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)

'Bush Studies is famous for its stark realism—for not romanticising bush life, instead showing all its bleakness and harshness.

'Economic of style, influenced by the great nineteenth-century Russian novelists, Barbara Baynton’s short-story collection presents the Australian bush as dangerous and isolating for the women who inhabit it.' (Publication summary : Text Classics)

'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.)

Such is Life: Being Certain Extracts from the Diary of Tom Collins. Joseph Furphy's title gives an indication of the complexity of the narrative that will unravel before a persistent reader. In chapter one, the narrator, Tom Collins, joins a group of bullockies to camp for the night a few miles from Runnymede Station. Their conversations reveal many of the issues that arise throughout the rest of the novel: the ownership of, or control of access to, pasture; ideas of providence, fate and superstition; and a concern for federation that flows into descriptions of the coming Australian in later chapters. Each of the characters provides a portrait of bush types that Furphy uses to measure the qualities of squatters and others against popular ideas of the 'gentleman'. Furphy's choice of a narrative structure to create a 'loosely federated' series of yarns is itself a critique of popular narratives populated by stock characters who are driven by action that leads to predictable and uncomplicated conclusions. Tom Collins, the unreliable narrator, adds further complications by claiming to 'read men like signboards' while all the time being unknowingly contradicted by circumstances that become obvious to the reader.

In each subsequent chapter Tom Collins leads the reader through a series of experiences chosen from his diaries. In chapter two, Collins meets the boundary rider Rory O'Halloran and his daughter, Mary, a symbol of the coming Australian whose devotion to her father will have tragic consequences in chapter five. There are many links between chapters like this one that remain invisible to Collins, despite his attempts to understand the 'controlling alternatives' that affect our lives. In chapter three Tom loses his clothes crossing the Murray River and spends the night wandering naked until he is able to steal a pair of pants after diverting attention by setting fire to a haystack. In chapter four Collins helps an ailing Warrigal Alf by deceiving several boundary riders who have impounded Alf's bullocks. In chapter five, among other yarns of lost children, Thompson completes the tragic tale of Mary O'Halloran, connecting with the events of chapter two. Chapters six and seven take Tom Collins back to Runnymede Station where he attempts to avoid an unwelcome union with Maud Beaudesart. He also meets the disfigured boundary rider, Nosey Alf, whose life story Furphy has threaded throughout the narrative, signs not perceived by Tom Collins. When Collins returns to Runnymede at the end of the novel, Furphy ties up more loose narrative threads, but Tom Collins, the narrator, remains oblivious to the end.

In short, Such Is Life 'reflects the preoccupations of [the 1890s]: contemporary capitalism, ardent Australian nationalism, the difficulties of pioneering pastoralism, and speculation about a future Australian civilization. It was instantly seen as a major example of the "radical nationalism" of the time and praised for its realistic representation of life on the frontier in the 1880s. But it was forty years before many readers realized that the novel was also a subtle comment on fiction itself and that within it were hidden stories that revealed a world of "romance" within its "realist" representation of life. Such Is Life can be read as the first experimental novel in Australian literature and the first Australian literary expression of a twentieth-century sensibility of the provisionality of life and reality.' (Julian Croft, 'Joseph Furphy.' in Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 230.)

'Lost and afraid in the darkening bush, Dot is befriended by a kind Kangaroo. She eats the berries of understanding and is then able to communicate with all the bush creatures, who eventually guide her home.

'The intriguing tale of Dot and her Kangaroo is told by Ethel Pedley with the charm that has made this book an Australian favourite since it was first published in 1899. Now, as then, children will be enthralled by this oldest of Australian classics, it will endure to entertain generations to come.' (Publication summary)

'Success isn't a linear path. There are unplanned twists and turns, soaring highs and devastating lows. But through it all, there are certain traits that set the successful apart from the rest of the pack...

'In his first book, a former professional rugby player turned business leadership coach, Beau Robinson, delivers a fresh perspective on what it takes to find success - in business and in life.

'Beau tells his story - from crisis to comeback - while delivering practical lessons on mindset, goal setting and absolute resilience in the face of adversity. He argues that successful people have 13 key characteristics in common, and guides the reader through exercises to make sure they make the most of them. Most importantly, he argues that our careers and businesses are just a vehicle for a good life, not the other way around.

''In the Arena' is the culmination of an often turbulent yet successful sporting career, a lifetime's worth of lessons, and intensive study in business and mindset.

'Whether you're at the start of your journey or on the top of the mountain, every reader can benefit from Beau's honesty, perspective and good humour.'  (Publication summary)

'Your kids will love reading the weird and wonderful facts about Australia in this brand new book!

'Check out this hilarious Australian kids book, chock full of amazing facts, trivia and stories.

'Learn about Australia in this amusing and entertaining children’s book, which will appeal to the adults too.

'You will laugh and you will gasp, and then you will want to explore Australia and see its amazing animals and places for yourself.

'Can you answer these questions:

o What name was almost used for Vegemite?

o Who fought the Emu Wars?

o Is Australia an island?

o What shape is wombat poo?

o What is the unique secret of emu’s feathers?

o What is the big controversy over the pavlova?

o Why was a book written about the anzac biscuit?

o Is Cow Bay named after a dairy cow?

o Is Uluru the world’s largest rock?

o What’s unique about the dinosaur fossils at Lark Quarry?

o What did First Nations Australians use as a football?

'Australia is a huge country and it is a really unique and amazing place, and not just because of its sharks, crocodiles, spiders and snakes?'  (Publication summary)

'It is 2003 in New Zealand, and Louisa Greenwood and her daughter Ngaroma are on a quest to discover their ancestry. Louisa has a greenstone necklace left to her in her father’s will, and from the first time Ngaroma wears it, she has unusual experiences, both good and bad. It leads her to various locations in New Zealand and England until, through a series of meetings and coincidences, she discovers the final resting place of her five times great grandmother.

'One hundred and fifty years earlier, Major Joseph Greenwood, with his wife Catherine, is sent via India and England to New Zealand as a Fencible. The couple becomes established in Auckland society and all goes well until Joseph, one drunken night, fathers a son to Miriama Potiki, their live-in housekeeper. What follows is a series of challenges involving the Greenwoods, their friends and family, on both sides of the world, and the ramifications are felt by Louisa and Ngaroma five generations later.

'Finding Miriama is about identity, chasing dreams and self-determination: a compelling story set against the background of the the first Anglo-Afghan War and Māori-Pakeha relations in colonial New Zealand.' (Publication summary)

'After their home in Sendirian City burns to cinders, Eden Fittell gets a job working in the government’s Archives to try and support her family and keep her alcoholic father away.

'But the city is being stalked by crime boss Kore Luddan, who is using a freak known only as Izrod to kidnap people off the street. And he usually snatches government employees.

'Is Eden safe?

'What is Kore planning?

'Will it mean the end of Sendirian City?'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'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)

'When his cousin Kat disappears from Enderby Manor, Frankie Dupont jumps on the scene, only to find bumbling Inspector Cluesome beat him to it. Cluesome thinks Kat simply wandered off. Frankie isn't buying it. He follows the evidence to conniving concierge, a six fingered chef, a talking parrot, and a shifty dwarf. Quite frankly, none of them are making any sense until Frankie discovers, Kat's time is running out. An exciting new illustrated mystery series for ages 7-10. ' (Publication summary)

'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.