Gimme Some Space, cleverly created by Clayton Zane Comber and Conor McCammon is an absolute blast-off success. The second instalment of the Marvellous Submarine series, this story is jam packed full of adventure, fun and mayhem, and readers will be invested from the very first page.
Twins Poppy and Billy live on Earth on a place called Monkey Island with their brilliant inventor mum, her lab assistant - a gorilla named Harold - an assortment of other special animals, and a robot called Robo-Elvis, who delivers more singing punchlines than you’d think possible. Meanwhile, their dad is off in space, searching for aliens.
When mysterious space rocks come pelting down from the sky, turning life on Monkey Island into chaos, everyone must spring into action. Transforming ‘the marvellous submarine’ into ‘the marvellous (space)marine’, Poppy and Billy, along with some surprisingly helpful creatures, head out on a wildly entertaining mission into outer space to uncover the source of the problem.
When the crew encounters their nemeses, Mr Brains and Mr Brine, the stakes are high, the danger is ludicrous and the solutions are wonderfully imaginative. Young readers will love trying to guess how the team will fix the out of control situation and save both Earth and outer space before it’s too late.
A huge part of the book’s appeal comes from its comical black-and-white illustrations, matching the humour and energy of the story perfectly. The visual jokes add extra punch and personality to every page. With playful fonts and layouts, the reading experience is dynamic and engaging; making it especially appealing for readers who enjoy illustrated novels or are gaining confidence with longer chapter books.
The humour is crazy, clever and constant, ensuring there is never a dull moment. Yet beneath the fun there are some cool facts ingeniously intertwined about space, planets and our solar system.
Fast, funny and packed with action, Gimme Some Space is a highly engaging and accessible read that will hook reluctant readers and delight confident ones alike. It’s perfect for children who love adventure, science, animals and laugh-out-loud storytelling.
Themes Outer Space, Rockets, Adventure, Problem Solving, Humour.
After reading We won't all survive, by Kate Alice Marshall, I couldn’t resist picking up The girls before, a chilling thriller.
There is a girl in a basement. The door has stopped opening. The light is gone.
The novel begins with a nightmare scenario titled 'Below', of a girl chained in a basement with only the ghosts of the girls before to keep her company. The next chapter, titled 'Above', introduces Audrey, a search and rescue expert, looking for a missing child, who is rescued by other volunteers. She believes in her inner voice which tells her to find missing people and this time she hears that voice in the forest. She is convinced that a missing girl might be there somewhere and she is determined to find her, just as she is determined to find Janie, her best friend who disappeared when they were teenagers. After just two chapters the reader is drawn in, desperate to find out the fate of the girl in the basement, wondering whether Audrey will ever find her missing friend or the runaway schoolgirl. As the novel progresses Audrey discovers that other girls have disappeared in the past and have never been seen again. When she raises this with the Sheriff, he discounts her theory, forbidding her to search the forest because it belongs to the powerful local family who forbid trespassers. But Audrey is on a mission that she cannot let go, even though her friends advise her to leave it.
The Girls Before has a very complex plot with multiple twists and turns, and the thought of a girl trapped in a basement, waiting to die, is not for the faint hearted. A legend about a local witch called Red Hands who takes vengeance on abusive men adds to the intensity of the story, while a pitbull named Barry who can scent death provides some lighter moments when he demands tummy rubs instead of growling. The narrative goes from past to present, above ground and below ground, and the reader needs to be constantly aware of what is going on and I had to read the last chapters a few times to work out what happened - it's always good when an author keeps you in the dark!
The Girls Before is an engrossing but disturbing story and I would recommend it for a more mature audience than some of Marshall’s previous young adult novels.
Buist and Simsion are back with the third novel in their winning Menzies Mental Health series. This latest book can stand alone, but it is part of such an enjoyable series that it is recommended to start with the first book The glass house (2024) followed by The oasis (2025). Hannah is a trainee psychiatrist, now starting an internship in a general hospital on call to patients in medical, surgical, obstetric and cancer wards.
The chapters generally start with a short patient scenario, and then further in the chapter the reader follows Hannah’s exploration of the case, at the same time as she deals with family and personal relationship stresses. Hannah is an outstanding example of the best kind of psychiatric care, where she asks a probing question and then waits for the response. She stays calm, and thinks of the best way to relate to each patient. The cases range from road accident trauma, possible domestic abuse, coming to terms with terminal cancer, end of life wishes, and chronic anorexia nervosa. The reader gains insight into the lives of very troubled people, whilst also understanding that the doctor herself has traumatic issues to come to terms with.
