Think Wolf Girl, but an Indigenous warrior superhero.

Middle grade readers are spoiled for choice! A big new player in Ahn Do’s readership is Wylah the Koorie Warrior: Guardians by Jordan Gould and illustrated by Richard Pritchard (Albert Street). Parents and children alike will love the tenacious hope of Moth in a Fancy Cardigan by Charlotte Lance and illustrated by David Booth, AKA Ghostpatrol (Berbay). Especially when her recorder goes missing and her grandparents – the only witnesses – are none the wiser.Ī new series of young graphic novels by Remy Lai, Surviving the Wild, focuses on true animal stories and environmental issues in Rainbow the Koala and Star the Elephant (Allen & Unwin). Penelope Delores McPem sees mysteries everywhere.

PD McPem’s Agency for Mysterious Mysteries: The Recorder Racket by Anna Battese, illustrated by Ruth-Mary Smith (Yellow Brick) is as delightfully whimsical as it sounds. Meyne Wyatt has written a book in the new series of chapter books called Our Stories. Makuby Meyne Wyatt and When Granny Came to Stay by Alice Pung and illustrated by Sally Soweol Han are the first two. The brand new Our Stories series from Pan Macmillan Australia channels the first-chapter-book vibe of Aussie Nibbles, showcasing stories from diverse cultures and creators. However, it’s not all jokes and silliness for the younger readers, there’s plenty of heart. And Zombie Diaries: Apocalypse Cow by Guy Edmonds and Matt Zeremes (Hardie Grant) will have readers in hysterics from age seven. Wife and husband team Laura and Philip Bunting take their juggernaut brand up a notch as they step into chapter books featuring a quirky bunch of Australian animals in The Wild Life Book I: A Berry Long Walk (Scholastic). Gustav and Henri by Andy Matthews and illustrated by Peader Thomas (Hardie Grant) marks the beginning of a highly illustrated, incredibly droll series, filled with jokes that had me laughing through time and space.

Junior fiction titles continue to be dominated by fun and silly nonsense. Indeed, to assume that a child only wants to read a book on their birthday or over the summer holidays is to misunderstand entirely.įinding the right book to capture their attention can be all it takes, and while there is neither time nor space to tell you about all the amazing releases since January, here are a few of the highlights that really caught our attention. Just because the end of the year is a frenzy of big releases and gift-giving doesn’t mean the first half of the year can’t hold its own in the world of children’s publishing. Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size

The Way of Dog by Zana Fraillon