OLDER Readers
Ella at Eden 9: Perfect Score
Ella is training hard for the upcoming Interschool Gymnastics Championships. She’s even trying to face her fear of doing a backward walkover on the balance beam. But once the competition begins, Ella discovers that someone has been tampering with the equipment. Is it an innocent mistake or something more sinister? And will Ella and her team take home the Championship trophy?
Penguin biography for Laura Sieveking
Laura Sieveking talks about point of view in your writing (Youtube)
Exploding Endings: Painted Dogs and Doom Cakes
A hilarious collection of short stories from award-winning author Tim Harris that will have readers laughing out loud.
What are the 79 wackiest excuses for being late to school? How do you stop a maniac dentist from terrorising children? Why is the new smartphone so ridiculously dumb? 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. One thing is guaranteed - you will NEVER pick the endings!
Penguin link to the book (includes a look inside and audio sample)
WestWords YouTube interview with Tim Harris on plotting and planning
Girl and the Ghost #1
A French village, new friends, fabulous food, a local mystery to be solved and . . . a ghost.
When almost-thirteen-year-old Josephine Eloise Thomas moves from Sydney to a chateau in the southwest of France, she expects many things – adventures, inspiration for the stories she loves to write and maybe finding out more about her French mother, who tragically died when she was a toddler. What she doesn’t expect is to find a beautiful gold locket with the ghost of Louis XVII trapped inside!
After being accidentally released into the twenty-first century, the young prince proves to be annoying, strange and obviously from another time. He also believes that Josephine is not who she says she is.Then, there’s Gabriel. The grandson of the local baker – French, beautiful, an artist and definitely not a ghost.
When Josephine and Gabriel venture to the shadowy Chateau Du Lac next door to her home, the secrets become more sinister. With Louis’s help, can Josephine and Gabriel discover what her neighbours are really up to and solve the mystery of Louis and the locket too?
Penguin link to book (includes an extract and an audio sample)
The Girl and the Ghost book reviews
Press Gang News Interview with Jacqueline Harvey
Your Kids Next Read podcast – 10 minutes with Jacqueline Harvey
Hatman
What if a hero's superpower was literally right under his hat? What if that power came with its own original music soundtrack? Get ready for a middle grade novel that breaks the mold of traditional books.
Meet Hatman, a one-of-a-kind hero who can transform his abilities simply by changing his hat. One moment he's a cowboy with a horse, the next a knight with a helmet, the next a baby sucking his thumb—leading to hilarious antics and thrilling escapades. This isn't just a book; it's a groundbreaking, immersive experience that combines a compelling chapter book narrative with vibrant, full-color graphic novel sections.
Plus, you can scan the QR codes on the pages to hear original songs that bring the story to life!
How to make a Tiny Top Hat Paper Craft (YouTube)
Oceanforged: The Wicked Ship
The realm of Aquinta has fallen into a dark age. And no one knows that better than thirteen-year-old Cori, who is fighting for her life in a pirate crew more beastly than Aquinta's sea monsters.
But Cori's life changes when she finds the Oceanforged Gauntlet - a piece of armour belonging to the legendary Champions who once ruled the islands. Whoever wears the armour wields the Champions' magic and has the power to return Aquinta to its lost glory.
Cori must begin a treacherous journey to find the rest of the armour. But first, she'll have to escape from her captain, who craves the gauntlet's magic for himself…
Simon & Schuster link to the book
Amelia Mellor website link to Chapter 1 sample and audio sample
Oceanforged: The Wicked Ship teacher notes
Yellow Shelf YouTube interview with Amelia Mellor about The Wicked Ship
Meet the Author: Amelia Mellor talks about her new book The Wicked Ship
Wiki How – Five Ways to Make a Pirate Hat (5 techniques including video tutorials)
Spy Academy: The Peak
After thwarting a robbery, Nolan Hawker is invited to the world’s most dangerous school. At The Peak, he learns to crack codes, fly planes and deceive enemies so he can someday infiltrate the deadly anarchist group known as Swarm. But someone at the Peak secretly works for Swarm, and they have a plan—the kind no one walks away from. Can Nolan find the traitor before it’s too late?
Spy Academy: The Peak Book Trailer (Scholastic Australia YouTube channel)
The Goodbye Year
It’s the start of 2020 and Harper is filled with anticipation about being in the final year of Riverlark Primary. She wants a leadership role, the comfort of her friendship group, and to fly under the radar of Riverlark’s mean-boy. But one by one things go wrong. When Harper’s best friends are made school captains they are consumed by their roles, while her own role—library captain–is considered second-rate. Then something major throws life off course—her parents take overseas jobs as nurses in a war zone. Harper moves in with Lolly, a grandmother she barely knows and her five pets, a vast collection of old trinkets and very different expectations. Just as Harper’s getting used to Lolly, the pandemic arrives. She has always been pretty level but is now consumed by worry. Her goodbye year is nothing like she’d hoped it would be. Strange things are happening—she wakes in the night in odd places, fixates on an old army badge that seems to have a mind of its own, and on a visit to the school library during lockdown she’s convinced she’s seen a ghost. Who is haunting her? Can she get through the anxiety of the pandemic without her mum and dad? And will Harper find a way to be happy with her goodbye year?
Text Publishing link to the book
Your Kids Next Read Podcast – Interview 10 minutes with Emily Gale
The Thing About Oliver
Sometimes I feel just like the glass in my fish tank—people look right through me.
Twelve-year-old Tilly dreams of becoming a marine scientist, but she doesn’t even own a swimsuit. She lives in a drought-stricken town with her mum and younger brother Oliver, who is autistic.
Oliver’s meltdowns are making life unbearable. He needs so many different kinds of therapy that there’s never any time—or money—left over for swimming lessons. Tilly knows Oliver’s needs have to come first, but it’s hard feeling invisible all the time.
When Mum announces they are moving to the Queensland coast, Tilly is excited at the thought of finally learning to swim—even snorkel! But she is also worried. The thing about Oliver is, he can’t cope with even the tiniest of changes to his routine.
It isn’t long before the cracks begin to show. Could so many changes all at once threaten to shatter the whole family?
Wombat Books YouTube – Book trailer for The Thing About Oliver
CBCA YouTube – Deborah Kelly reads from ‘The Thing About Oliver’
Reading Opens Doors Blog – Review and Author Interview: The Thing About Oliver
Travelling Bookshop 1: Mim and the Baffling Bully
Mim Cohen roams the world in a travelling bookshop, with her dad and brother and a horse called Flossy. Flossy leads them where she will, to the place where they're needed most ... the place where the perfect book will find its way home.
Now Mim has arrived in a pretty Dutch village where she meets Willemina, a kind and gentle child, who is being bullied by a girl named Gerda.
Mim knows they're here to help Willemina. To change her life. To make her strong and brave and happy.
If only Dad would find her the right book. If only he would stop giving everyone else the wrong book!
Harper Collins link to the book including sample
Booktopia YouTube – Katrina Nannestad talks The Travelling Bookshop
Good Reading Magazine interview with Katrina Nannestad
Wandi
A young cub is snatched from his family and home by a giant eagle, then dropped, injured and alone, in a suburban garden. This is where he meets his first Human and begins his long journey to becoming the most famous dingo in the world. He will never see his mountain home again, or his family. But it is his destiny to save alpine dingoes from extinction, and he dreams of a time when all cubs like him can live in the wild in safety, instead of facing poison and bullets and hatred.
Hachette link to the book including sample and audio sample
Hachette teacher resources (extensive)