'do you remember the water buffalo at the end of our street?

or the deep-sea diver we found near the underpass?

do you know why dogs bark in the middle of the night?

Shaun Tan, creator of The Arrival, The Lost Thing and The Red Tree, reveals the quiet mysteries of everyday life: homemade pets, dangerous weddings, stranded sea mammals, tiny exchange students and secret rooms filled with darkness and delight.'

Source: Back cover.

By the time ninth grade begins, Ishmael Leseur knows it won't be long before Barry Bagsley, the class bully, says, "Ishmael? What kind of w'ussy-crap name is that?” Ishmael's perfected the art of making himself virtually invisible. But all that changes when James Scobie joins the class. Unlike Ishmael, James has no sense of fear—he claims it was removed during an operation.

Now nothing will stop James and Ishmael from taking on bullies, bugs, and Moby Dick, in the toughest, weirdest, most embarrassingly awful . . . and the best year of their lives.' (Publication summary)

What's the biggest danger you can think of? This is bigger. What's the toughest challenge you can imagine? This is tougher. What's the greatest fear you have? You're about to find out.

"How long do you think they'll keep looking for us?" I asked Lee, as we lay there.

"Until they find us," he answered grimly.

They came in summer. They fell upon the land swiftly and suddenly. Through autumn they spread, like locusts, like mice, like a plague. Now it's winter. They're still here. But so too are Ellie and Homer and their friends. (Source: Trove)

'When Paddy Flannagan, a gold fossicker, is found bashed to death in the hills behind the township of Jericho, the search begins for his two wild children. But what effect will their dark secret have on those who find them?' (Publication summary)

'Life is difficult enough for Brenton. He can't get on with his parents, his younger brother is overtaking him in every way and now twelve-year-old Victoria must come and live with them too.

This turbulent, powerful novel follows Brenton as he loses himself in his beloved role playing games where the fantasy dangerously shadows real life'.

Source: author's website.

'Space Demons is a computer game with a difference - a prototype directly imported from Japan, and designed to lock four unlikely protagonists, Andrew Hayford, Elaine Taylor, Ben Challis and Mario Ferrone, in deadly combat with the sinister forces of its artificial intelligence. As the game draws them into its powerful ambit, Andrew, Elaine, Ben, and Mario must confront the darker sides of their own natures.' (Publication summary)

'During World War II, a sixteen-year-old patrols a deserted South Pacific island each night as he and other members of an Australian religious cult await the fiery end of the Earth and their deliverance.' (Publication summary)