Stories moody, broody and wild

Moody, broody and wild … precisely how I love short stories to be. And these are some of the best I read in 2023. ‘Anyone Can Do It’ by Manuel Muñoz Muñoz creates a mood in his latest collection of stories which I love and ‘Anyone Can Do It’ is especially evocative. The stories in

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Shirley Hazzard: A Writing Life

In 1980 when Australian author Michelle de Kretser read Shirley Hazzard’s new novel The Transit of Venus she wondered what all the fuss was about. Twenty years later she reread it, and ‘the sensation came, like a blow to the breastbone,’ from the first page, ‘the shock of the great’. This anecdote from Brigitta Olubas’s

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Naturopolis

‘In the city, nature can feel far away – but is it?’ This question lies at the heart of Naturopolis – a new, creative non-fiction picture book for readers in years K to 6. The book’s elegant, double page spreads both describe and explore the natural phenomena found in ‘the great grey city’ and children

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Easy Peasy

This bright berry of a book is upbeat and colourful. While there’s a lesson or two at its heart (one being to listen to your Dad because he might be able to teach you something you’d like to know) it’s also a fun story. When Ruby gets a gift of roller skates from her Dad,

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The Homesick Pirate

On the surface, Peta seems like your typical pirate with his wooden leg, parrot on his shoulder, eye patch, Jolly Roger and propensity for exclaiming AAARRrgggh. But things are amiss in Peta’s life. He’s tired of plundering ships (just the thought of it ‘makes his peg-leg creak’ and shivers his timbers), the sea seems endless

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Harriet’s Hungry Worms

There’s a world of delicious detail and wordplay in Harriet’s Hungry Worms – a new picture book from Samantha Smith (author) and Melissa Johns (illustrator) for readers aged 4 to 8. Harriet’s slimy, hungry, relaxed, shiny and healthy compost worms crunch, scoff, feast and snack. They munch on muesli on Monday, wild weeds on Wednesday and

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Meet Mim

Meet Mim keeps readers guessing right from the start through an intriguing game of underwater obfuscation. As we turn each page, we continue to wonder who, or rather, what is Mim? It feels like we’re getting nowhere – but we’re actually observing an interesting array of sea creatures including, the spotted flatfish, the spiked lionfish,

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Immaculate

Immaculate is a captivating and unusual novel. It is also a nuanced examination of how faith grasped hungrily but imposed narrowly can segue into a slipperier sense of becoming, a wild tributary pulsing with possibility and sorrow. We first meet Frances when she is newly divorced from her pastor husband, rejected by the Christian community

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When Grandma Burnt Her Bra

The dynamic video trailer for this trailblazing book should easily get your kids (aged 6 to 9 years) motivated to fight for equal rights. But the book itself is awesome too – and my favourite line is ‘She burnt her bra to make a PROTEST. This is what you do when something is not right.’

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