The authors write with professional insight into the human side of how psychiatric medicine works, but there is a vein of subtle humour that underwrites every story, from the characterisation of the ego-driven professor to the ‘smart kid on the block’ boyfriend, and then there is the quick wit of Hannah’s thoughts and responses. All makes for a more light-handed and enjoyable way of exploring often serious subjects. The series has found an original and rewarding way of educating readers about psychiatric medicine.
The ReadPlus review of Girma’s debut novel Immortal Dark (2024) describes it as ‘a brilliant debut from Ethiopian-Australian author, Tigest Girma. The novel weaves East African history and mythology into a dark academia fantasy with a true enemies-to-lovers romance’. Now, in the sequel, black vampires meek dark academia in Eternal ruin, second tome in the planned trilogy.
The setting, Uxley University, mixes the contemporary world of a prestigious university with the world of fantasy and vampires, but it is also a world drawn from Ethiopian culture; the characters are East African, magic power resides in the impala horn, an antelope prevalent in Ethiopia, and the name of Susenyos, the conflicted vampire hero, is drawn from Ethiopian history,
The heroine Kidane is consumed with rage about the abduction of her sister June; and her long enduring love for June leads to acts that may be cruel but are justified in her mind by her goal of reunion and safety. She turns to a dark philosophical text that takes her down a dangerous path, one she is prepared to pursue if it will hasten the acquisition of the powers she seeks.
Susenyos, the strong and powerful vampire that she is inexorably attracted to, is her sparring partner. Theirs is a battle of wits and wills. Kidane seeks constantly to reassure herself that he is trustworthy and reliable. Both are vying for control and power, and both have to learn to trust and have confidence in each other.
There are twists and turns to the plot that the devoted fantasy reader might enjoy, but this sequel is a long story that is heavily dependent on the reading of the first novel. If you are a fan of this genre, you have to read Immortal dark first; and then Eternal ruin takes you to a cliffhanger ending that will have everyone desperately waiting for book three.
Simon & Schuster, 2026. ISBN: 9781398524194. (Age:Adult) recommended.
What Happened That Night is another riveting story from bestselling Nicci French. A reunion of old University friends sets the scene. Tyler Green, a convicted murderer of his friend Leo during a graduation party in 1933, has been released after 30 years in goal. He has asked the people who were at the party to reunite and what a reunion it is! Tyler has always maintained his innocence, but his friends, except for Leo, deserted him after the trial, and went on with their lives. The wine flows and secrets are revealed as the group has dinner and then a terrible discovery is made. A member of the group has been brutally murdered. Detective Inspector Maud O’Connor is called to the scene and as she investigates, she becomes increasingly aware that although Tyler is the obvious suspect, there are many links to be explored.
French cleverly provides a detailed background of all the eight characters, showing their strengths and flaws, how the years have treated them, giving the reader reason to wonder which of them committed the murder. It looks to be a classic locked room case, with each suspect being able to give themselves an alibi and Detective Inspector Maud O’Connor must use all her ingenuity to uncover the truth.
This is the third book in the Maud O’Connor Mysteries series, following Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter? and Last days of Kira Mullan and is hard to put down. I look forward to reading more books by this clever author duo and fans of locked room mysteries are in for a treat.
In the latest interactive puzzle solving choose-your-own adventure book from Rachel Jackson you are once again in control of your own destiny although this time there is the added complication of a dragon, a grand wizard, a heist and escaping. Sounds easy, well then, I would recommend you pick up this book and give it a go.
I really enjoy this style of Choose-your own adventure text as there is the added element of working out the puzzles that are so cleverly tied to the decisions you can make. There are 38 unique pathways and multiple dragons and escapes along the way.
As with most Choose-your-own you are a character within the story and must make choices as to what you do. In this book you are an apprentice to a Wizard who wants you to steal some legendary firestone from the next-door kingdom. Breaking into Firestone Manor is the easy part, escaping with the firestone is a whole other challenge. I love the inclusion of the ancient dragon codes and the puzzles as it really adds to the story and makes the book feel more challenging than a standard choose-your-own adventure. I also really like the pathway map in the back of the book so you can check off your progress and ensure that you have followed every path, sometimes to a not so happy ending!
