Cirrus@Austlit

'Can Lara help Marna, the painfully shy new girl, emerge and spread her wings?

'Lara wants to help the shy new girl Marna. But first she must deal with her own feelings. Does she love the faithful Stan, her first boyfriend? Or the beautiful, exciting Jake, on the road with his Crimson River rock band? How can she cope with the hated bully, Gowd Gadrey, who's back in town, awakening powerful memories? And her reserved and troubled stepmother, Gladwyn, who has her own tragic past to confront? A gang of out-of-town bikies with evil intentions, whom Gowd seems to know quite well, leads to a night of revelations for Lara.'

Source: Publisher's blurb (Hachette ed.)

'Becky is really fed up. Her sister is a bully, her friends won't speak to her and she is hopeless at maths. Grandad is her only friend.

'When Becky finds out there's a witch living at number 23 she decides to ask for a spell to help her out. Getting the ingredients is difficult, but the results are spectacular!' (Publication summary)

'The title may be a literal translation of "utopia," but the isolated Australian fishing village of New Canaan is anything but–as Rachel and Sarah, two teenaged residents, and Sam, a visiting student, discover. Following a clue uttered by his mother (an aborigine) on her deathbed, Sam has come to track down his father and family; but his inquiries are met with silent suspicion by the twisted, disturbed locals, all white. Crew gradually builds a charged atmosphere lit by signs and portents of what's to come. Led by Sarah's half-deranged mother, Sam and his young friends uncover a mass grave concealed in a thicket of lantana and later find the town's awful secret laid out pictorially in an eerie codex; 20 years ago, in a drunken frenzy, the men captured the last local aborigines in a huge net and drowned them. After this revelation, Crew creates an apocalyptic climax in which a nearby volcano erupts, destroying grave, book, and an enigmatic, white-robed religious leader known only as The Father–a literal title, it turns out, in Sam's case.'

Source: Kirkus Reviews (https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/gary-crew/no-such-country/). (Sighted: 30/11/2015)

'Peregrine can’t explain it: his boss sacks him, his girlfriend is furious with him, his mother’s sending him to Paris. But Paris will be one cool adventure. The third book in this hilarious series.

'It’s fortunate the women in France are so gorgeous. It could help a man forget his worries: Peregrine’s making another attempt to grow up and meantime he’s learning about life and love but it just never gets any easier. It’s just lucky he speaks French, NES SI PAR.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

What is it about old houses that stirs the imagination? Is it the presence of the house itself? Its shuttered windows; its gaping doors..the long dark tunnel of its hall? Or is it the remembrance of some dark and secret episode of childhood? Some shameful, long-buried memory we dare not share?

'Strange things have been happening at Joe and Harry's new home, Rosemary Cottage. Things disappearing, strangers arriving in the night and the police asking a lot of questions. Joe is sure that it all has something to do with Sam, the mysterious girl who lives at nearby Pitcaithly Farm.

'Could it all be just some joke she is playing, or is it something much more dangerous? Somehow Joe thinks that he is going to find out - whether he wants to or not . . .' (Publication summary)