Cirrus@Austlit

'Skippy Blackfeet feels safe behind the cemetery walls, hidden from the dangers of the outside world. Out there, dogs bark, and cars blare and blast. Out there, people chase him away with the spray of a hose, or the shake of a rolled-up newspaper. Under the shelter of his agapanthus bush, the little black cat is often hungry and lonely … but at least he’s safe.

'When nine-year old May visits the cemetery to lay flowers on her Nonna’s grave, she gets separated from her mother. She’s frightened and tearful, until she meets Skippy Blackfeet whose presence is as calming as a bowl of fresh cream.

'When Mum agrees to let May bring Skippy Blackfeet home, their adventures have only just begun. For starters they need to win May’s dad over. He does not like cats. Especially black cats. Then there’s the fierce neighbourhood dog, birthday party bungles, tumultuous trips to town, fireworks and thunderstorms, and everything in between! But it soon becomes obvious that Skippy Blackfeet and May go together like milk and sardines, and together they can face any challenge.

'Skippy Blackfeet is a heartwarming tale of friendship, acceptance, and belonging that will appeal to anyone who has every questioned their place in the world.' (Publication summary) 

'Four years ago, Millie lost her baby brother Noah before he could be born. She writes a journal to him, exploring her memories and emotions, and thinks about him every day. When she learns her mother is pregnant again, she writes to him about her anxieties. What if the new baby dies like Noah did? Millie takes it upon herself to take care of her mum while she’s pregnant. She cooks, cleans, and brings her mum ginger tea when she feels sick in the morning. At school, she has two close friends, the bubbly extrovert, Charlie, and bookish introvert, Emma, who pull her in two directions. But Chappy Leeann is there to help her sort out her feelings. Working together to support their parents and the drought affecting their sheep farm, Millie grows closer to her older sister Vicky and learns to appreciate the things in her life. As Millie shares all her feelings with Noah, she reassures her precious stillborn baby brother that even after her new sibling is born, she will always be his sister. Throughout it all, Millie learns just how resilient and strong she really is.

'This book contains an important message about the impact of stillborn children on the lives of siblings too, and highlights the importance of school chaplains in their ability to help children through their emotions. Siblings are often overlooked as they grieve the loss of an expected baby.'  (Publication summary)

'In September 1915, Keith Murdoch, then a young war journalist, wrote an 8000-word letter to the Prime Minister, Andrew Fisher. "The Gallipoli Letter", as it came to be known, changed the course of the Gallipoli campaign.

'The letter, protesting against the conduct of the campaign and describing conditions at the front, is both intimate and conversational: "I shall talk to you as if you were by my side." It is also at times angry, passionate, vivid and very moving: "Then in the early hours came the landing, when the life of man is at its lowest." At times, it is simply heartbreaking: "The heroic Fourth Brigade was reduced in three day's fighting to little more than 1000 strong. You will be glad to know that the men died well."

'The letter changed the course of the campaign: Hamilton, the general in charge of the campaign, was sent home, and the Allies were withdrawn in December of the same year.

'The Gallipoli Letter is an inspiring document. It speaks directly to us about war, our history and the indomitable Australian spirit. Accessible and compelling, it should be read by everyone - it is a vital part of our history and the enduring ANZAC legend.' (From the publisher's website.)

'It’s 1993. Beth McMaugh is eleven years old and about to start her final year of middle school. Her best friend since kindergarten is Ashlee, but Ashlee is changing. She wears surf brand clothes now, and watches teenage TV and knows all the words to all the songs by Girlfriend and Peter Andre. Beth is terrified of losing her when they get to senior school, but Ashlee assures her that grade six is going to be the best year ever.

'On the first day, though, Beth enters her new homeroom to find Ashlee sitting with Kristy, Abbi and Nikki – the popular girls. The mean girls. What is Beth going to do? Ashlee can’t really want to be one of them. They must have trapped her into being part of their group, through some sort of heinous bribery. Beth has to save Ashlee, but how? 

