AustLit

'Billy the Bitzer has lost his toy bone. He knows he left it in the park, but where? One by one, more and more puppies race into the park. Who will find the bone ...and will Billy get it back?' (Publisher's blurb)

'It is 1821 and the child is a loner who spends her time hiding in the Vienna Woods until she spies an old man - a music maker. And so begins an odd friendship which develops through their mutual love of music. The man is composing a new work. It will break new ground. He fears it will be ridiculed and is aware that he is thought mad. He confides in the child who sits for hours watching and listening as he revises and plays. She has a feeling for the music that he cannot fathom. And not only for the music, but for what he is. She knows his pain, his anger, his fear and also his gentleness. Together they give each other the courage to face their critics and dare to be different.

'A tale written about an old man who couldn't hear, for a child people considered strange. Yet the song will live forever in the heart and mind of every child where there's nurtured love of music.' (Publisher's blurb)

'Between a mother and son there may be a very thin line connecting lies and silence. In the silver city, life for Josh Sim is study, football, and family. But in this world, the things which matter most seem to matter least, and the truth is a weapon wielded without emotion. On the streets of the city, Josh will find his own power. And reach through the silences. This moving and tender novel by Celeste Walters will take you into a world where, even in the darkest times, hope still finds a light...' (Publication summary)

'Ossie is an outcast. Traveling with his late father's bike gang, his head is full of his father's death and his mother's abandonment. Ossie's life goes from bad to worse. He crashes his bike, is reviled by his gang, and spends months in recovery. Then he meets Essie Ellis, a manipulative little old lady with a passion for living. Their relationship takes Ossie on a physical and emotional journey where he learns, through Essie's experience of life, what it means to love and be loved. Ossie learns about life from her - about words, ideas and books - with poignant reference to The Wind in the Willows deftly woven through the novel. Essie tells him the legend of the Glass Mountain and together they take a journey that will end in a trial and a conviction, but also in a life redeemed.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'We were savages, all of us ... Yes, savages; and I was worse than anyone because I stood back and watched.

'Could Ned really have changed the devastating events that occurred in his last years at school? Could he have influenced the gangleader who sadistically menaced their schoolmates? A chilling novel exposing the power of adolescent peer groups in secondary school playgrounds.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.