MidnightSun MidnightSun i(A145919 works by) (Organisation) assertion (a.k.a. Midnight Sun; MidnightSun Publishing)
Born: Established: 10 Feb 2012 Adelaide, South Australia, ;
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1 y separately published work icon Double Happiness Rochelle Siemienowicz , Rundle Mall/Rundle Street : MidnightSun , 2024 28551265 2024 single work novel

'One woman, two men. What if she doesn’t have to choose? Overcome with guilt about a love affair she can’t give up, Anna confesses to her husband, Brendan. He is shocked and devastated but makes the unusual decision to try to accept the lover, Jeremy, as part of their family.

'Told from three perspectives, Double Happiness is a story about sex, honesty and jealousy – and the challenges of forging a new kind of romance.

'Set in Melbourne over seven years, this lyrical contemporary love story explores the complexities of non- monogamy with humour and heart, asking what it’s like to love two, or more, people equally but differently. What is the effect of time on erotic love? And what happens when your new lover wants someone else too?'  (Publication summary)

1 y separately published work icon The Grown-Up's Guide to Picture Books Lara Cain , Rundle Mall/Rundle Street : MidnightSun , 2024 28347480 2024 multi chapter work essay

'A picture book is a book with pictures, but it’s so much more than that! This A to Z guide helps you level up your picture book reading experiences, empowering yourself and the young readers in your world to dive deeper into what makes a great picture book great. With histories, insights and handy talking points for shared reading, come and explore the complexities of modern picture books.'  (Publication summary)

1 y separately published work icon Willow's Gumboots Beverley McWilliams , Hélène Magisson (illustrator), Rundle Mall/Rundle Street : MidnightSun , 2024 27864431 2024 single work picture book children's 'Willow loves her gumboots. She wears them wherever she goes. But one day Willow discovers that something is wrong with her beloved gumboot. Delightful story for anyone who has ever had a favourite piece of clothing.' (Publication summary) 
1 y separately published work icon The Kelly Gang Kids Coral Vass , Deb Hudson (illustrator), Rundle Mall/Rundle Street : MidnightSun , 2024 27864366 2024 single work picture book children's

'Chasing each other down Avenel Way,
the Kelly Gang kids just wanted to play.

'Young Ned Kelly and his mates get up to all sorts of mischief. But when Ned’s friend is found drowning in the creek, will Ned be able to save him?

'The Kelly Gang Kids is a story about friendship, fun and bravery.' (Publication summary)

1 1 y separately published work icon R.E.Generation Michael Prewer , Rundle Mall/Rundle Street : MidnightSun , 2024 27815949 2024 single work novel science fiction

'After 50,000 years in a chemically induced sleep, Sarah and her fellow R.E.Generation volunteers awake to find a world devoid of human life. Climate change has wiped all mammalian life from the planet surface, and pine trees and giant mushrooms have taken over.

'Can they stave off bitter infighting and a hostile earth to build a strong settlement in this strange new world? They are humanity’s last chance of survival, but in the ongoing battle between humankind and the Earth, who wins?

'‘Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.’

'R.E.Generation presents a near future where humanity is succumbing to the ravages of a changing climate and a reproductive blight, and a distant future where a few volunteers struggle to survive on a reborn earth. Can they remember the lessons of the past and create a better society capable of repopulating the earth, or will human greed, selfishness and conflict bring the whole experiment down. R.E.Generation explores one possible future where the climate crisis has almost won. But Sarah and her friends have other ideas.' (Publication summary)

1 y separately published work icon The Helios Book Slade Carter , Rundle Mall/Rundle Street : MidnightSun , 2024 27659214 2024 single work children's fiction children's fantasy

'Twelve-year-old twins Hugo and Kitty have an ultra-rare condition called heterochromia, which bestows them with different coloured eyes: one hazel, the other blue. On holiday in rural Australia, the twins befriend their solitary neighbour, Lucas, who has developed a powerful solar device he calls the Helios Book.

'Lucas promises it will revolutionise global energy use. In a desperate attempt to escape those who would steal the Helios Book, the twins follow a fairy wren down a wombat burrow and into the mysterious world of Taara, a land plagued by a terrifying earthquake-like phenomenon called the Blurrings, and home to those who would take a nefarious interest in the twins’ heterochromia.