'Further complicating matters, there is a new kid in class – a strange, loud, smart kid from Brisbane, called Jools, who listens to Queen and is obsessed with science fiction and all things nerdy. So obsessed that, on her first day at her new school, she starts the Cooee Middle School Nerd Club and she wants Beth to be her first member – despite the fact that Beth has never even seen Star Wars!

'Behind all of this – behind everything – is a secret from Beth’s past, a secret so terrible it stays with her, every day, whispering in her ear: Wash your hands.

'Behind everything is that day at the beach, when Kristy saw her in her worst moment. Is that why Ashlee doesn’t want to be friends with Beth anymore? Is that why her mother doesn’t want to be near her? Has Beth ruined everything? And if she has, can a nerdy girl with mismatched socks, a rebellious punk, a popular boy and a science fiction movie trilogy set it all to right?

'Real Friends, by Shannon Hale, meets Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell, meets The Friendship Matchmaker, by Randa Abdel Fattah, this is a story of growing up, of friendship, of finding your tribe and unlocking your hidden talents ... plus Star Wars.'  (Publication summary)

'What would you do if you were about to lose your best friend … forever. Grace the Amazing is a story that GLOWS. Quirky, original, and endearing, it’s filled with fun, laughter, tears, and totally relatable childhood moments that will forever find a place in your heart. Grace Marshall is eleven years old. She’s curious and precocious, stubborn and determined, creative and eccentric. She dreams of becoming many things when she grows up, including a magician called Grace the Amazing! Grace may be little, but she has big emotions and a million burning questions that demand answers. Her only friend is her art teacher, Pamela. When Grace discovers that Pamela is dying, the fragile certainties that existed in Grace’s world threaten to slip away. She embarks on a journey to find a cure for Pamela using miraculous magic and while doing so she asks the big questions about life, love, friendship, and death. Some of the answers she uncovers will surprise both Grace and readers. Covering issues of family, friendship, finding yourself, mental health, love, loss, animals, brilliant teachers who can change your life, and everything in between. For ages 8+.' (Publication summary)

'A prefacing dialogue between senior Warlpiri elder and scholar Wanta Jampijinpa Pawu and Samuel Curkpatrick' (Introduction)

'The work of Tony Rinaudo has contributed to the regeneration of over six million hectares of desertified land in Niger alone. Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR), is an approach to reforestation has become a global movement and is gaining popularity as a tool in the fight against climate change.' (Introduction)

'Mavey is excited to sing at the end-of-year concert. But the Year Two song has whistling in it, and Mavey can’t whistle. To make matters worse, Mavey’s twin sister Beth has a mighty whistle. Terrified her classmates will laugh at her, Mavey’s family devises a plan to get Mavey whistling. Will Mavey learn how to whistle in time for the big concert? Or will Mavey’s toot stay mute? In a world where children are under pressure to meet standards and milestones, one little girl learns that doing it your own way is sometimes the best way.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

According to Dennis' wife, The Glugs of Gosh had originated as verse penned to 'amuse' Barry Roberts, the younger son of Dennis' friends and patrons, Garry and Roberta Roberts. The Roberts' presentation copy of the eventual work is annotated 'B. J. Roberts - Sep. 1917 / For whom 'Joi the Glug' was written on 23.6.1914'. In 1915, Dennis saw fit to expand the idea for a wider audience. Six of the thirteen poems in The Glugs of Gosh (and part of a seventh), were published in the Bulletin, the first being 'Joi, the Glug', which appeared on 3 June 1915.

After the extraordinary success of The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke, Angus and Robertson were evidently keen to test the limits of Dennis' popularity, and he was commissioned to expand his 'Glugs' series as a book. Dennis' wife wrote that the couple were married (July 1917) after the completion of the book, and that shortly thereafter they travelled to Sydney and met Dennis' publisher George Robertson, and The Glugs of Gosh went to press. Dennis dedicated the work to his wife.

