AustLit

'Arno and his Horse is a beautifully written rhyming text, matched with exquisite illustrations, that explores love, memory, loss and the power objects can hold.

'Arno had a horse
It was brown and it was black.
He took it with him everywhere
But did he bring it back?

'When Arno loses the wooden toy horse his grandfather made him, he looks everywhere for it: by the river, at the playground, at the shop. As he searches through his outback hometown, he remembers the things he and his grandfather used to do together.' (Publication summary)

'GERMAINE Johnson may not be all that good with people but she’s great with numbers. Unfortunately, as she discovers after the incident at Wallace Insurance, there are very few openings these days for senior mathematicians.

'Then her cousin gets her a job at the local council. On the Senior Citizens Helpline.

'It’s not the résumé entry Germaine wanted—but it turns out Mayor Verity Bainbridge has something more interesting in mind for her. A secret project involving the troublemakers at the senior citizens centre and their feud with the golf club next door. Which is run by the strangely attractive Don Thomas.

'Don and the mayor want the seniors closed down. Germaine wants what Don and the mayor want. But when she’s forced to get to know the ‘troublemakers’, things get more complicated.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'The night before the Underwater Fancy Dress Parade, Alfie got that feeling...

Sometimes it's hard to be brave. Sometimes you get that feeling. Alfie isn't sure he can go to the parade, but his mum knows there's at least one special place for Alfie - a beautiful shimmery, underwater world that tells Alfie it's okay to feel shy. Because sometimes you're just not ready...until, one day, you are.' (Publication summary)

'Smart is not just ticks and crosses,
smart is building boats from boxes.
Painting patterns, wheeling wagons,
being mermaids, riding dragons …'

‘Every page of this book in joyous, imaginative and life-affirming … All the Ways to be Smart is a celebration of what childhood can be, and it will likely become a classic.’

Source: Publisher's blurb. 

Abandoned as a young child, Kalu, a cheeky street kid, has against all odds carved out a life for himself in rural India. In the quiet village of Hastinapore, Kalu makes friends: Bal, the solitary buffalo boy, and Malti, a gentle servant girl, who, with her mistress, Ganga Ba, has watched out for Kalu from the first day.

'Perched high in the branches of a banyan tree, Kalu chooses a leaf, rolls it tightly and, doing what he's done for as long as he can remember, blows through it. His pure simple notes dance through the air attracting a travelling healer whose interest will change Kalu's life forever, setting him on a path he would never have dreamed possible, testing his self-belief and his friendships.

'With all the energy and colour of India and its people, Dancing to the Flute is a magical, heart-warming story of this community's joys and sorrows, the nature of friendship and the astonishing transformative powers of music.' (From the publisher's website.)