AustLit

'The town of Spindrift is home to the Orphanage School where Finlay lives. Just outside town is the painfully posh Brathelthwaite Boarding School, home to Honey Bee. When the two schools compete at the Spindrift Tournament, stakes are high, tensions are higher, and some people are out to win at any cost. And then Whispering Wars break out, and Spindrift is thrust onto the front lines. Children are being stolen. Witches, sirens and a deadly magical flu invade the town. Finlay, Honey Bee and their friends must join forces to outwit the encroaching forces of darkness and turn the tide of the war. But how can one bickering troupe outwit the insidious power of the Whisperers? And who are the two mysterious figures watching them from the shadows?'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Cicada work in tall building.

'Data entry clerk. Seventeen year.

'No sick day. No mistake.

'Tok Tok Tok!

'Cicada works in an office, dutifully toiling day after day for unappreciative bosses and being bullied by his coworkers. But one day, Cicada goes to the roof of the building, and something truly extraordinary happens ...'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Where can we live if not in each other's shadow? World-renowned artist Shaun Tan applies his unique imagination to a reflection on the nature of humans and animals, and our urban coexistence. From crocodile to frog, tiger to bee, this is a dark and surreal exploration of the perennial love and destruction we feel and inflict—of how animals can save us, and how our lives are forever entwined, for better or for worse. Tales from the Inner City is a masterful work, bearing all of Shaun Tan's trademark wit and poignancy in both its prose and exquisite illustrations.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Bronte Mettlestone's parents ran away to have adventures leaving her to be raised by her Aunt Isabelle and the Butler. She's had a perfectly pleasant childhood of afternoon teas and riding lessons—and no adventures, thank you very much. But Bronte's parents have left extremely detailed (and bossy) instructions in their will. She is to travel the kingdoms and empires, perfectly alone, delivering special gifts to her ten other aunts.

'There is a farmer aunt who owns an orange orchard and a veterinarian aunt who specialises in dragon care, a pair of aunts who captain a cruise ship together and a former rock-star aunt who is now the reigning monarch of a small kingdom. Now, armed with only her parents' instructions, a chest full of strange gifts and her own strong will, Bronte must journey forth to face dragons, Chief Detectives and pirates—and the gathering suspicion that there might be something more to her extremely inconvenient quest than meets the eye . . .'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'The dazzling conclusion to the award-winning The Colours of Madeleine trilogy, from one of the most original writers in YA fiction.

'The Kingdom of Cello is in crisis. Princess Ko's deception has been revealed and the Elite have taken control, placing the Princess, Samuel and Sergio under arrest and ordering their execution. Elliot is being held captive by the Hostiles and Colour storms are raging through the land. The Cello Wind has been silent for months.

'Plans are in place to bring the remaining Royals home from the World but then all communication between Cello and the World will cease. That means Madeleine will lose Elliot, forever.

'Madeleine and Elliot must solve the mystery of Cello before it is too late.' (Publication summary)

'A unique and alluring art book showcasing Shaun Tan's extraordinary sculptures based on the timeless and compelling fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm.

'In this beautifully presented volume, the essence of seventy-five fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm is wonderfully evoked by Shaun Tan's extraordinary sculptures.

'Nameless princes, wicked stepsisters, greedy kings, honourable peasants and ruthless witches, tales of love, betrayal, adventure and magical transformation: all inspiration for this stunning gallery of sculptural works. Introduced by Grimm Tales author Philip Pullman and leading fairy tale scholar Jack Zipes, The Singing Bones breathes new life into some of the world's most beloved fairy tales.

''These little figures of clay, with their simplified features, their single attributes, are perfect realisations of the strangeness of the characters they represent.' - Philip Pullman.' (Publication summary)

'It's not easy being Princess Ko.

'Her family is missing, taken to the World through cracks in the Kingdom, which were then sealed tightly behind them.

'Now Princess Ko is running the Kingdom, and war is looming.

'To help her find her family, she gathers a special group of teens, including Elliot Baranski of the Farms. He's been writing secret letters to a Girl-in-the-World named Madeleine Tully - and now the Kingdom needs her help.

'Madeleine and Elliot must locate the missing royals, convince them of their true identities, and figure out how to unlock the dangerous cracks between the Kingdom and the World.

'All before their enemies can stop them.' (Publisher's blurb)

'She knew this.

