Review: Australian Backyard Buddies

There is something truly delightful about a book that encourages young readers to pause… to look closely… and to notice what has always been there. Australian Backyard Buddies does exactly that.

This engaging text celebrates a range of living creatures that share our everyday spaces. It invites curiosity with its unique contents page, drawing readers into a world that is familiar yet often overlooked.

Each double page offers bite-sized information about backyard creatures - their habits, habitats and behaviours. 

Review: The World From Here

Milo lies on the grass gazing at the clouds and sees shapes and animals. Maya looks out the window of a plane and sees the blue sky and clouds and a patchwork-quilt-like landscape below.

Continuing from these vantage points, we are taken on a journey filled with ponderings and interesting facts all about the wonder of the natural world, including how the weather makes us feel, along with mindfulness and calming strategies.

Review: The Last Word

Friendship, first crushes and finding your voice all come together in the delightful middle grade novel The Last Word by A.L. Tait. The third book in the Two Hearts series is a light-hearted yet thoughtful story that captures the emotional landscape of early adolescence with warmth, humour and authenticity.

Matilda Bell begins the school year without her best friend by her side and soon finds herself constantly clashing with a new classmate. When they’re forced to work together on the school debating team, their rivalry slowly shifts into something more complicated. Along the way, Matilda must navigate changing friendships, growing confidence and the tentative beginnings of first love.

Review: Spare Kisses

Eve has the most loveable Nan. Nan’s heart and house abounds in all things love and fun. 

She has all a grandchild adores - delicious treats, craft supplies, spare keys to her doors and open arms for hugs. 

Nan has ‘spares’ for every occasion and is patient, kind and generous to everyone. 

Amongst her treasures and pleasures she has spare kisses. These are the kisses she gives to Eve when she is sad, hurt or lonely. 

Review: Dresses are for Messes

'Why can’t I wear a dress to fight a dragon or lead a pirate crew?' asks Tess in this dynamic picture book about being yourself.

Tess’s dad says that dresses are only for tea parties and fancy occasions. Tess believes that dresses are for any time. 

Elizabeth Pulsford’s well-written rhyming text shows us all the things that Tess can do while wearing her dresses that are adorned with flounces, frills and floofy sleeves. In fact, she says there’s nothing she can’t do. 

Tess’s self-confidence combined with her epic imagination is an inspiration for readers to be themselves.  

Sunday Shelfie - Here, Bear and Everywhere

Happy #sundayshelfie day! It is my pleasure to welcome the wonderful Damian Balassone and Jess Racklyeft. This week we are celebrating their gorgeous new picture book Here, Bear and Everywhere.

Meet a pear bear, a share bear, even an éclair bear in this beary fun-filled romp through rhyme!

With Damian Balassone’s playful poetry and Jess Racklyeft’s irresistible illustrations, this book delights little ones – while its clever rhymes and gentle humour make it a joy for parents to read again and again.

Written by Damian Balassone
Illustrated by Jess Racklyeft 
Published by Little Book Press

Visit Picture Book Book Club @picturebookbc on Instagram

12 Curly Questions with author Maree Coote

1. What's your hidden talent?

Cooking

2. Who is your favourite literary villain and why?
Cruella de Vil of Hell Hall, from The Hundred and One Dalmatians, by Dodie Smith. Larger than life, stylishly evil, perverse, entitled, greedy, vain and shameless, Cruella is also graphically arresting — with hair half black and half white. She’s also a woman, and it’s time for more women villains.

3. You're hosting a literary dinner party, which five authors would you invite? (alive or dead)
Tom Stoppard, Lewis Carroll, Dr Seuss, Edward Lear, Germaine Greer.

Junior Review: Forest of Hearts

Forest of Hearts is an amazing romance fantasy novel for young adults. It has you biting your nails through each twist and turn of the story. 

MA Kuznair doesn't fail to impress as her words whirl around your head and create images of the story as if you were there! 

I loved this retelling of the classic Snow White story and everything in it. I read this book from start to finish without stopping, and then read it all over again! 

This is a fantastic novel, and I recommend it to readers ages 13+.

Title: Forest of Hearts
Author: MA Kuznair 
Publisher: Simon and Schuster, $
Publication Date: 28 October 2025 
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9781398551916
For ages: 13+
Type: Young Adult

Review: Don't Let Them Leave

Sometimes a title alone is enough to draw you to a book. Pair that with a somewhat ominous cover showing a shadowy house in the middle of a stormy sea, an author who can get readers laughing in one book and quivering in the next and a killer logline, and you just can’t help but be hooked.

And that’s before you even read the prologue!

