NOT ALL CHINESE-CAMBODIAN STORIES begin with killing fields or 500 years of oppression. Some start in the hustle and smells of Footscray markets. Alice Pung, born of Chinese and Cambodian parents in Melbourne, grew up in a family that lived the Australian life. Her father took up a Retravision franchise and her mother was a true battler, an outworker.
Books
While I Live: The Ellie Chronicles When peace is as deadly as war
THE FIRST OF THE Ellie Chronicles, While I Live is John Marsden at his best. Ellie Linton lives in Wirrawee, a town emerging from the nightmare of a war that has torn Australia in two. While the invaders live beyond the newly formed border a few miles away, Ellie soon discovers they are not the only enemies around. It may officially be peacetime, but the past war has a horrible way of inflicting tragedy on the present.
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Wildwood Dancing Otherworldly wonder
IN A WORLD FULL of mystery, Jena and her four sisters share the biggest secret of all—a portal into The Other Kingdom—a fantastic world that lets them escape their everyday lives in Transylvania. When their father falls ill, their simple life is transformed and they are forced to leave their forest home. The Other Kingdom becomes more than just a childhood play space as Jena ventures into a dangerous world to protect those she loves.
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Will Bad moon rising
WILL ARMSTRONG IS A boy with a lot of cheek…maybe a bit too much, when he moons all the girls as they pass by in the school bus! Sadly, the girls aren’t the only witnesses to his revealing act and he finds himself facing the most feared punishment there is—taking part in the school musical!
With many years experience teaching teenage boys, Maria Boyd captures her subject brilliantly. All the trials, insecurities and stupid mistakes are so spot on, that there must be a few blushing cheeks at her old school.
Recommended for age 12+
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Zac Power: Poison Island Ipod i-spy
ZAC IS ONE OF the Government Investigation Bureau’s (GIB’s) top agents, along with his parents and geeky older brother. After parachuting into Poison Island, they have a few short hours to find the evil Dr Drastic, get the cure for all known diseases and escape the island. With poisonous plants and animals, flesh-eating piranhas and Drastic’s henchmen to contend with, this is clearly going to be one of Zac’s most dangerous missions.
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The Book of Rapture A beguiling new novel by the author of The Bride Stripped Bare
Three children wake to find themselves in a basement room. They have been drugged and taken from their beds in the middle of the night. Now they are alone. Where are their parents? Who can they trust?
The Book of Rapture is a novel of our time, challenging our beliefs about religion, science and truth. Searing, provocative and unputdownable, it’s every bit as passionate and driven as The Bride Stripped Bare. It will compel, seduce and haunt you.
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The Slap The book everyone’s talking about
When a man slaps another man’s child at a suburban barbecue the effect on those gathered is profound. Divided over the event and how to deal with it, family and friends are forced to question their lives, expectations, beliefs and desires.
Sex, love, marriage and parenting are all up for grabs. This award-winning novel is both a forensic dissection of contemporary Australia’s aspirations and fears and a potent exploration of loyalty, happiness, compromise and truth.
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The Lieutenant . . . a beauty that lingers in both the heart and mind’s eye’ – Sunday Telegraph
Daniel Rooke has sailed with the First Fleet to New South Wales. Setting up an observatory, he begins the scientific work he hopes will make him famous. But the place proves far more revelatory than the night sky, and when Rooke forges a connection with one Aboriginal child it changes his life in ways he never imagined. In this compelling novel about friendship and selfdiscovery, Kate Grenville returns to the landscape of her muchloved bestseller The Secret River.
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Ice Station Publisher: Pan Macmillan Australia
What happens when civilians stumble upon a spacecraft, buried under millions of years of Antarctic Ice?
What happens when three different countries intercept their cry for help?
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My Place Over 600,000 copies sold
This is a story of extended family, the treatment of Aboriginals, and history lost and found. Nan, the author's grandmother, wants to "forget" about her heritage. She teaches her grandchildren about birds and bullfrogs to make sure they know nature's side of life and instils in them a certain distrust of white people, but she won't talk about her past.
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Tashi Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Tashi comes from a place very far away. He escaped from a warlord and flew to Australia on a swan. And he tells the best stories ever...
This special Books Alive edition is two-books-in-one: you get Tashi and Tashi and the Giants. Inside are four great adventures about Tashi and dragons and giants and bandits. Tashi is brave, bold and clever - and his stories can be read alone or read together.
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Toad Heaven Young Australian Best Book & Kids Own Australian Literature Awards
'Ouch,' said Limpy. 'Why's my back hurting?'
A horrible thought hit him. Perhaps it was a fork wound. Perhaps while he was unconscious the human had tried to eat him. He looked around.
'Stack me,' said Limpy. All he could see was blue plastic.
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Year of Wonders “An astonishing re-creation of how it felt to be a victim and survivor…vivid in its humanity.” – Thomas Keneally
A young woman’s struggle to save her family and her soul during the most extraordinary year of 1666, when plague suddenly visited a small Derbyshire village and the villagers, inspired by a charismatic preacher, elected to quarantine themselves to limit the contagion.
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An Anzac’s Story It was the war to end all wars.
Roy Kyle was a typical Australian soldier, gripped by patriotism to defend King and country during the First World War. It was the war to end all wars.
Enlisting early and underage, Roy celebrated his eighteenth birthday in the trenches of Lone Pine, Gallipoli where over two and a half thousand Australians were killed or wounded. He was one of the last to be evacuated.
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Au Revoir Inspire every reader to run away from home
Living the good life in the Blue Mountains in NSW with her husband, four grown-up children and four (and counting) grandchildren, Mary Moody’s life was full. At fifty, she had built a satisfying career as a writer and television presenter which allowed her time to look after her family, house and garden. The only thing missing was time for herself, a chance to reflect on life and its meaning. Like many women of her generation, caught up with the commitments of work and family, Mary had never had a moment alone – so she decided to say au revoir.
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