'We don’t pick and choose what to be afraid of. Our fears pick us.”

'Tash Carmody has been traumatised since childhood, when she witnessed her gruesome imaginary friend Sparrow lure young Mallory Fisher away from a carnival. At the time nobody believed Tash, and she has since come to accept that Sparrow wasn’t real. Now fifteen and mute, Mallory’s never spoken about the week she went missing. As disturbing memories resurface, Tash starts to see Sparrow again. And she realises Mallory is the key to unlocking the truth about a dark secret connecting them. Does Sparrow exist after all? Or is Tash more dangerous to others than she thinks?'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Everyone knows seventeen-year-old Grace Foley is a bit mad. She’s a prankster and a risk-taker, and she’s not afraid of anything—except losing. As part of the long-running feud between two local schools in Swanston, Grace accepts a challenge to walk the pipe. That night she experiences something she can’t explain. The funny girl isn’t laughing anymore. She’s haunted by voices and visions—but nobody believes a girl who cries wolf.

As she’s drawn deeper into a twenty-year-old mystery surrounding missing girl Hannah Holt, the thin veil between this world and the next begins to slip. She can no longer tell what’s real or imagined—all she knows is the ghosts of Swanston, including that of her own mother, are restless. It seems one of them has granted her an extraordinary gift at a terrible price. Everything about her is changing—her body, her thoughts, even her actions seem to belong to a stranger. Grace is losing herself, and her friends don’t understand. Is she moving closer to the truth? Or is she heading for madness?' (Publication summary)

'Frankie Vega is angry. Just ask the guy whose nose she broke. Or the cop investigating the burglary she witnessed, or her cheating ex-boyfriend or her aunt who's tired of giving second chances...

'When a kid shows up claiming to be Frankie's half brother, it opens the door to a past she doesn't want to remember. And when that kid goes missing, the only person willing to help is a boy with stupidly blue eyes … and secrets of his own.

'Frankie's search for the truth might change her life, or cost her everything.' (Publication summary)

'It's 1900. Thirteen-year-old Issy McKelvie leaves school and starts her first job - very reluctantly - as a maid in an undertaking establishment. She thinks this is about as low as you can go. But there's worse to come.

'Issy becomes an unwilling rat-catcher when the plague - the Black Death - arrives in Australia. Issy loathes both rats and her father's four yappy, snappy, hyperactive rat-killing terriers. But when her father becomes ill it's up to Issy to join the battle to rid the city of the plague-carrying rats.' (Publisher's blurb)

'Rachel is still getting used to the idea of Mycroft being her boyfriend when he disappears to London with Professor Walsh. They're investigating the carjacking death of the rare books conservator, which appears to be linked to the theft of a Shakespeare First Folio from the Bodleian Library. Worried about similarities between the conservator's accident and the death of Mycroft's own parents, Rachel follows Mycroft to London ... and straight into a whole storm of trouble.' (Publication summary)

'Their lives couldn't be more different, but Emmie can't help liking Bertha Schippan. She's funny and knowing and wild, and she distracts Emmie from the monotony of farm life in their tiny, isolated community. But, as Emmie soon discovers, Bertha has secrets. Terrible secrets.

'This heartbreaking story is based on a real crime that took place more than a century ago, capturing headlines all around Australia.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Secrets, lies, murder and betrayal.

'Micah Wilkins is a liar. But when her boyfriend, Zach, dies under brutal circumstances, the shock might be enough to set her straight. Or maybe not. Especially when lying comes as naturally to her as breathing. Was Micah dating Zach? Did they kiss? Did she see him the night he died? And is she really hiding a family secret? Where does the actual truth lie?

'Liar is a breathtaking roller-coaster read that will have you up all night, desperately seeking for something true.' (From the publisher's website.)

'Sometimes, when it comes to fighting evil, one genius just isn't enough.

'Cadel Piggott's been having a hard time since he chose to be good rather than evil. He doesn't know where he was born. He doesn't know who his father is. And he's under constant threat from Prosper English - the criminal mastermind he helped to put in gaol.

'Will Genius Squad be the answer to all Cadel's prayers? Or is he right to question their motives? Deciding what's good and bad is more difficult than Cadel could ever have imagined ...' (Publisher's blurb)

'Bindy is the smartest girl at Ashbury High. She ranks in the 99.9th percentile in everything she does (including extra-curricular activities - she is casual Employee of the Month every month at Kmart). She is also the kindest girl at Ashbury High. For example:

'Before each school year begins, she memorises departmental outlines of her subjects. That way, she can gently prompt those teachers who forget or stray from the course.

'She reads up on common teen anxieties, and offers lunch-time advisory sessions in a relaxed, convivial setting (the locker room).

'But Bindy suspects that something may be missing - something more than the 0.1 she needs to make the 100th percentile. And, on the first day of Year 11, at the first session of the FAD (Friendship and Development) Project, her worst suspicions are confirmed. Nobody likes her. So Bindy makes a decision. Enough of this compassionate Bindy; she has been wasting her time. The real and ruthless Bindy is about to emerge.'

(Pan Macmillan website)

'Cadel Piggott is a seven-year-old genius with a knack for systems. He can do just about anything: disable home security systems, hack into government databases and commit credit card fraud. But when he gets in trouble with the police his parents are forced to take him to a therapist, Dr Thaddeus Roth. But Thaddeus is not who he seems and introduces the young Cadel to a world of genetically enhanced misfits who are determined to take over the world. It is only when Cadel meets Sonja, a disabled girl with a powerful mind that can match only his, that his emotions start to catch up with his intellect. But is it too late? Will the forces of evil subsume even this super-intelligent genius, as his whole world proves to be a house of cards?

'Evil Genius explores the fine line between good and evil in a strange world of manipulation and subterfuge.' (Publication summary)

'It used to be called Station Road, but eight years ago things started catching fire. Then a girl was killed, and someone got smart with the name.

Now it's happening again. There's a fire. Matt Tingle and Chess Febey find a girl drowned in a pond.

Chess isn't Matt's friend. She's one of those people you get stuck with - well meaning, total liability. But she knows how to answer questions, and there are plenty of those: Why are Tara and Wando afraid? What is the meaning of the amber necklace? How can a car be blue and white at the same time?

Before they can find out who killed Debbie, Matt and Chess have to put themselves in danger, they have to look deep into themselves, and they have to reveal things about the past.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

 

'Everything pointed to Ben ? the three-pronged knife, the scratches on his face. And why was he out and about that dark night?

'Penelope Thanatopoulos doesn't like Benjamin Thorpe but she is shocked when he is suspected of attacking Kevin Friend at the zoo where they are on work experience. Who stabbed Kevin and threw him into the seal pool?

'Penelope makes it her business to find out.' (Publication summary)