'The Helios Book is the Adventures of Alice in Wonderland for the Age of Extinction.' (Publication summary)

1 y separately published work icon A Way Home Emily Brewin , Rundle Mall/Rundle Street : MidnightSun , 2024 27447951 2024 single work novel 'Sixteen-year-old Grace lives under a bridge in Melbourne's CBD. It's cold and wet, but hidden. Safe, at least, until she can go home. When winter drives her to the City Library one morning, Grace meets Louie, a weird kid with his own problems, and discovers a community piano. The piano reminds Grace of her mum, a celebrated pianist whose mental illness makes life a rollercoaster and not always a fun one. When Grace comes up with a plan to find the help she and Mum need, life begins to look up. But things don't work out as Grace imagines and suddenly her world's turned upside down again, and maybe for good this time.' 

(Publication summary)

1 y separately published work icon Tayta's Secret Ingredient Amal Abou-Eid , Cara King (illustrator), Adelaide : MidnightSun , 2024 27369862 2024 single work picture book children's

'Billy loves Harmony Day. He loves the colours, the clothes and especially the food. This year Tayta is making kaak, a Lebanese treat, for Billy to share with his class but he can't share the recipe because Tayta bakes with a secret ingredient.

'Tayta's Secret Ingredient is a heart-warming intergenerational story about everyday life in multicultural Australia, where a curious boy takes centre stage alongside his beloved baking grandmother.' (Publication summary)

1 y separately published work icon Polluted Sex Lauren Foley , Rundle Mall/Rundle Street : MidnightSun , 2023 27398584 2023 selected work short story

'A pregnant woman takes the ferry to the UK.

'A fractious intimate relationship develops between an Irish woman, an English man, and her girlfriend.

'Two ungendered characters contest the same female body.

'A deserted wife takes a lover but remains unsatisfied.

'Lauren Foley's debut collection of dramatic short stories, Polluted Sex, is fearless in its depiction of women's bodies and sexuality, offering an unflinching window into Irish girl and womanhood.' (Publication summary)

1 y separately published work icon Medieval Monsters: and Other Creatures Timothy Ide , Timothy Ide (illustrator), Rundle Mall/Rundle Street : MidnightSun , 2023 26872717 2023 single work picture book children's

'Take a monstrous journey through the Middle Ages to discover creatures both familiar and unfamiliar.

'Explore the hazards of medieval life at the claws, paws and fangs of dragons, wyverns, cockatrices, lamias, manticores, ghouls and many other monsters!'(Publication summary)

1 1 y separately published work icon Strangely Enough Gillian Hagenus (editor), Rundle Mall/Rundle Street : MidnightSun , 2023 26646181 2023 anthology short story

'Neglected by society, a group of caravanning 60-somethings encounter a place where time stops. A baby swims in a witch’s cauldron. A statue of Jesus grows fat off fish and chips. An ancient Egyptian God swims through the sewers under a suburban street and a desperate family harvests the fingers they find growing in their soil after their final food supplies wither.

'Strangely Enough is a celebration of the far-reaching possibilities of short fiction from some of Australia’s most creatively ambitious minds. Surreal and haunting, funny and gripping, these intensely strange tales encompass what it means to grieve, love, wonder, fear and change, each ultimately offering something entirely unexpected and strangely, deeply human.' (Publication summary)

1 y separately published work icon Raised by Moths Charlie Archbold , Michelle Conn (illustrator), Adelaide : MidnightSun , 2023 26506245 2023 single work picture book children's

'Willow jumps on the Ferris Wheel and is intrigued to see a boy surrounded by moths.

'As they travel high above the fairground he tells her the reason why the moths love him so much: he was raised by moths.

'Wonderfully fantastical and thought-provoking with stunning illustrations, Raised by Moths is quite unlike anything you've read before.' (Publication summary)

1 y separately published work icon The Weaver Melanie Kanicky , Adelaide : MidnightSun , 2023 26505828 2023 single work novel young adult fantasy

'In a remote village, bordered by woods and an endless winter, Saatcha lives in the attic of her ailing father's blacksmithery.

'As her father's health fades and he is no longer able to work, Saatcha takes it upon herself to keep the forge running.

'But when a pair of thieves appear in the dead of night, Saatcha's duty to her father is torn from her. Forced to leave her home behind, the bounds of magic that once held Saatcha begin to slip away.

'Papa is gone.

'Magic is real.

'And her kidnappers are much more than simple thieves.

'As Saatcha's world is irrevocably altered, she must rely on her new friends to find the truth of her past - and what it might mean for the future of the kingdom.' (Publication summary)

1 y separately published work icon City Knife Rachel Hennessy , Adelaide : MidnightSun , 2023 26364584 2023 single work novel fantasy

'The chimera of the city are on the hunt.

'After years of being individually slaughtered, they have come together to make war on Pandora and her people.

