AustLit

'From two-time Caldecott Winner author-illustrator Sophie Blackall!

'If You Came to Earth is a glorious guide to our home planet, and a call for us to take care of both Earth and each other.

'This stunning book is inspired by the thousands of children Sophie Blackall has met during her travels around the world in support of UNICEF and Save the Children.

• An engaging storybook about a single curious and imaginative child.
• Simultaneously funny and touching.
• Carries a clear message about the need to care for the earth and each other.

'A book for one? A book for two? A book for different points of view. I See, I See is a playful, rhyming call-and-answer conversation between two readers, each of whom view the page from a different perspective: I see water, I see sky, I see swimming, I see fly!'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Seventeen-year-old Delilah’s crazy life is about to get crazier. Ever since her father took off overseas, she’s been struggling to run the family’s cafe - The Flywheel - without him and survive high school. But after a misjudged crush on one of the cool girls, she’s become the school punchline as well.

'With all that’s on her plate she barely has time for her favourite distraction - spying on the beautiful Rosa, who dances flamenco at the tapas bar across the road. Only her best friend Charlie knows how she feels about Rosa, but he has romantic problems of his own. When his plan to win an older woman’s heart goes horribly wrong, Del is the only one who can help Charlie stay out of jail.

'All this leaves Del grappling with some seriously curly questions. Is it okay to break the law to help a friend? How can a girl tell another girl she likes her without it ending in humiliation and heartbreak? And - the big one - is it ever truly possible to dance in public without falling over?' (Publication summary)

'This isn't just about me. It's also about the other people in my life - my mother, my father, my dead sister Sky, my penpal Denille, Rich Uncle Brian, Earth-Pig Fish and Douglas Benson From Another Dimension. These are people [with the exception of Earth-Pig Fish, who is a fish] who have shaped me, made me what I am. I cannot recount my life without recounting elements of theirs. This is a big task, but I am confident I am up to it.

'Introducing Candice Phee: twelve years old, hilariously honest and a little ... odd. But she has a big heart, the very best of intentions and an unwavering determination to ensure everyone is happy. So she sets about trying to 'fix' all the problems of all the people [and pets] in her life.

'Laugh-out-loud funny and wonderfully touching, My Life as an Alphabet is a delightful novel about an unusual girl who goes to great lengths to bring love and laughter into the lives of everyone she cares about.' (Publisher's blurb)

'A seductive love story set in contemporary Shanghai, The Red Thread intertwines the lives of two pairs of lovers across the centuries. Shen is a young, American-educated appraiser for an auction house. Ruth is a gifted Australian artist he meets, it seems, by chance. And Han is a beautiful, enigmatic woman who both facilitates and complicates their relationship. Yet all three lives mysteriously mirror characters described in a rare, eighteenth-century book that comes up for auction – a book that is missing its final chapters. As the characters in the original tale move toward an ominous, unknown end, Shen’s search for the missing pages goes from curiosity to desperation as he hopes to discover – and perhaps alter – his fated future with Ruth.'

Source: Author's blurb.

'An account of the heritage and wisdom of the aborigines of Australia. This exquisitely illustrated volume describes the subtle and complex culture, beliefs and customs of the Lardil, hunter-gatherers of the Wellesley Islands off the northern coast of Queensland. At the core of the Aboriginal religious thinking is the Dreamtime, the mythical period when the totemic Ancestral Beings appeared and began to transform the world. Rituals and ceremonies celebrate this heritage and are described and illustrated in this remarkable book.' (Source: Online)