The author is a master at creating a chaotic storyline that engages the reader in all the possibilities and rewards bravery while ensuring that if you solve the puzzles, you will make it out alive. This series is perfect for confident readers who are looking for a bit of a challenge or who like the choose-your-own adventure style but also like to solve puzzles. An excellent independent read that will keep the reader coming back for more.
Themes Fantasy, Choose Your Own Adventure, Dragons, Wizards, Puzzle solving.
In this latest publication, Ai Wiewei argues that at its core, censorship functions in fundamentally the same way under authoritarian regimes and in so-called free societies. Ai Weiwei is a Chinese artist and activist with a long history of provocation of ideas about art, life and politics. He has experienced censorship in both his home country and in the western world where exhibitions in Paris, London, Berlin and Boston have been cancelled based on comments he has made in social media. Australian readers are only too aware of the penalties for outspoken artists following the cancellations of talks by Randa Abdel-Fattah at various writers’ festivals. Censorship of free speech in Western democracies may be more covert than the censorship based on the official narrative propagated by the state, but censorship continues nevertheless in the suppression and elimination of dissent.
Ai Weiwei has personally experienced China’s discriminatory practices against all artists and particularly those who practice free expression. At the same time, in Western societies censorship communicates that ‘certain thoughts, speech or expressions are forbidden’ and are often attributed with some form of anti-social characteristic; for example, any criticism of Israel’s actions in Palestine is labelled ‘anti-Semitic’.
Such actions compel people to ask: who wields this god-like power to shield obvious darkness and obscure the light of justice, preventing it from approaching fundamental truths and social fairness?
Reading On censorship would be useful for students studying Ai Weiwei’s impact on art, and his social and political activism, providing further context for his body of work. However much of it reads like blanket statements that would have been enriched by more examples from his experience as an artist. For me that was largely compensated by the fascinating photographs he provides of his surveillance by undercover police and cameras, the detectaphone found in his studio, and images from his self-surveillance project. Most iconic is the image of his middle finger gesture to the cameras outside his studio, the gesture of defiance that is an undercurrent to all his work.
This collection of short stories and poems is fabulous. With a huge cast of quirky characters and wild adventures this book is sure to keep the reader entertained. I saw one comment that described the illustrations as a perfect brain break from the text, but I think that this accurately describes this book perfectly, as the short stories are finished quickly and create a buzz that makes you want to return to the book and read it again.
I have always loved collections of short stories as they allow you to feel a sense of accomplishment when you finish each story, and this collection is so funny, unpredictable and weird that it was hard to put down. It is hard to describe the story or discuss the characters in this type of book as the characters are diverse and challenged in different ways according to the story, there is no repetitiveness or a feeling of having read it all before, and the illustrations complement the words perfectly, helping to move the story along and follows the action perfectly.
I can see this being a favourite of independent readers but would also work well in a class room or as a read aloud at home because of the format and the touch of absurdity in each story. This is definitely a book I would recommend and revisit personally too.
Joelle Wellington, author of Their vicious games, brings fans another searing thriller, where Mikky and his sister Kyla, try to find out who murdered Kyla’s best friend Erin. Girls who play dead opens with a memorable chapter showing Kyla tending to her friend’s body in the funeral home that her father owns. Mikky comes home to small town Prophets Lake, to support his sister. He goes back to the High School he hoped he had left forever, but therapy has given him survival strategies and he is not prepared tochange his clothes or his nail polish. Things have changed since he left. Mikky finds it hard to get close to Kyla, who is now the leader of the cool, mean, cheerleaders. He knows that he must find Erin’s killer and try to help Kyla in her grief. But as he investigates, he finds that everyone has something to hide and that the beauty industry that is the livelihood of the town has its secrets as well.
Wellington’s portrayal of mean girls and how they operate is unforgettable. It is hard to like Kyla’s nasty behaviour; at the same time the reader can feel sorry for her loss and the work that she is doing to keep the funeral home going. Mikky is a likeable young man, open about the therapy that has helped him accept that he is gay and the slow burning romance with Nasim, his classmate, adds another dimension to the story.
The in-depth descriptions of life in High School form a solid background to the murder investigation. There are multiple red herrings, leaving the reader wondering what the motivation was behind the murder. Was it the boyfriend? What role did the beauty industry and drugs play? How much was Kyla hiding? The tension builds up to a surprise denouement, leaving the reader breathless with the suspense.
Girls who play dead is a unique, twisty mystery that is sure to prove popular with older teens.
