AustLit

'Try to leave and I'll find you...

'Tess is trapped in a desperate situation - her violent partner now threatening not just Tess, but their daughter as well.

'A chance meeting offers a way out, and a road trip back to the heart of Tess's past, and the family she's left behind. But can she ever trust again?

'An electrifying story from the bestselling author of The Convent... '

'"I woke up with a feeling about today," Stella says dreamily. "Something truly amazing is going to happen." "To us or to the world?" I say. "To you." "To me?" I laugh. "Nothing ever happens to me, Stella." "But today it will." "Will it be good?" She looks thoughtful and then frowns. "I ... I don't know."

'Peach is nineteen and pretty happy with the way things are. She has her university work, two wildly different best friends, her sister, Stella, to look after and a broken heart to mend. But when she takes a summer job at a cafe in the old convent, her idea of who she is takes a sharp turn into the past.

'Where once there were nuns, young girls and women who had fallen on hard times, Peach discovers secrets from three generations of her family. As their stories are revealed, Peach is jolted out of her comfort zone. But does she really want to know who she is?

'Warm and real, intense and provocative, Maureen McCarthy's The Convent shows in vivid detail how fate and the choices we make ripple and reverberate through time.

'A novel to fall in love with.' (From the publisher's website.)

'With echoes of such classic wish-gone-wrong books as Freaky Friday, Half Magic, and Coraline, this terrific novel has the potential to become a middle-grade staple.

'Eleven-year-old Ruth Craze is pretty sure she’s stuck in the wrong life. With an absentminded inventor for a father and a flighty artist for a mother, it’s always reliable Ruth who ends up doing the dishes, paying the bills, and finding lost socks. Her brothers are no help (they’re too busy teasing her), and her friends have just decided she’s not cool enough to be a part of their group anymore. So when Rodney the Rat—a slightly sinister stuffed animal that was a gift from her favorite aunt—suggests a way out, Ruth is ready to risk everything. Three wishes. Three chances to create her perfect life. A million ways to get it wrong.' (Publication summary)

'"There is no real risk as long as you're careful," Rodney said to Ruth. "You'll have three chances to create your perfect life. If for some reason you don't like where you've ended up, you can return. But if you choose to stay longer than one day, you'll stay in your new life for ever."

'Ruth Craze thinks life can't get any worse. She fights with her brothers, her parents driver her mad and no one ever listens to her. So when Rodney the Rat suggests a way out, Ruth is ready to risk everything. Three wishes. Three chances to create her perfect life. A million ways to get it wrong.

'A gloriously life-affirming adventure from a much-loved storyteller.' (From the publisher's website.)

'When Alice looks up and sees Tom staring at her, everything closes down around them and becomes very still. No one is breathing. No one else is in the room. Tom feels as if he can see right into the soul of Alice Wishart. It lies open before him, like a wide, long pane of glittering glass. So delicate and beautiful and ... ready to break.

'Three years have passed since the murder of Alice's mother, but still the killer is unknown. Alice, her cousin Jonty and his friend Tom are drawn together by the mystery, but what is each of them hiding? Will their secrets bind them tighter or tear everything apart?' (Publisher's blurb)

'Don'tcha just hate the way you get caught up in stuff without really wanting to? Then it goes a bit further, and suddenly you're one of those jerks you hate because . . . you can't be trusted. ROSE WANTS NOTHING MORE THAN TO GET AWAY. Last year she'd had it all: pre-law in the fall, a budding romance, and her best friend, Zoe. Now Zoe will never forgive her, her family is crumbling, and the secret that's been boiling up inside her is bubbling a little too close to the surface. All Rose needs to escape are an old van, her surfboard, the road, the ocean, and . . . mom? When Rose's mother jumps in the passenger seat right as Rose is about to set off, her trip takes an unexpected turn, filled with nagging memories of last year, and the looming scandal that refuses to be ignored. A twisting plot that keeps you guessing, told from the viewpoint of a realistically flawed yet snarky main character, makes this a book that just can't be put down.' (Publication summary)

'When burglars break into Jack's house, they take all his stuff.

'Now he's got no skateboard, no TV, no music, nothing. All his brothers do is fight, his mum thinks they all need counselling, his dad's trying to set an example, but hey, who's interested? Jack just wants to get out of that house.

'So he does.

'And he meets Diana.

'And her dog.

'And her grandma, who wears tiger-skin bikinis.

'They're all pretty vicious.

'And suddenly, life is anything but boring.(Publication summary)

Ocean Girl follows the adventures of Jason and Brett Bates, who move with their mother (a reasearch scientist studying whale song) to an underwater research station near Port Douglas. There, they accidentally meet Neri, a young girl with super-human strength, the ability to breathe underwater, and an affinity for communicating with whales. As the series progresses through four seasons, the Bateses (and the audience) learn more about Neri's arrival on Earth, her home planet, and the ecosystem of their own home planet.

Ocean Girl, one of the earliest productions to come out of Jonathan M. Shiff Productions, is creator Jonathan Shiff's first science-fiction program; his name has subsequently become synonymous with children's science-fiction and fantasy television programs, through such shows as Cybergirl and H2O.

Ocean Girl is ecological science fiction, in that it uses the genre of science fiction to explore the consequences of exploiting Earth's resources. For example, as the program progresses, Dr Dianne Bates (mother of protagonists Jason and Brett) shifts from her early role as cetologist to a more active role as environmental protectionist, in response to the increasing threat of building large underwater constructions in the delicate ecosystem around ORCA. Similarly, season four shows the devastating effects of a 'Red Virus' on the oceans of Neri's home world.