Angus and Robertson published The Glugs of Gosh in a variety of different editions. The ordinary edition was priced at Four Shillings, as was the 'Pocket Edition for the Trenches' - which hoped to capitalise on the wartime popularity of Dennis' earlier works. The Glugs of Gosh was not a commercial success, however. The deluxe 'Blue Wren' edition initially published by Angus and Robertson at Seven Shillings and Sixpence was eventually remaindered at Sixpence a copy, and an edition that had been advertised for publication in North America (as The Stones of Gosh) was apparently never issued. In 1974, an abridged version of The Glugs of Gosh, containing two poems from the original work arranged as a continuous narrative, was published as a children's book.

'Inspired by the ancient story of the blind men and the elephant with its spiritual traditions in Buddhism, Jainism, Hinduism, Sufism extending into Judeo-Christian ethos through European story; and inspired by the strength, courage and endurance of the mythological and spiritual elephants, Elephants Have Wings is a magical story of two children embarking on the great journey of discovering the humanity in all of us.' (Publication summary)

'Between 1915 and 1921, C. J. Dennis published seven verse novels and two collections of poetry. The first of these was The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke, which features Dennis' characteristic use of a distinctive Australian argot and which became an immediate bestseller.'  (Publication summary)

'My Brilliant Career was written by Stella Franklin (1879-1954) when she was just nineteen years old. The novel struggled to find an Australian publisher, but was published in London and Edinburgh in 1901 after receiving an endorsement from Henry Lawson. Although Franklin wrote under the pseudonym 'Miles Franklin', Lawson’s preface makes it clear that Franklin is, as Lawson puts it 'a girl.'

'The novel relates the story of Sybylla Melvyn, a strong-willed young woman of the 1890s growing up in the Goulburn area of New South Wales and longing to be a writer.' (Publication summary)

 (Publication summary)

'In an old house with ‘too many windows and women’, high in the Indian hills, young Hannah lives with her older sister Gloria; her two older brothers; her mother – the Magician; a colourful assortment of aunts, blow-ins and misfits; and her father – the Historian. It is a world of secrets, jealousies and lies, ruled by the Historian but smoothed over by the Magician, whose kindnesses and wisdom bring homely comfort and all-enveloping love to a ramshackle building that seems destined for chaos.

'And then one day the Magician is gone, Gloria is gone, and the Historian has spirited Hannah and her brothers away to a new and at first bewildering life in Perth. As Hannah grows and makes her own way through Australian life, an education and friendships, she begins to penetrate to the heart of one of the old house’s greatest secrets – and to the meaning of her own existence.' (Publication summary)

Arguably the most popular book of poetry ever produced in Australia, The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke was first published in October 1915. Its success was immediate and unprecedented for a book of Australian verse. The first edition of 2,480 copies sold out within weeks, and by the end of February 1916 the book had reached a fifth impression and was still selling well. Tongue firmly in cheek, C. J. Dennis informed his publishers Angus and Robertson that the work's 'success [was] becoming monotonous'. There was more monotony to come, however: the book sold more than 100,000 copies in the first five years after its publication, and was rarely out of print in Dennis's lifetime. Added to this, there were film, stage, and musical versions of the work, as well as recitals given by popular entertainers. In many respects, 'The Sentimental Bloke' became a phenomenon of popular culture that took on a life of its own.

Dennis later claimed that the idea for 'The Sentimental Bloke' came from a 'racy' young man from Melbourne he had met in Toolangi. According to Dennis' wife Margaret Herron, the young man had fallen in love with a farmer's daughter, but the farmer disapproved and forbade her from having anything to do with him. The Melbourne man was said to have complained to Dennis, 'what sort of bloke do they think I am? Blimey, anyone would think I was a crook! Ain't a bloke got sisters of his own?' In Dennis's imagination, this frustrated love affair eventually became a story in which a tough, streetwise young larrikin gives up his dissolute ways for domestic happiness with his sweetheart. A crucial factor in the success of Dennis's 'Sentimental Bloke' verse was that it was narrated from the point of view of 'the Bloke', employing a slang idiom appropriate to the character. In his correspondence with his publishers, Dennis noted that 'the stuff, while not having any considerable literary merit, is, I believe, extremely popular'.