That philematology is the science of kissing.

That Samuel Langhorne Clemens is better known as Mark Twain.

That, originally, gold comes from the stars.

'Madeleine Tully lives in Cambridge, England, the World - a city of spires, Isaac Newton and Auntie's Tea Shop.

'Elliot Baranski lives in Bonfire, the Farms, the Kingdom of Cello - where seasons roam, the Butterfly Child sleeps in a glass jar, and bells warn of attacks from dangerous Colours.

'They are worlds apart - until a crack opens up between them; a corner of white - the slim seam of a letter.

'Elliot begins to write to Madeleine, the Girl-in-the-World - a most dangerous thing to do for suspected cracks must be reported and closed.

'But Elliot's father has disappeared and Madeleine's mother is sick. Can a stranger from another world help to unravel the mysteries in your own?

'Can Madeleine and Elliot find the missing pieces of themselves before it is too late?

'A mesmerising story of two worlds; the cracks between them, the science that binds them and the colours that infuse them.' (Source: Publisher's blurb)

'Dreaming of Amelia is the story of Amelia and Riley. They're bad kids from the bad crowd at bad Brookfield High, and they've just transferred to Ashbury. Brilliant, mysterious and probably evil, they have the rich kids at Ashbury spellbound. But just who are Amelia and Riley? Tantalisingly aloof, they are somehow managing to have an extraordinary impact on all the HSC Ashbury students, and the staff.

'Told through memoirs written as part of the gothic fiction elective in the HSC English exam, Dreaming of Amelia is a story about ghosts, secrets, madness, passion, locked doors, femme fatales - and that terrifying moment in the final year of high school when you realise that the future's come to get you.'

(Publishers' website.)

'Giving gifts is so much fun!

'A pair of glasses for the dog…

'A pacifier for the cat…

'Oops, that can't be right!

'Ivy is determined to find a gift that's just right for everyone in her family.

'But will there be a present left for Ivy when all the gifts are given?'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'I'm not a bad person. I've simply come out of left field. I'm a stray and, anyway, whatever I am, I'm not it yet. I'm still becoming. In fact, I'd always believed that I was once a horse, because I loved to run down a hill. And Eddie was a fish. He was a swaggerer, if you know what I mean. Flimsy but loveable.

'Mannie is searching for the thing she doesn't yet know, but it's like a runaway kite pulling her heart forward. So she's leaving home. She's heading for the city with nothing but a long red dress, a strong hunch, and an unknown address in her pocket. As the day turns to night, Mannie makes a lot of discoveries and not exactly the ones she planned to make.

'With rare sensitivity, wisdom and humour, and a voice that's entirely her own, Martine Murray tells a bittersweet story about longing and losing and finding again.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'do you remember the water buffalo at the end of our street?

or the deep-sea diver we found near the underpass?

do you know why dogs bark in the middle of the night?

Shaun Tan, creator of The Arrival, The Lost Thing and The Red Tree, reveals the quiet mysteries of everyday life: homemade pets, dangerous weddings, stranded sea mammals, tiny exchange students and secret rooms filled with darkness and delight.'

Source: Back cover.

'Some of the world's favourite authors each contribute a chapter in the life of the mysterious George "Gee" Keane, photographer, soldier, adventurer and enigma. Under different pens, a startling picture emerges of a man who magically connects the lives and times of young people around the world...'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'A fairytale, a mystery, a history of hot-air ballooning, and a romance . . . A novel so brilliant, moving, zingy – and Zingy – that it could only have come from Jaclyn Moriarty.

'The Zing family lives in a world of misguided spell books, singular poetry, and state-of-the-art surveillance equipment. They use these things to protect the Zing Family Secret – one so huge it draws the family to the garden shed for meetings every Friday night.

Into their world comes socially isolated middle grader Listen Taylor, whose father is dating a Zing. Enter Cath Murphy, a young teacher at the elementary school that Cassie Zing attends, suffering from a broken heart. How will the worlds of these two young woman connect? Only the reader can know!' (Publication summary)

"Amy and Louis live next door to each other, and their lives are closely intertwined. Theirs is a life rich in imagination. But when Amy's family move to another country, the children are separated, and the colour drains out of their lives... that is until Louis discovers how to rebuild their special bond." (Source: Trove)