Review: Animals on Country

Animals on Country combines education and fun as Uncle Kuu takes us for a walk to learn about Australian animals.

If you look carefully, you can see fresh tracks on the ground where different animals have been roaming around.

Review: The Enchantment of Golden Eagle

A whimsical tale of love and family, The Enchantment of  Golden Eagle is one of those books that flies into your heart and builds a nest there.

It will spark questions and deep thinking in young and old — the kind of picture book I truly adore!

In this Margaret Wild and Stephen Michael King gem, Ella and her brother Leif find a baby eagle. They care for the eagle as he grows older and stronger. 

Review: Anomaly

The world has ended. It’s done. It’s all over.

A virus has infected everyone. Killed almost everyone.

Expect for Piper Manning.

Piper got sick the day after she buried her aunt, but she didn’t die. She woke up again, and she woke up different. 

With a strange power she can’t control, she has no intention of leaving her aunt’s mountain hideout. But when her dwindling food supplies force her to leave and she discovers an injured boy, she learns that the virus is the least of the world’s problems.

Announcement: A Very KBR Christmas Wishlist 2024

As the world seems to grow more confining and life more confounding, we here at KBR take a moment to ponder, as always, the pure simplicity of childhood. It's wonderment, its curiosity. Its magic. Despite all the madness, it is hard to imagine a world without these precious notions. 

And so, this year's Team's Christmas Question was simply:

If you could ask Santa for one thing and one thing only for Christmas, what would it be? 

Grab a fruit mince pie or two or three, sit back and enjoy our team's responses. 

From all of us to all of you who have read, shared and enjoyed our reviews and features throughout 2024, a very MERRY CHRISTMAS!

May your New Year be filled with light and joy and a magic that sustains and endures forevermore. 

Review: Stepping Sideways: Worlds Of Steampunk And Dystopia

Stepping Sideways is an exhilarating and wonderful read. This collection of short stories by established and emerging authors takes us into the worlds of Steampunk and Dystopia, to experience danger and wonder by turns - and in rapid succession!

Edited by Emily Larkin and Lynne Stringer who each have stories included, the anthology also contains a fantastic offering from KBR’s own Shaye Wardrop among other excellent narratives.

Reading this book is a little mind-blowing, and kind of like riding a roller-coaster (in the best ways of having the breath sucked out of your lungs for fun). 

Most of the stories combine fantasy with mechanics, allowing readers to explore the wonders and horrors of science, technology and magic.

Review: Dot! Scribble! Go!

Immerse yourself in creativity with this unique picture book about letting loose with your pen.

Part exploration of lines and shapes, part instructional drawing book, Dot! Scribble! Go! is all about forgetting the rules and just having a go. 

It’s about creating without pressure or rules or worry. It’s about enjoyment.

Review: Waiting for Santa

It’s Christmas time, and there’s an important job that must be done. If you’re going to get the presents you’ve been hoping for, you need to tell Santa what’s on your wish list!

Waiting for Santa is a joyful Christmas story about family, traditions and Christmas. Brother sister duo Ren and Harry prepare their letters before heading to the shops with the family to see Santa.

But in the busy, bustling shops they find a looong line of other families waiting. It’s hard for little feet to stand in line for so long. And it’s even harder for pet cat Moloko, who breaks free of the line and heads out in search of Santa herself.

Review: Mookie Vs the Big Scary

Mooki is a cute, brave and adventurous alien from the Moon. He’s good friends with Cindy (a human girl) and Ralph (Cindy’s pet doggy who sometimes accidently wees on things).

In Mookie Vs The Big Scary, Mookie arrives on Earth in his spaceship, ready for action. 

He wants to climb an EPIC mountain, but Cindy’s not sure. She heard there’s a big scary on the mountain and doesn’t think they should go.

But Mookie is brave and daring. And with a little convincing, he persuades Cindy and Ralph to face the unknown.

Review: Flora: Australia's Most Curious Plants

Calling all junior botanists, plant enthusiasts and flower fans! This is the book you’ve been craving.

Award winning author and illustrator Tania McCartney brings us an in-depth exploration of Australia’s most interesting plants in this fantastic non-fiction book. 

From exploding gumnuts to the most painful plant on earth, this book is filled to the brim with intriguing and curious facts about plants in Australia.

Fluff: Mess up!

Gilbert and Fluff are back in another hilarious instalment in Matt Stanton’s Fluff series. 

This time Gilbert and Fluff have made a huge mess after "accidently" getting in a food fight. It happens, right?

Mum isn't pleased and tasks them with spending Saturday cleaning the family’s caravan. 

