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Middle Grade

SUMMER OF SHIPWRECKS

A funny, moving middle-grade novel about change and friendship from the award-winning author of Meet Me at the Moon Tree

When Sid sets off on her annual summer holiday to the Shipwreck Coast, she's desperate for some familiarity after a year of unwanted change. Two weeks with best friend Lou, who she only gets to see when they go camping every year, is exactly what Sid needs. Mostly, she can't wait to continue their search for the millions of dollars' worth of riches that disappeared in a tragic shipwreck over a hundred years ago.

But Lou has brought along popular new school friend Hailey, who's more interested in boys than treasure hunting. So while Lou is busy chasing Hailey's approval, Sid is left scrambling to catch up, wondering when everything changed. Can Sid protect her heart from getting shipwrecked too?

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AUSTRALIA

Published: 3.9.2024
Publisher: UQP

Pages: 256
ISBN: 9780702268373​

A RELUCTANT WITCH'S GUIDE TO MAGIC

A wonderful, witchy story by the acclaimed author of The Boy, the Wolf and the Stars.

Willa lives in the Wild, in a city squished between two warring witch covens. The non-magical Wildians spend their days dodging wayward spells—from raining frogs to dancing chickens—all because of the witch war raging around them.

 

Being stuck in the middle of a magical war means the Wildians hate witches—none more so than Willa, whose parents were turned into clouds by a misplaced curse. Willa spends her days with her army of cats, dreaming of an end to the war and her parents’ return.

 

So when Willa is accused of being a witch after witnesses catch her accidentally stopping a spell midair, she's certain there's been a mistake. She can't be a witch! Yet Willa is dragged to the palace, where she's given one year to master her volatile magic and choose a coven to join. If she doesn’t, she’ll explode.

 

But her attempts to control her magic are interrupted when a rogue witch begins nefarious spells against the Ordinary Folk. What does the witch want and what does it have to do with Willa? She must unravel the mystery to save her city, her friends, and herself.

ALSO AVAILABLE IN: Czech

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AUSTRALIA

Published: 5 July 2022
Publisher: Penguin Random House

Pages: 288
ISBN: 9781761043994

NORTH AMERICA

Published: 19.7.2022
Publisher: Clarion Books

Pages: 288
ISBN: 9780358541271

MEET ME AT THE MOON TREE

A tender Australian story about searching for the impossible in the places where magic and science meet.

For Carina Sugden, nothing is more special than a moon tree – a tree grown from the seeds taken on the Apollo 14 mission into space. Her father taught her everything she knows about them. But he passed away before they found one together.

When Mum relocates the family to the Otway Ranges, Carina becomes determined to find a moon tree on her own. Like a scientist, she carefully searches the forest behind her new house. But after a mysterious encounter with a black cockatoo, Carina realises there’s magic in this forest. And if magic exists, anything is possible, like seeing her dad one last time…

The front cover of Summer of Shipwrecks

AUSTRALIA

Published: 4.7.2023
Publisher: UQP

Pages: 252
ISBN: 9780702266171​

THE BOY, THE WOLF AND THE STARS

Four friends. Three keys. One magical quest.

Some say that long ago in the land of Ulv the sky was filled with Stars. Twelve-year-old Bo knows the stories but, like most, thinks the Stars and the wolf who ate them are just myths, and that no bedtime story can stop the ravenous Shadow Creatures running rampant every night when it turns Dark. Until the day Bo’s guardian, Mads, is attacked by a giant wolf straight from the legends. With his dying breath, Mads tells Bo that a great evil has been awakened, giving the Shadow Creatures unprecedented power, and the only way to stop it from spreading is to return the Stars to the sky.

And so Bo—accompanied by his best friend, a fox called Nix; a girl named Selene with surprising magical abilities; and Tam, a bird-woman who has vowed to protect Bo at all costs—sets off on a quest to find the three magic keys that will release the Stars. But they’re not the only ones after the Stars and the friends soon find themselves fleeing angry villagers, greedy merchants, and a vengeful wolf. And all the while, an evil witch lurks in the shadows.

ALSO AVAILABLE IN: Russian

BONUS MAP

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AUSTRALIA

Published: 20.10.2020
Publisher: Penguin Random House
ISBN: 9781760893453

NORTH AMERICA

Published: 17.11.2020
Publisher: HMH
ISBN: 9780358243892

Young Adult

ThHE WORST PERFECT MOMENT

Equal parts hilarious and heartbreaking, this wildly inventive story explores what it means to be truly happy.

Tegan Masters is dead.  

She’s sixteen and she’s dead and she’s standing in the parking lot of the Marybelle Motor Lodge, the most depressing motel in New Jersey and the place where Tegan spent the worst weekend of her life. 

In the front office, she meets Zelda, an annoyingly cute teen angel with a snarky sense of humor and an epic set of wings. According to Zelda, Tegan is in heaven, where every person inhabits an exact replica of their happiest memory. For Tegan, Zelda insists, that place is the Marybelle—creepy mini-golf course, sad breakfast buffet, filthy swimming pool, and all.

Tegan has a few complaints about this.

Luckily, Management agrees there’s an issue, sending Zelda and Tegan on a whirlwind tour through Tegan’s memories to help her figure out what mattered most. If Zelda fails to convince Tegan (and Management) that the Marybelle was the site of her ‘perfect moment,’ both girls face dire eternal consequences. If she succeeds … they just might get their happily-ever-afterlife.

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NORTH AMERICA

Published: 14.5.2024
Publisher: Holiday House
ISBN: 9780823456345

FRANKIE

Sometimes what you find, isn't what you were looking for.

Frankie Vega is angry. Just ask the guy whose nose she broke. Or the cop investigating the burglary she witnessed, or her cheating ex-boyfriend or her aunt who’s tired of giving second chances…

When a kid shows up claiming to be Frankie’s half brother, it opens the door to a past she doesn’t want to remember. And when that kid goes missing, the only person willing to help is a boy with stupidly blue eyes … and secrets of his own.

Frankie’s search for the truth might change her life, or cost her everything.

Frankie is a gripping, darkly funny novel about searching for the truth, finding yourself and falling in love…

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AUSTRALIA

Published: 8.3.2016
Publisher: Penguin Random House
ISBN: 9780143573166

NORTH AMERICA

Published: 6.11.2017
Publisher: Flatiron Books
ISBN: 9781250143013

TIN HEART

Would you still be the same person if you had someone else’s heart?

When Marlowe gets a heart transplant and a second chance at life, all she wants is to thank her donor’s family. Maybe then she can move on. Maybe then she’ll discover who she is if she’s no longer ‘The Dying Girl’.

But with a little brother who dresses like every day is Halloween, a vegan warrior for a mother and an all-out war with the hot butcher’s apprentice next door, Marlowe’s life is already pretty complicated. And her second chance is about to take an unexpected turn…

ALSO AVAILABLE IN: French, German, Swedish and Italian

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AUSTRALIA

Published: 6.3.2018
Publisher: Penguin Random House
ISBN: 8790143786276

NORTH AMERICA

Published: 4.3.2019
Publisher: Flatiron Books
ISBN: 9781250312761

Meet Me at the Moon Tree
A Reluctant Witch's Guide to Magic
The Boy, the Wolf and the Stars
The Worst Perfect Moment
Tin Heart
Frankie
Summer of Shipwrecks
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