2020 Shortlisted OLDER READERS RESOURCES
117-storey treehouse
by Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton
Andy and Terry's treehouse now has 13 new storeys, including a tiny-horse level, a pyjama-party room, an Underpants Museum, a photo-bombing booth, a waiting room, a Door of Doom, a circus, a giant-robot-fighting arena, a traffic school, a water-ski park filled with flesh- eating piranhas and a treehouse visitor centre with a 24-hour information desk, a penguin-powered flying treehouse tour bus and a gift shop.
Well, what are you waiting for? Come on up!
Andy Griffiths interview on Expresso Show in South Africa (video)
Andy Griffiths launches the 117-storey treehouse at the Scribbler’s Festival (video)
Exploding Endings: Painted dogs and doom cakes
by Tim Harris
What are the 79 wackiest excuses for being late to school?
What dangers lurk in the making of a chocolate cake? And what does it take to get every single student at Milford Junior School put on detention? Find out in this hilarious collection of short stories that will have you laughing out loud and wondering where each story will lead.
One thing is guaranteed - you will NEVER pick the endings!
Painted dogs & doom cakes book trailer (video)
The forgotten pearl
by Belinda Murrell
‘Let me tell you a story. A story about friendship and sisters, about grief and love and danger, and about growing up...' When Chloe visits her grandmother, she learns how close war came to destroying her family. Could Poppy's experiences help Chloe face her own problems? In 1941, Poppy lives in Darwin, a peaceful paradise. But when Japan attacks Pearl Harbor and then Australia, everything Poppy holds dear is threatened. Terrified, she flees to Sydney – only to find that the danger follows her there. Poppy must face her war with courage and determination.
Will her world ever be the same?
The forgotten pearl teacher’s notes
Funny Kid: Prank wars
by Matt Stanton
Every kid wants to laugh, but Max is the boy who can make it happen. As he and his classmates head off on a camping trip, the new boy, Tyson, decides to play some jokes of his own. Max is the funny kid... and now there is a prank war to be won! Monsters in the lake, smuggling ducks, dig-your-own toilets, capsizing canoes, absolutely not falling in love and beans that give you the runs are just some of the things in store for Max and his friends in this brand-new adventure.
Matt Stanton interview with Kids News
Sydney Opera House digital author talk with Matt Stanton (video)
A great escape
by Felice Arena
Set in Cold War Germany, A Great Escape is a story of true-life heroism and the unbreakable bonds of family, by the acclaimed author of Fearless Frederic and The Boy and the Spy. It's a great escape, but will Peter survive it? When Peter's family leaves for a trip across the border, he stays behind. So, when the government builds a wall through the city, guarded by soldiers, tanks and ferocious dogs, he is trapped. Everyone says he might never see his family again.
But Peter has a courageous plan...
A great escape teacher’s notes
Crossword (digital version) based on the German chapter headings
Kensy and Max: breaking news
by Jacqueline Harvey
What would you do if you woke up in a strange place? If your whole life changed in the blink of an eye and you had no idea what was going on? Twins Kensy and Max Grey’s lives are turned upside down when they are whisked off to London, and discover their parents are missing. As the situation unfolds, so many things don’t add up: their strange new school, the bizarre grannies on their street, the coded messages they keep finding and the feeling that, all around them, adults are keeping secrets...
Things can never go back to the way they were, but the twins are determined to uncover the truth!
Kensy and Max book trailer (video)
Introducing the book (lesson idea)
Kensy and Max (Jacqueline and Andy) on a mission in Melbourne on WB Kids (video)
A most magical girl
by Karen Foxlee
Annabel Grey is primed for a proper life as a young lady in Victorian England. But when her mother suddenly disappears, she's put in the care of two eccentric aunts who thrust her into a decidedly un-ladylike life, full of potions and flying broomsticks and wizards who eat nothing but crackers. Magic, indeed! Who ever heard of such a thing? Before Annabel can assess the most ladylike way to respond to her current predicament, she is swept up in an urgent quest. Annabel is pitted against another young witch, Kitty, to rescue the sacred Moreover Wand from the dangerous underworld that exists beneath London. The two girls outsmart trolls, find passage through a wall of faerie bones, and narrowly escape a dragon, but it doesn't take long for Annabel to see that the most dangerous part of her journey is her decision to trust this wild, magical girl.
Karen Foxlee interview with The winged pen
New City
by Deborah Abela
Isabella and her friends are nervous about what they'll find in the New City. It's inland and it's dry - far from the flooded city they've just left. Will their lives here be as luxurious and carefree as Xavier says? In fact, bleak, uncertain times have brought darkness and danger to New City.
The city has been divided in two- the citizens who have, and those who the ruling Major General says have come to steal from them - the refugees who have fled the rising waters, who are imprisoned in a camp on the edge of the city.
The kids of Grimsdon once faced sea monsters and evil harbour lords, but now they face new threats. From freakish weather events that whip up with little warning to the fierce misinformation that swirls around the city to the theft of their freedom, now they face the prison-like restrictions and control of the New City.
Unlike the refugees, they're heralded as heroes. But what does the Major General really want from them?
Deborah Abela online author talks (video)
Deborah Abela talks about the Grimsdon series (video)
New city book trailer (video)
So Wrong 2: inappropriate
by Michael Wagner and Wayne Bryant
As two former reluctant readers themselves, Michael and Wayne are creating the series they wish had existed when they were kids, the series that would have hooked them onto reading.
It's a hyperactive, but good-natured blend of Mad magazine, Andy Griffiths and Roald Dahl. It's also a little wrong, but so right for young readers, especially those who haven't quite fallen in love with books. Yet.
Wundersmith: the calling of Morrigan Crow
by Jessica Townsend
Morrigan Crow has been invited to join the prestigious Wundrous Society, a place that promised her friendship, protection and belonging for life. She's hoping for an education full of wunder, imagination and discovery - but all the Society want to teach her is how evil Wundersmiths are. And someone is blackmailing Morrigan's unit, turning her last few loyal friends against her. Has Morrigan escaped from being the cursed child of Wintersea only to become the most hated figure in Nevermoor?
Worst of all, people have started to go missing. The fantastical city of Nevermoor, once a place of magic and safety, is now riddled with fear and suspicion...
Jessica Townsend Hachette author profile
Wundersmith introduced by Jessica Townsend (video)
Interview with Jessica Townsend with News to me on ABCMe (video)
Wundersmith book trailer (video)