The Jane Doe Chronicles follows Jane as she navigates a deadly labyrinth between worlds on a quest to rescue her father before a villain gets to him.
In the fourth book Jane has vanished, she is taken to the entrance of the labyrinth and told to run. This is Jane’s last chance to find her friends and father and save the Otherworlds.
I have not read the other Jane Doe books but after reviewing this book I really want to go back to the beginning and read them all. The writing and story had me hooked in a way that I hadn’t expected. I am not a huge fantasy reader, but this book was so real, and characters faced unexpected challenges in a very human way. The interconnectedness of the Otherworlds in the book is done so well and the difficulty in accessing doors to move between worlds adds to the suspense and action of the story.
I really enjoyed the relationship between the characters and the friction that occurs as this feels realistic for human friendships and relationships and made the book believable and showed the reader that while you might not like a person or always get along you can still work with them for the greater good or to save the universe!
I would highly recommend this book as the characters are brilliant, the villain is truly evil and will send a shiver down your spine, worlds interconnect and compel you to keep reading. It is perfect for independent readers who enjoy fantasy, adventure, and good/evil themes.
In Flanders fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place; and in the sky The Larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid the guns below… (John McCrae 1872-1918)
In 2003 In Flanders Fields, was awarded the Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) Picture Book of the Year. This beautifully written and deeply poignant story, inspired by a true event, offers a small yet powerful glimpse of humanity in a war of unforeseen horror and brutality.
This anniversary edition is ready for a new generation of readers to gain an understanding of the devastating impact of war. It recounts a moment on Christmas Day 1914, when both sides stopped firing as a young soldier risked his life by venturing into no man’s land to rescue a robin caught in the barbed wire. Both sides watched and waited as he warmed the robin in his hands and set it free. Soon after ‘Silent Night’ was heard from both sides, sung in English and German.
The depth of the illustrations beginning with the striking cover in muted tones of black, brown and grey with the pop of red from the robin and the title, are continued throughout the book. The front endpapers depict the Allied forces in the trenches while the back endpapers mirror the same with the German forces. With the rich and detailed illustrations on each page telling their own unique story, there is much to be learnt from this recount.
With its renowned striking imagery and moving narrative, this new edition once again captures of a snapshot of wartime history, enabling readers to gain an appreciation of a moment of compassion that tells a different story from more distressing World War One accounts. Teacher's notes are available.
Themes World War One, Christmas Day 1914, Flanders Field, Battlefields, Humanity, ANZAC DAY, History, Soldiers.
Kathryn Beilby
You choose Mega: Prehistoric peril by George Ivanoff
Prehistroic Peril is set in a dinosaur themed education centre and the reader is part of a school trip.As with other You Choose storylines, the reader must select where they will take the story with many different storylines available.Will they visit the robot dinosaurs, the research lab or accidentally get transported back in time? All of these are options when you start reading.
Each time the reader starts the story they are taken in a different direction as they can choose the way the story develops through the choices they make at the end of each page.
George Ivanoff is the master of You Choose books and this one does not disappoint with so many options and stories developing.I really enjoyed the Mega aspect of this book with so many twists, turns and different storylines and endings.The story also felt more detailed and engaging without being too heavy or hard to read.Each story was longer than the traditional You Choose books – although I still died very quickly at times!
I have always enjoyed reading You Choose books as they allowed the reader to create a series of short stories around a common theme, the characters remain the same, but the reader gets to choose what happens to them although at times with a surprise twist that keeps you coming back for more.
I really enjoyed the longer and more in-depth nature of this book and know that independent readers will enjoy these aspects too.As with any You choose, this book is bound to be a favourite with readers as they experience the excitement of this style of book for the first time or as a new book in the series.This book could be used as a read aloud in the classroom with students making choices either as a group or individuals.An excellent book for all readers.
Themes Dinosaurs, School, Friendship, Adventure, You Choose, Choose Your Own Adventure.
Prepare to become immersed in Day of now, a gripping dystopian thriller. Dayna and Pax are siblings who have been brought up by their father to be self sufficient, able to survive in a harsh environment after a fungal pandemic has changed the world forever. When their father get sick, attacked by a zombie like person who has been infected by the Pink Mist produced by the fungus, they contact the outer world, hoping to get help for him. But they are betrayed and he is taken by the Hummingbirds, a group of soldiers, to a scientific facility where experiments are taking place to find a cure for the fungal infection. The children face terrible conditions trying to reach their father and save him. Travelling across country, they meet Jason, a young teen, who joins them and together they forage for food in abandoned houses, hide from the soldiers who are trying to find them and try and navigate a landscape with no communication and means of transport.
