The Prime Council takes over the Radiant Palace. New laws suppressing the citizens are enforced till they are unable to survive. The burrows become their home.
Poverty prevails.
Warnings are not circulated before the cyclone hits. The burrows flood. All those caught within, drown, including eight-year-old Cori’s parents.
Life is preparing Cori for a great adventure when she discovers information about the artificers that created OceanForged Armour.
Orin is courageous and modest. With his friends Beatrix and Pascal, he goes in search of a missing villager. They are well equipped for any attack by the goblins who have recently overrun the village, due to their their mentor Bruno, who has been training them for the Village Guard.
But life has other plans for them all.
When Orin and friends lead an attack on the fiends sent to destroy Draeland, a power is released in Orin.
The setting is Melbourne, 1932.
The Depression has imposed poverty on most of the population. But 12-year-old Moonie’s family have a comfortable income.
Their thriving fruit and vegetable business also supports De Di’s generosity to door knockers and the homeless.
Right at the beginning of the book, Ma Mi is sent away to recover from an unnamed illness.
The children are not told where she is so are unable to communicate with her.
Moonie, with her mother's gift for sewing, believes if she makes her a dress in time for her birthday, it will bring her home.
Abracadabra!
Alakazoo!
Bubbily, bobbily, boffity, boo!
Clutch your
cauldrons and crystal balls,
Dance with dragons down the halls…
The day the river first speaks to Bo and she sees the first vision.
It is a day of revelations. She meets Billy River and notices someone watching her through binoculars from the ridge.
The day a stranger chases her through the lanes to steal the jewel from her.
Bo and Billy’s lives will become entwined. Both changed forever.
With great celebration, her impoverished family lists the things they could buy with the money when the jewel is sold.
But Bo
cannot be parted from the precious item which becomes the centre of hers and
Billy’s world, with its magical purpose that slowly reveals itself.
Then, together, Bo and Billy find the second jewel, the Brightest Sun, which will fulfill a promise on the night of the eclipse, a few weeks away.
There are many that will do anything to get their hands on the Jewels of the Eclipse, and the secrets that come with them.
A brilliant story, written in emotive and immersive prose about grief, love, friendship, sacrifice and redemption from the author of The Miniaturist.
Another
complex, carefully designed plot takes the reader on a journey through the
impossible, using twists and turns that will magnetize.
The descriptions are magical pictures created by a writer who paints with words. Her use of language is extraordinary.
This is a book readers will never forget. The
characters are outstanding. People are not who they first appear to be. This does not become apparent until the curves in the story are all set.
The settings are so descriptive that at times it feels like the reader is in the story, watching things happen from up close.
You can
almost hear the crashing of the waves, the whistling and sighing of the wind.
This is the best thing I have read this year. Don’t miss it!
Title: Hidden Treasure
Author:
Jessie Burton
Publisher: Bloomsbury, $17.99
Publication Date: 13 March 2025
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9781526662897
For ages: 12+
Type: Middle Grade Fiction
The terrible Grimshaws appear pillars of kindness and charity to the community, due to maintaining friendships with people in high places.
But they are far from that.
The foster kids are used as a source of income through generous donations for the children’s care. In reality, they are treated with heartless cruelty.
Finn is locked in the basement for great lengths of time. But his resourceful nature and strong-mind has discovered ways to really educate himself.
He has cultivated a friendship with Riya, from an apartment opposite, via flashlight signals and notes hidden in a special place.
Poverty and drought has swamped the State to the point where, even the butcher’s meager bone remains taste like a banquet.
Amidst this lack, business at the Coles Book Arcade in Bourke Street, is slowing significantly.
Mr and Mrs Coles with their two eldest children sail off to Sydney.
Due to the slump, they are considering closing the store and opening one in a more viable location to secure the children’s livelihood.
Pearl and Valentine remain to keep shop under the watchful eye of the Manager, Mr Pike.