After their parents are killed in a car accident, Charlotte and her younger siblings, Jack and Emily, find themselves on a train to Cornwall – a place they’ve never been – to live with a grandmother they never knew they had.

Right from the start, there's something off about the solicitor, Mr Frankelweiss. And from that point on, nothing seems to add up.

Review: You'll Always Be My Baby

This is a glorious rhyming picture book based on a much-loved poem by best-selling author Jessica Urlichs and illustrated by Jedda Robaard.

Indeed, there has been great appetite for these words to be brought to life in a picture book – and now here we are!

A heart-tugging picture book celebrating the deep forever love of family.

With a deceptively simple and limited colour palette, You’ll Always Be My Baby is intricately beautiful. 

Gentle, whimsical and tender ideas unfold through the recurring theme – you’ll always be my baby, just heavier to hold – and are truly universal.

Review: Milly Meelyu

For years now we have seen children and schools becoming more actively interested in conservation and caring for the environment and wildlife. It's now well over 30 years since my first teaching gig with Year 5 when I created a literature-based unit of inquiry based on Fern Gully, we wrote a (published) letter to the editor of the Courier-Mail regarding the threatened destruction on Mt Warning and started an enthusiastic Environment Club.

But it is far more recently that we have begun to share and teach the cross-cultural perspectives of how our First Australians have always been custodians and caretakers of the land, water, plants and creatures.

Now we aim for this more inclusive approach to our conservation efforts and thus welcome any support for these endeavours including books such as this one. I'm not terribly familiar with wildlife of Western Australia beyond the most well-known and these meelyu - spiny-tailed skinks - were new to me entirely.

Review: Swearwolves

Do not let the title of this book turn you off straight away. Hear me out first because the subject matter is treated in an exceptionally mature way and, let’s be honest, those words are out there and being used by our children (but not by Steve Worland in this book).

Luna Wilkinson has not long started at her new school and she’s having trouble fitting in. Everyone has their friendship groups and little cliques and there doesn’t seem to be space for the new kid who is rapidly getting a reputation for being a bit weird.

As Luna sees it, her one chance to stand out – and fit in – lies in wowing the crowds at the upcoming audition for Bite Me – The Musical. Luna doesn’t just want to be given a part; she wants to be cast in the lead role. 

Sunday Shelfie - How to Get Rid of a Princess

Happy #sundayshelfie day! It is my pleasure to welcome the wonderful Alison McLennan and Mel Pearce. This week we are celebrating their delightful new picture book How to Get Rid of a Princess.

Princesses are stealthy, sneaky and sly. 

And once inside the castle walls, they are tricky to remove.

But not impossible…

A hilarious and relatable tale about a mischievous little sister and her frustrated older brother who is desperate to stop her joining in his game. All he has to do is follow the steps in this easy-to-use guide!

There's just one problem: the advice may not work in every castle, and princesses might not be as bad as he thinks ...

Written by Alison McLennan

Illustrated by Mel Pearce

Published by Hardie Grant Publishing

Visit Picture Book Book Club @picturebookbc on Instagram

Review: Letters to the Lost

“We're all united by grief, and somehow divided by the same thing.”

Letters to the Lost by Brigid Kemmerer is one of my favourite books of all time, and is the first book that springs to mind whenever anyone asks for a recommendation. The story follows Juliet who has always written letters to her mother, and has continued to do so since her tragic death. She leaves letters at her grave as her way of coping - until one day, when she receives a response. 

When Declan, a troubled teen doing community service at the local cemetery finds a haunting letter left beside a grave, he can't resist the urge to write back. They quickly find themselves opening up to a complete stranger and form a strong, beautiful connection. Their letters start to help each other navigate their grief, loneliness, family pressures, and the guilt that continue to shape their lives. But neither Declan nor Juliet knows that they're not actually strangers and when real life starts to interfere they discover truths that might tear them apart.

Review: Sharks Up Close

Did you know the word ‘shark’ is thought to have come from the Dutch word for ‘villain’ or ‘scoundrel’? Hearing about shark attacks off different parts of our coastline this definition matches what many believe.

But sharks are central for the health of our marine ecosystem and are becoming endangered through human behaviours and climatic change.

Sharks Up Close provides a balance between the non-fiction text and visually rich photographs to stimulate interest in these much maligned animals and highlights the role they play in ocean life. 

Review: A Farm by the Sea

Would you rather live on a farm or by the sea? 

In A Farm by the Sea, Jillian Packer uses simple lyrical text and exquisite illustrations to reveal life on a farm and by the sea.

The story is narrated by the youngest member of the family, and we experience life through her daily rhythms. 

The day begins with the farm chores and saying ‘Good Morning’ to all the animals.