The character of Dayna stood out for me. She is a pre-teen, but she is the leader of the group, the one who makes the decisions and who has the skills to keep her little group alive. Pax her brother provides some light relief with his naïve outlook, but he is smart and able to pull his weight with his scientific knowledge and skill with a slingshot. Jason, although older, does not have the survival skills of Dayna and Pax, but he does understand the danger that the Hummingbirds could bring to the trio.
Although the main characters Dayna and Pax are young, some of the themes in Day of Now are very mature. They encounter a cult with a charismatic leader who preys on young girls and they are faced with making decisions about the ethical use of science. These themes make it more suitable for older teens, 14+.
Day of now is a gripping, thought-provoking story and I look forward to its sequel. Readers who enjoyed it might like to try Sunny at the end of the world by Steph Bowe and Anomaly by Emma Lord.
Who does not love Spot books! The first, written by British-American author and illustrator Eric Hill (1927-2014), was the beloved lift-the -flap book Where's Spot?(1980). Published now by Penguin Random House, the Spot books have continued to be loved by generations of children globally. The gentle and positive stories feature the happy puppy called Spot who has all sorts of everyday adventures. The illustrations are brightly coloured with the subjects boldly outlined in black. The books are often interactive.
The interactive format of What's next Spot? is important because on every double page, the child makes a choice for Spot by lifting the flaps. The book is full of joy and vitality. "It is the start of a new day and Spot has lots to do. What will Spot choose for breakfast?" The child has the chance to make a decision for Spot about what he might like for breakfast. There is a multiple choice (of 4) for the child to make on each page. Behind each flap you see Spot enjoying the choice and making a positive affirmation such as, "I love fruit." At the bottom of each page there are two questions for the child to answer that reinforce the focus concept - (in this case) breakfast food choices. The book continues in this manner through a typical day for a preschool age child and finishes with choosing a bed time story for Spot. The concepts of order (first and next) are reinforced along with the idea of choice and agency.
What's next Spot? is derived from the original series of works created and written by Eric Hill and the moral right of Eric Hill has been asserted. This boardbook is strong and happily the flaps are also board so they don't rip. It is made to be durable for little hands. This is so important as many lift-the flap books are destroyed very quickly. This book will withstand much handling. The format is comfortingly repetitive and choices that children make are within the categories of breakfast food, clothes, activities, costumes and stories.
What's next Spot? is a delightful board book to add to your Spot book collection.
Themes Making choices, Preschool daily routines, Parent/child bond, Friends.
Wendy Jeffrey
My brother Otto by Ingrid Laguna
Text Publishing, 2026. ISBN: 9781923058729. (Age:8-11) Recommended.
Quinn is not happy with the news that there will be a new baby in her family. The disruption will mean she will have to share a room … and what will happen to her precious lop-eared rabbit who currently lives with her in her space? Quinn is not prepared for the change in her family dynamics at all, and feels the sense of loss of her security. She can throw herself into story writing and cuddles with her rabbit, but she is not really happy. The new baby, Otto, arrives far too early and his life is held by a thread in the hospital NICU, and Quinn and her parents must live with the topsy-turvy uncertainty of the neo-natal life. Will Quinn ever be ready or even able to welcome her brother home and has the tiny baby managed to wrap his finger around her heart?
This story has the lived-experience heart of the author’s own grief and loss, and anyone who has travelled the route of a premature birth in their family will instantly feel the struggle of this story. Written from the perspective of a child, it carries a naive winsome quality that recognises a child’s emotional responses to a significant family change. There is grief as part of the story, so some children reading this may struggle if they do not have the emotional capacity to deal with the big issues of beginnings and endings in life. The story is moving and my own memories of watching my niece struggle after her very premature arrival were instantly at the forefront for me. Make sure that a young reader in the 8-11 age group has sufficient support if they have their own grief to bear or even if a new baby is expected in their family, but it is a beautiful story with a resonance of love that is quite profound. This is written for young readers, and it raises big issues - but books are sometimes the best places to help children see that the world is not always ‘rainbows and rabbits’ and stories do not always have a happy ending.
Themes Grief and loss, Premature birth, Siblings, Emotional growth, Rabbits.
