AustLit

'Alana Oakley is 12 going on 24. She has to be when her impulsive, accident-prone mother, Emma, attracts so much chaos. Alana’s dad’s passing three years ago has forced Alana to become the grown-up of the family, spinning the mother-daughter relationship on its head. Mystery and Mayhem starts with Alana’s first year in high school at the progressive, experimental Gibson High. Year 7 is packed with the usual excitement and perils. But when Alana’s superstitious friend, Sofia, loses her magic eight-ball charm, life begins to take a mysterious detour. Alana’s sleuthing career takes off, but not without first having to overcome the over-exuberant Nurse Cathy, the military-inspired Coach Kusmuk and her impetuous mother who has now taken up Internet-dating! The biggest mystery of all is whether Alana’s birthday wish will come true: Will this year be different or will it go horribly, spectacularly wrong, as usual? Better call the fire department ... just in case.' (Publication summary)

'Alana Oakley returns with her high-school mates – Khalilah, Maddie and Sofia to face new challenges as a Year 8 student at Gibson High and, as usual, Mum isn’t making it easy. You’d think, after winning a song-writing contest and meeting the world’s hottest rock stars, that life in Year 8 would be sweet, but no, Mum, has other ideas – like getting caught speeding on national television. Alana goes from hero to zero faster than a Ferrari! Awful? It gets worse. Alana still has to dodge Nurse Cathy, get through Shakespeare Week, survive the soccer match against the undefeated Football Academy’s Bruisers, and detention with their History teacher, Mrs Snell, who has a personal collection of medieval torture artefacts. When the gypsy cousin of Alana’s superstitious friend, Sofia, predicts they will meet a tall, dark, mysterious stranger, Alana doesn’t know who it’s meant to be – Bad-Boy Flynn who has just started school or Teen Expert, Dr Gray, who starts dating her mum. There’s something dodgy about both of them so Alana sets out to uncover the mysteries. But Alana gets more than she bargains for. She gets trouble. Double-trouble. Is Flynn the serial arsonist who is setting schools alight? Is Dr Gray a modern Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde? Can Alana solve the mysteries before her birthday? And will her birthday be another Epic Fail? All will be revealed in another of the chaotic adventures that Alana calls Life. Welcome back to her world!' (Publication summary)

'Alana Oakley is out for blood in this sassy sleuth’s latest adventure. Get ready to scream!

'Alana Oakley suspects her new neighbours are vampires. All the signs are there: they are deathly pale, too good at everything, and laugh derisively at vampire-lore with a knowing mwah-ha-ha. Khalilah, Maddie and Sofia hope Alana is right – everything they’ve read about vampires sounds so very cool and the new neighbours are so very hot...

'Despite her friends’ warped sensibilities, Alana is determined to reveal the neighbours’ bloody secret. If only her mum would stay out of trouble, Alana would have this mystery in the bag, but Emma is tangled up with Katriona and Ling Ling’s mission to Never Grow Old, avoid Chinatown’s resident loan shark, Fok Wee Mung, and meet Kylie Minogue.

'Hard to know what Alana is dreading more this year: the kiss of immortality from a vampire or her mother throwing her a birthday party, , but don’t bother asking the woman in Alana’s living room – she’s already dead...' (Publication summary)