'In the conclusion to The Burning Days, the sins of the past will be revealed and all hope for the future will be under attack.' (Publication summary) 

1 y separately published work icon The Quest for the Galleon of Time Tanya Hunter , Adelaide : MidnightSun , 2023 26219674 2023 single work children's fiction children's historical fiction science fiction 'The year is 1738 and eleven-year-old Tobias Crane is forced to leave his home to work as a ship's lad on a trading galleon. Once onboard, Tobias discovers that the ship is a time-travelling galleon! A galleon that can inexplicably appear in different dimensions in the past, present and future. A captain's obsession with revenge will force Tobias and the crew on a dangerous adventure through treacherous waters. With the help of new friends, Tobias must somehow return home to warn his father that he's in grave danger. Along the way, Tobias faces deadly obstacles made more complicated by the lethal family dynamics of three brothers - one good, one evil, and one dead!' 

(Publication summary)

1 y separately published work icon This Lazaros Zigomanis , Adelaide : MidnightSun , 2023 26219619 2023 single work novel young adult

'Set in the 90s, a fifteen-year old unnamed Greek boy is completely confused about what is going on as he tries to fend off what we now know as anxiety, panic attacks and depression while surrounded by his Greek family, friends and girls he might or might not have a crush on.

' I don’t get this.

'I’m fifteen! And in Year 10!

'I don’t have anything to worry about.

'I should be thinking about the way Samantha keeps looking at me, nursing that crush she’s had for me since primary school. Or about Gabriella, who’s so cool and seems interested. Or the Boland Fellowship, an award given out for academic excellence that everybody thinks I could win.

'Or maybe I should think about my best friend Ash, the way he’s sullen about his arguing parents sometimes, or how he bounces from one girlfriend to the next, or Riley, who’s becoming a bigger and bigger troublemaker, although we don’t know why.

'This is high school.

'Isn’t it?

'But when I wake up one night, terrified, it starts a journey of trying to find out what’s wrong. I can’t go to Mum and Dad. They wouldn’t understand. So it’s strange doctors, and scurrying around like everything’s okay, while everything’s coming apart.

'I don’t get this.

'But I’m gonna try work it out.' (Publication summary)

1 y separately published work icon Timefire Nean McKenzie , Dandenong : MidnightSun , 2023 26024775 2023 single work children's fiction children's science fiction

'In the scorching summer of 2033, Gilbert Black is accused of being a firebug, just like his mother was thirteen years previously. That night a fire starts on his family’s farm. A fire with a tunnel in the centre of it. And that’s when things start to get really weird.

'Pulled repeatedly back and forth through time, Gil finds himself at all the big Australian bushfires from the last two centuries. He searches across the years, determined to unlock the secret to his family’s legacy.

'Gil can’t change the past, but can he learn from it in time to return home and save his family from the biggest inferno ever known?' (Publication summary) 

1 y separately published work icon Alice’s Shoe Julie Thorndyke , Jennifer Harrison (illustrator), Adelaide : MidnightSun , 2023 26024641 2023 single work picture book children's 'A country child, Alice ran barefoot. On smooth waxed floorboards, over dusty clay in the yard, through icy water in the creek...she refused to wear shoes. After losing her sight and hearing through illness, Alice slowly made her way back to life and became the first deafblind person in Australia to be educated. Her hated shoe was Alice’s first connection with the world of language as she learnt to sign.' (Publication summary) 
1 2 y separately published work icon Missing Pieces Jennifer MacKenzie Dunbar , Adelaide : MidnightSun , 2023 26023236 2023 single work novel historical fiction 'Inspired by the 1831 discovery of a hoard of priceless chess pieces on a remote Scottish Island, Missing Pieces tells the story of four women who created and protected the now famous artefacts. When Marianne is coerced into leaving the security of her comfortable London life to curate an exhibition on the Isle of Lewis, she uncovers her own ancestral connection to the mysterious island. Her eerie connections to the past introduce us to Magrit, the Icelandic artisan, beholden to a power-hungry Bishop, Morven, the rescuer, who seeks intimacy with a mysterious stranger and Mhairi, the negotiator, fighting a greedy landlord to stave off starvation and eviction.' (Publication summary)
1 y separately published work icon Mizuto and the Wind Kaye Baillie , Luisa Gioffre-Suzuki (illustrator), Adelaide : MidnightSun , 2023 26019442 2023 single work picture book children's

'Mizuto is a young boy living an ordinary life in Japan until one day, something extraordinary happens.

'Following a deadly tsunami, Mizuto’s father is missing.

'Could a mysterious telephone connected only to the wind help him find his father?

'Based on real events, Mizuto and the Wind is a story about the forces of nature, grief, family, and the importance of hope.'

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