Pearl decides to use her limited magic to spruce up neglected areas. Removing this financial pressure, she hopes her parents will reconsider the move.
This is the highlight of the week for both of them. For Gramps claims to have lived many roles in his lifetime.
These he recalls in minute
detail, in an animated, flowing and lighthearted narrative, full of excitement and non-stop action.
But no story compares to the one about the time
that he was known as the famous magician, The Astonishing Alfredo. With
his white dove, Montgomery, the Mysterious Bird of Mystery, who sang a
song at the end of each show, the two brought the house down.
The stories the old man shares with his grandson are so incredible, so imaginative and unlikely, the boy finds it hard to accept them as truth.
Her mother sent her away. She was too different. Too much. Too difficult.
She is picked up by Fern and taken to the fairy realm.
Rosemary ends up at Fern’s School for Wayward Fae.
Half human and half fae, Rosemary has the power to see how people are going to die. It seems that all the students own a magical gift.
Partnered with Trym, a banshee who is deaf, can lip
read and speak, and whose scream can kill, Rosemary begins a new life, a
different one where she can be herself; be wanted and loved.
The Christmas Star is the narrator of this delightful
rhyming picture book full of rhythm and metre. This is Laura Motherway's first book.
From up high, it sees everyone sharing the joy they feel on the eve of the best day of the year.
It shines for everyone, no matter
who or where.
Through the day, the children played in the sun, in
water, and on the sand.
A wonderful child-filled double spread full of activity,
reflects the freedom and joy youngsters find when on the beach.
It's a beautiful, fairytale-like story about a young girl named Claudia, who loves to visit the glassblower's shop on her way to school. The glass animals fascinate her and inspire her imagination.
One day the glassblower gives Claudia a glass winged horse, whose wings are broken. It hides a secret.
Much as Claudia loves the glass horse, she's disappointed at its broken wings.
Thank you to ALL who entered.
The Hedgewitch Books are perfect for fans of Harry Potter, The Worst Witch, and similar stories. Written by Australian-born author Skye McKenna, they're packed with mystery, magic and adventure.
When Cassie runs away from her dreary boarding school, in search of her missing mother, she ends up in the magical village of Hedgely and discovers she comes from a family of witches - women who protect Britain from the denizens of Faerie, who are all too real and far more frightening than the story books suggest.
Cassie is desperate to find her mother, but will she succeed? Perhaps Montague the talking cat, and a flying broomstick will help!
Title: Hedgewitch / Woodwitch
Author: Skye McKenna
Illustrator: Tomislav Tomic
Publisher: Welbeck Childrens, $ 16.99 / $ 22.99
Publication Date: 2023
Format: Paperback / Hardcover
ISBN: 9781801300681 / 9781801300414
For ages: 9+
Type: Middle Grade Fiction
On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, twelve drummers drumming…and Jungle Drums, written and illustrated by Graeme Base.
Little Ngiri is the smallest Warthog in Africa. Tired of being teased by his bigger brothers and sisters, he wishes things could be different.
When Old Nyumbu the Wilderbeest gives Ngiri a set of magic drums, he is sure his wish is about to come true.
But all the animals of
the jungle are in for a BIG surprise as Ngiri's wish is granted in a
most unexpected way.
Title: Jungle Drums
Author/Illustrator: Graeme Base
Publisher: Puffin, $19.95
Publication Date: 2006
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9780143500964
For ages: 3+
Type: Picture book
Dad got me a subscription to National Geographic magazine and I scoured the pages. I decided to make my own magazine profiling a handful of animals in each edition, illustrating my stories and selling it at school.
I don’t think I sold many to be honest, but I have vivid memories of watching with delight as the pages emerged from the colour printer at the local print shop.
I went to university to study Journalism and then worked at Cosmopolitan UK magazine. When I was 29 I moved to Mexico to teach English and volunteer on conservation projects with an organisation called GVI, and when I later returned to Australia I worked for them going to universities to talk to their students about the different humanitarian and environmental programs GVI ran around