Of course, this isn’t exactly how Gilbert and Fluff want to spend their Saturday. They’d much rather be sipping on banana smoothies.

Review: City Knife

The Chimera are on the move. They’re going to push beyond the city limits and attack the world’s remaining survivors. Bayat feels the weight of that threat on his shoulders for the part his own mother played in their creation. Pandora thinks there’s a way the Chimera can be cured. They’re running towards different versions of the future, but still they run together to the city with hope in their hearts — even if that hope is fading fast.

In another place, Emmeline battles the sickness that is slowly turning her into a Chimera, and Fatima gets ready to battle the creatures Emmeline is destined to become. Can Emmaline fight the sickness? Does she even want to? Fatima has believed the Chimera to be the enemy this whole time. But with Emmaline standing beside her, have things changed?

Review: Boy Vs Beast: Water Beast

Kai Masters is a Border Guard, training to be a Border Master. 

His job is to protect the Earth from the mega-beasts who once shared the world with humans.

Now the beasts want to rule, and they’ll stop at nothing to get what they want. 

With his faithful robot dog, BC, and a whole swag of cool gadgets, Kai risks his life to battle the giant beasts.

In Boy Vs Beast: Water Beast, Kai and BC take on the Serpegatan, a mammoth-size snake-like water creature intent on taking him (and the whole world) down.

Review: The Very Polite Knight

Finn is a polite knight. He’s not like Walter the sneaky knight nor Boris the fierce knight nor Ethel the tough knight. 

He’s very different from the other knights. He’s…. more polite. He’s kind and caring and that’s how he approaches everything he does.

The other knights don’t see the benefit of being polite. They’d rather fight and steal and be scary. Be tough and fierce and sneaky. But when the king falls ill and needs a rare flower to cure him, the knights’ approaches are all put to the test.

Review: Be True to You!

We should all be true to ourselves. We should all shout out loud and proud about who we are and who we want to be. 

This is the core message in Be True to You! written by Maggie Hutchings and illustrated by Hayley Wells.

Inside every body a heart sings brave and true.

Slow down and listen carefully. It’s singing ‘this is you!’

Review: Leaf Letters

Leaf Letters is a beautiful junior fiction novel exploring the joys and challenges of friendship in a special and engaging way.

Nine-year-old Hazel hasn’t spoken to her best friend Olivia since Olivia did a bad thing Hazel can’t forgive. These days she keeps to herself, taking her camera into the wild and snapping pictures of interesting things she sees.

Her hobby leads her to Cole, a strange boy who communicates in an unusual way, and a mystery box that contains a range of puzzles that will lead Hazel and Cole to its owner.

Review: My Epic Dad! Goes Extreme

Epic Dad is back, and this time he’s keen for more than camping or fishing. 

This time he’s going extreme. 

And when I say extreme, I mean EXTREME!

He runs at a fence he’s trying to scale.

‘Look at me go; this is EASY to nail!’

Review: Wild About Book Week!

Book Week is just around the corner and every kid ever is starting to think about their book week costume. 

The options are limitless, so how do you choose?

In Wild About Book Week!, our young protagonist is struggling with this very conundrum. 

Her family helps out with some suggestions as she thinks through the options.

‘A monster would be cool!’ says Dad. ‘It won’t take any time.

Review: Never a Hero

Everything is different. Joan changed the timeline so Nick would never become the hero, never hunt monsters, never murder her family. 

Now, he doesn’t even know who she is. Aaron and Ruth don’t remember any of the things they did to help Joan stop Nick. Only Joan remembers everything that happened.

Things will never be the same.

But as Joan tries to adjust to this new world (and the differences she keeps discovering in it), fate has other ideas. 

Joan and Nick are thrown back together as monsters come after her – including Aaron.

Review: Lights Out, Little Dragon!

Little dragon is so tired, but he won’t go to sleep. What can I do?

Our little protagonist has a problem, and she needs your help to solve it. Trace a path to help dragon escape from rogue leaping sheep. 

Review: Ivy Newt and the Storm Witch

Ivy Newt is the princess of the Sand Witches. It’s the start of school holidays, it’s her birthday and a big storm is descending upon all of Miracula. So big that her friends can’t even get to her party.

To cheer up Ivy, her dad performs a magic show. But something goes very very wrong, and both of Ivy’s parents disappear, leaving Ivy and her wolf familiar, Tom, all alone in their giant castle.

Determined to find her parents, Ivy and Tom set off on an adventure that leads them across Miracula.

They meet allies and enemies, but the more they search, the more it seems something is amiss. Was that storm just an ordinary storm or something else? Is there someone plotting to hurt the kings and queens of Miracula?