WINNER OF THE CBCA 2021 BOOK OF THE YEAR FOR YOUNGER READERSI can't let go of them—the good, right things—because if I do I'll turn into a cloud and I'll float away,and a storm will come and blow me to nothing.Eleven-year-old Aster attends a school for gifted kids, but she doesn't think she's special at all. If she was, her mother wouldn't have left.Each day Aster must do a good, right thing—a challenge she sets herself, to make someone els...

Sometimes Xavier wakes up feeling hopeless. Every new doctor this will fix it. Removing him from school this will fix it. The therapy group this will fix it. And his dad moving out. Maybe, this will fix it. His daily affirmations seem to be helping, yet the black dog never really goes away. But Xavier has a plan. Enlisting the help of best friend Aster, he tries to convince his dad to turn the family sheep farm into a therapy retreat for the group session kids. But he is up against decades...

It’s 1993. Beth McMaugh is eleven years old and about to start Year Six. Her best friend, Ashlee, assures Beth that it is going to be the best year ever, but then why is she sitting with the popular girls? When the new strange, nerdy kid, Jools, befriends Beth, she is swept up instead into the School Nerd Club.Behind everything is a secret from Beth’s past, a secret so terrible it stays with her, every day. Making the spirals come. And there was that day at the beach. Is that why A...

"We are the storm and the stillness."Indigo Michael isn't like other kids. And her mum isn't like other mums. Life for people like them isn't meant to have meaning—it's just something to survive in whatever way you can.When her mum abandons her, Aster's Aunt Noni becomes her foster parent. Suddenly Indigo has a new 'family'—one she didn't ask for and isn't even sure she wants.Then she meets Liam. He graffiti's revolutionary words across the world, words tha...

Temora Tempest thought she was just a normal girl, but after making a wish on her twelfth birthday, she learned the truth: She's a wordspinner, a magical storyteller from another world, learning her craft in a tower that reaches to the clouds. But with the villainous Wordsnatcher on the loose, turning the Wordspinners wordless, the fates of both the worlds are at risk. When the mysterious Literati take over Lyfthelm Tower, Temora knows something is wrong.As her power grows, Temora ...

Do you ever look at the sky and think that's where we belong? Like maybe the world is the wrong way around and we're meant to be up there, floating?Sixteen-year-old Therese lives in a small town on a small island. Her Aunt Kath calls her Tiger. Her friends call her Resey. The boy she loves calls her Champ. She's a lot of different things for a lot of different people.Therese has always had her feet on the ground. She's running through high school, but someone in her life is...

Tasmanian teenager Tessa is found in the bush with scratches on her back and no memory of what happened or how they came to be there. What are they? What do they mean? When students at her school start disappearing, Tessa knows she must find out—whatever the cost.A gripping paranormal mystery that draws on stories of the Thylacine, or Tasmanian Tiger, a creature believed to be extinct. First published in 2011, it was followed by a sequel, Vulpi....

Temora Murphy is eleven years old. She lives in a world where she never really fits. The other girls make fun of her. She's not the "right" sort of girl for anyone – least of all her mother. On the candles of her birthday cake, she wishes for escape. Like magic, in a black pearl box at the bottom of her garden, books begin to appear. The books help her to leave her world and find another where she belongs.On her twelfth birthday, Temora makes another wish, a wish that alters her li...

Do you ever look at the sky and think that’s where we belong? Like maybe the world is the wrong way around and we’re meant to be up there, floating?Sixteen-year-old Therese lives in a small town on a small island. Her Aunt Kath calls her Tiger. Her friends call her Resey. The boy she loves calls her Champ. She’s a lot of different things for a lot of different people.Therese has always had her feet on the ground. She’s running through high school, but someone in he...

"There is no now and no then, only in between and always Open the box. Come and see."Aberdeen Knopwood wants to make a difference - to help save the planet and express the passion for the environment that burns underneath her skin. But how can a girl who is too scared to stand out actually do something meaningful?Aberdeen's family has been woven into the fabric of Hobart for generations. When her journalist father gifts her an antique chronometer, it leads her to a...

It's 1993. Beth McMaugh is eleven years old and about to start Year Six. Her best friend, Ashlee, assures Beth that it is going to be the best year ever, but then why is she sitting with the popular girls? When the new strange, nerdy kid, Jools, befriends Beth, she is swept up instead into the School Nerd Club.Behind everything is a secret from Beth's past, a secret so terrible it stays with her, every day. Making the spirals come. And there was that day at the beach. Is t...

Can you really expect to find love when you come from a rich but heartless father who won’t pay a ransom to your kidnappers? Especially when that love is found burning in the amber fire of your protector’s eyes?Can you walk away from the one you are hired to protect, when loving her seems to be putting her in more danger, but she is everything you’ve been searching for?Can Callie and Jackson find a way back to true love after having to overcome everything life throws at them?...