Meet Cleo, a little girl with a big imagination - a memorable character created by children's book legends Libby Gleeson and Freya Blackwood.WINNER: CBCA Book of the Year, Younger Readers, 2015Cleo desperately wants a necklace. Her parents say special presents are only for birthdays but Cleo doesn't want to wait. In the second story, it's her mum's birthday and Cleo doesn't know what to give her - until she has the best idea of all.Delightful, warm ...

Charlie loves the sea.He loves the seashells and the seahorses, the sharks and the stingrays, the crabs and the crayfish.He loves the gentle waves that creep up onto the sand and tickle his toes.He loves the huge wild waves that crash onto the sand and make the beach tremble.But most of all he loves the whales.'A simple but heart-felt story about the wonders of the natural world and the rewards of...

When two ragamuffins stumble across a bookin the dust their world begins to change.The familiar becomes fantastical, themundane becomes magical, and a fracturedcommunity finds a focus.Set in a dreary, underprivileged, contemporaryworld, Look, A Book! is an exhilarating whirlthrough the magic of imagination that leaves thereader in an vertiginous trance.

‘They have bayonets,’ whispered Ralph. ‘This is no parade drill.’ We drew back more tightly into the shadow. A soldier beat his fist on the door. David Bellamy fears the strange new land of New South Wales, its inhabitants and its wild creatures. He fears the Governor himself: the swearing, cursing Governor Bligh. Then on the anniversary of British settlement in Sydney, 26th January, 1808, David and his new friends, Kitty and Ralph, witness the military march on Government House from the s...

In this delightful companion to The Cleo Stories: The Necklace and the Present, Cleo comes up with ingenious ways to make a new friend and find a pet.SHORT-LISTED: CBCA Book of the Year, Younger Readers, 2016Cleo's best friend is away, her parents are busy, and there's nothing to do but count raindrops - or tidy her room. Just when she thinks she'll never cheer up, Cleo has an idea. In the next story, Cleo longs for a pet but her mum and dad say no...

It’s the 1980s and thirteen-year-old Mick Jamieson is at school in suburban Sydney. He hates it and can’t wait till he’s old enough to leave. Home life isn’t much better: his mum’s dead, his dad’s a truck driver based in Queensland, and Mick’s stuck living with his elderly nan. When his new history teacher puts on a production of the musical ‘Oliver’, Mick auditions. Will this be one of the worst decisions he’s ever made—or maybe the best?Critic Agnes Nieuwenhuizen, writi...

Fourteen-year-old Andrew is an aspiring palaeontologist and otherwise regular school kid. His older sister, Anna, is a university activist who passionately believes she can make a difference. Rosa, an East-Timorese refugee with nowhere to go, faces an uncertain future as she waits for her asylum case to be heard.Compelled by passion and youthful idealism, and against her parents’ wishes, Anna hides Rosa in her parents’ house, drawing Andrew in to help. Andrew now has to k...

WINNER: 2013 Prime Minister's Award, Children's FictionMud. In her mouth, her nose and her eyes. Mud in her hair and caked on her neck and her arms. Mud filling her shoes and seeping through the thin cotton weave of her trousers. She lay sprawled on her side, a garbled, barely distinct sound coming from her: jaymartinjaymartin. Her world was mud and pain.'What's your name?' A boy was sitting on a kitchen table floating in a muddy pool. At his feet was a child's dol...

*Mahtab was empty. She felt hungry--for water, for her father, for her grandmother, her aunts and uncles, for the trees in the back yard, the cabinet on the wall, the silver and glass objects so lovingly collected, for her mountains, the jagged peaks that cut the sky.Her father was dead. She felt sure of it. She was just a speck of dirt on the floor, drifting through the gap between the boards, falling to the ground.*Mahtab and her family are forced to leave their home in H...

The young reader edition of the international bestseller; now a major motion picture.At the age of eleven, Li Cunxin was one of the privileged few selected to serve in Chairman Mao's Cultural Revolution by studying at the Beijing Dance Academy. Having known bitter poverty in his rural China home, ballet would be his family's best chance for a better future. From one hardship to another, Cunxin demonstrated perseverance and an appetite for success that led him to be...

Faith is joy is love is hope in this novel of exquisite power and everyday miracles, reminiscent of Barbara Kingsolver's THE POISONWOOD BIBLE.Thomas can see things no one else can see. Tropical fish swimming in the canals. The magic of Mrs. Van Amersfoort, the Beethoven-loving witch next door. The fierce beauty of Eliza with her artificial leg. And the Lord Jesus, who tells him, "Just call me Jesus." Thomas records these visions in his "Book of Everything." They comfort him when his father...

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “MARVELOUS.”—The New Yorker • An Entertainment Weekly All-Time Greatest Novel • A Newsweek Top 100 Book of All Time • Winner of the Carnegie Medal • The Inspiration for the HBO Original Series His Dark MaterialsDON’T MISS THE EPIC FINALE TO LYRA’S STORY: THE ROSE FIELD, AVAILABLE NOW!Discover the modern fantasy classic that kicked off the epic trilo...