian author Katrina Nannestad returns with a delicious new series about family, friendship and finding yourself. Ages: 8+' (Publication summary)

'The third adventure in this incomparably witty and charming series from award-winning author Katrina Nannestad How absolutely splendid! Dust the doorknobs. Polish the silver. Roll out the red carpet. The Queen is coming to Mrs Groves' Boarding School for Naughty Boys, Talking Animals and Circus Performers for tea! Nothing, absolutely nothing, could possibly spoil this right royal moment. Except for the return of scheming villain, Pig McKenzie ... and the arrival of a strange, harsh woman called Thistlebloom ... and the fact that the Inspector of Schools has promised to close the doors of Groves forever if the Queen's visit does not run smoothly ... Oh deary, deary me! Nothing ever runs smoothly at Groves! Someone needs to take control. Someone clever, brave and practical. Someone with big ideas and an even bigger heart. Someone named Olive. But does our beloved heroine have what it takes, or is this the end of Groves, once and for all? Ages 8-12' (Publication summary)

'Olive is gobsmacked. Basil Heffenhuffenheimer has just hiked out of the Black Forest in 1857 and into Mrs Groves' Boarding School for Naughty Boys, Talking Animals and Circus Performers. When he offers to take Olive into the past, she cannot resist a time-travelling adventure. After all, what could possibly go wrong?

'Plenty, dear reader. Plenty!

'When Olive and her friends return to the present with a hungry dinosaur, an Elizabethan pirate and a scissor-happy servant boy, strange and disturbing things start to happen at Groves. Furthermore, 'new' student, Pigg McKenzie, is taking an uncomfortable interest in the dangers and disasters of time travel. Can Basil and Olive keep control of their adventures, or will the Time Slurp and a certain villainous pig have their wicked way?' (Publication summary)

'Olive lives with her beloved grandparents in a small, isolated community. Her grandparents have scrimped and saved to send her to boarding school where she can meet kids her own age. It's not exactly what Olive expected, in fact, Mrs Groves' Boarding School for Naughty Boys, Talking Animals and Circus Performers isn't what anybody really expected!

'Faced with disappointing her grandparents, Olive, who is not a boy nor a talking animal, pretends to be an acrobat so that she can stay on. Now she has a month to learn how to leap, somersault and overcome her fear of heights.

'With exploding lamingtons, a vicious school bully, talking animals and new faces, can Olive leap over these obstacles, become an actual acrobat and find a place to fit in?' (Publication summary)