AustLit

'Three friends with high-functioning autism try to save their school from never-ending maths in this fast and fun story, told from a rarely seen perspective.

'Superheroes for a Day tells the engaging story of Max, Daniel, and Natalie's mission to save their school from endless maths lessons. Using their unique abilities like heightened memory and attention to detail, they turn their differences into superpowers. While handling their individual traits, they find the courage to become heroes, at least for a day, in the eyes of their schoolmates.

'The book seeks to normalize the experiences of high-functioning autistic kids who are often seen as uncool because of their quirks. By making them the heroes, the story offers insight into their personal experiences and perspectives in a fun and engaging manner, resonating with readers in mainstream classrooms.

' Filled with delightful illustrations, Superheroes for a Day is an empowering tale of friendship, bravery, and the remarkable abilities that often go unnoticed in those who are different.' (Publication summary)

'How do you best tell the story of Australia's most enigmatic bushranger - Captain Moonlite? The stories he told of his life conflict with the stories told by others, which conflict with the records. A well-educated man, in and out of asylums and prison, who finally found his purpose and his love leading a small gang of young men. Until they followed him into violent chaos.

'This book is a creative retelling of history, using many perspectives of fact and time - both yesteryear and today - to try and capture something of Moonlite the man, and the society that made him.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'An amusing look at the alternative paths that Australian history might have taken in Australia's Gold Rush.

'The What If histories of Australia imagines a very different history of Australia, where the unexpected happens in unexpected ways. Starting by defining the real histories, the book then looks at possible paths of different settlements that history could have taken. 

'Gold Fever is what makes ordinary people act like completely crazy people .  And there are plenty of examples of that in this book!

' We all know that gold makes people act a bit crazy – but imagine just how crazy things would be if the 19th Century Australian colonies were all run by different countries. The French in modern day Victoria and British in modern day New South Wales would be busy coming up with crazy plans to steal each other’s gold. And indigenous people, diggers and bushrangers would have their own plans as to who should get the gold. As would a peculiar bushranger in armour, with plans to start a new Irish republic. 

' A very different and amusing history of Australia, where the unexpected happens in unexpected ways.'  (Publication summary)

'An amusing look at the alternative paths that Australian history might have taken.

'The What If histories of Australia imagines a very different history of Australia, where the unexpected happens in unexpected ways. Starting by defining the real histories, the book then looks at possible paths of different settlements that history could have taken.

'What if Captain Cook’s ship had sunk when it hit the Great Barrier Reef in 1770? And what if he never got back to England with his charts and claim on the land? What if the French settled Australia first, and eventually both King Louis 16th and Napoleon ended up in exile here, fighting over who was the rightful ruler in exile? This What If histories of Australia imagines a very different history of Australia, where the unexpected happens in unexpected ways.' (Publication summary)

'Antarctica is promoted as the last unspoiled continent on earth – attracting thousands of tourists on cruise ships each you. But at what point is it apparent that the continent is no longer unspoiled? And what happens on such a cruise ship when the outside world drops out of contact, after news of a devastating virus rampaging around the globe was received? And when you discover many of the passengers are determined not to ever go back home? A story of strange world of cruise ships and the stranger world of the near future.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'On a Barbarous Coast is an alternative retelling of Captain James Cook's story co-written by Craig Cormick and Harold Ludwick in the tradition of imagined histories.

'We were becoming the wild things we most feared, but could not see it at the time.

'On a night of raging winds and rain, Captain Cook's Endeavour lies splintered on a coral reef off the coast of far north Australia. A small disparate band of survivors, fracturing already, huddle on the shore of this strange land - their pitiful salvage scant protection from the dangers of the unknown creatures and natives that live here.

'Watching these mysterious white beings, the Guugu Yimidhirr people cannot decide if they are ancestor spirits to be welcomed - or hostile spirits to be speared. One headstrong young boy, Garrgiil, determines to do more than watch and to be the one to find out what exactly they are.

'Fierce, intriguing and thoughtful, On a Barbarous Coast is the story of a past and future that might have been.

''Australia's "origin" story brilliantly re-imagined, in which Indigenous Australians rightfully assume their central place.' Susan Johnson, author of The Broken Book' (Publication summary)

'This story begins with a murder. A German internee is found dead inside a civilian internment camp during World War One, and one young internee, Arno Friedrich, determines to find the killer. But the more he probes into the lives of his fellow internees the more he discovers that little within the old stone prison is as he had imagined. He finds that the Germanic facades and fantasies the men construct hide secrets within secrets. And a killer.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'It’s a fact not yet universally acknowledged, that everybody should at some point in their lives attempt to follow in the footsteps of the explorers Hume and Hovell down the Hume Highway, preferably in the company of Captain Cook, Henry Lawson, Caroline Chisholm and Ned Kelly. Backseat Drivers is a hilarious and biting satire on the intersection and byways of the past, the present and the future.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'A satirical revisiting of the great Finnish folk epic the Kalevala, imagining the three heroes Vainamoinen, Ilmarinen and Lemminkainen arrive in modern Finland, trying to understand why they have been called back to the land of Kalevala. A funny and engaging story.'(Publication summary)

'We find Henry Lawson and Banjo Paterson walking along a busy road in London, going against the flow of the many faces in the street, muttering to each other like a pair of homeless crazies. They have both come to London to escape the pain of a broken heart, and the men, rivals in so many things, have discovered that they have shared the same mistress! Yet if either expected to find some consolation in the other’s suffering, they have instead found it exacerbates their own. (Introduction)

'Hi. My name is Valdur and I’m a Viking. We’ll, I hope to be a real Viking one day. I’m still a child actually. But I do get to roam the seas on my father’s ship. Until, that is, he was kidnapped by his arch-enemy, the Goth pirate Germanicus Bottom. So now, by Odin’s smelly socks, I have to fight Romans, sea monsters and the Pirate Goths to rescue him. Luckily I have my dragon-dog Ragna with me though. And we are all ghosts. Did I mention that?'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

A take on the story of Peter Pan, which unpacks some disturbing motivations on the part of the titular character.