Cirrus@Austlit

'Champion swimmer, trailblazer and film idol - the adventurous life of our first Hollywood superstar, by the bestselling author of Sister Viv, Mrs Kelly, Hudson Fysh, Banks and Banjo

'Born into a daring, musical family in 1886, Annette Kellerman was a force of nature and made for the stage - her first love - and encouraged to defy social norms from a young age. But after she was diagnosed with rickets as a child she took up swimming for therapy, and soon she became an Australian champion, beating boys, breaking records, and astonishing huge crowds by diving from great heights. By 1905, Annette was 18 and on her way to England in an attempt to swim the Channel and challenge endurance records in the Thames. Kellerman famously scandalised the public with a one-piece swimming costume that exposed her legs and arms, but her promotion of it changed fashion forever and popularised the sport for women as they were freed from cumbersome neck-to-knee outfits.

'Annette thrilled audiences in London with a vaudeville act, and her underwater ballet routines, combined with her beauty and athleticism, helped her become known on both sides of the Atlantic as 'The Perfect Woman'. Hollywood embraced her and she became the first great sex symbol of silent films, with her risque and provocative costumes - and sometimes no costume at all. Annette was also one of the highest paid entertainers of her time and her story was immortalised in a lavish, Oscar-nominated Hollywood production starring Esther Williams. But despite all her fame Annette always saw the promotion of health, fitness and independence for women as her biggest and most lasting achievement, and her influence and spirit changed the lives of millions.'(Publication summary)

'What does it mean to be on land taken from others?

''What does it mean to be on land that was taken from other people? Now that we know how the taking was done, what do we do with that knowledge?'

'Kate Grenville is no stranger to the past. Her success and fame as a writer exploded when she published The Secret River in 2005, a bestseller based on the story of her convict ancestor, an early settler on the Hawkesbury River.

'More than two decades on, and following the defeat of the Voice referendum, Grenville is still grappling with what it means to descend from people who were, as she puts it, "on the sharp edge of the moving blade that was colonisation".

'So she decides to go on a kind of pilgrimage, back through the places her family stories happened, and put the stories and the First People back into the same frame, on the same country, to try to think about those questions. This gripping book is the result of that journey.' (Publication summary)

'Mim Cohen roams the world in a travelling bookshop, with her dad and brother and a horse called Flossy.

'Flossy leads them where she will, to the place where they're needed most ... the place where the perfect book will find its way home.

'Now Mim has arrived in Salzburg -- the town of Mozart and mountains, gardens and castles, Sacher torte and sausages ... and Mum! Why is she here? And why doesn't she recognise Mim and Nat?

'Mim knows they're here to help Mum remember. To show her love and patience. To fix her muddled mind.

'If only they could find Mum the right book. If only Dad would stop giving everyone the same silly book.' (Publication summary)

'Don’t Take Your Love to Town is a story of courage in the face of poverty and tragedy. Ruby recounts losing her mother when she was six, growing up in a mission in northern New South Wales and leaving home when she was fifteen. She lived in tin huts and tents in the bush and picked up work on the land while raising nine children virtually single-handedly. Later she struggled to make ends meet in the Koori areas of Sydney. Ruby is an amazing woman whose sense of humour has endured through all the hardships she has experienced.' (Source UQP website: www.uqp.uq.edu.au)

'Have you ever done a runner from the dentist? Are you petrified of clowns? Have giant headlice tried to attack and eat you? Do you ever chew on your grandfather's toenails for short story inspiration? And have you come up with a genius way to never do homework again? All of these things have happened to me. I'm Tom Weekly. My life is an exploding chicken and the book in your hands is my attempt to glue it back together again.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'The hilarious and unmissable new series about Gilbert, a boy whose best friend is an imaginary giant fluffy bunny called Fluff, from the creator who brought us The Odds, Funny Kid and Bored.

'Gilbert is determined to win the local surfing competition and he will do anything to make it happen.

'To be a real winner, maybe he needs ...

'A BUNNY TO BEND THE RULES!

'A hilarious story full of heart and packed with disguises, octopuses, lawn bowls and boxing grandpas!

'From the creator of Funny Kid and The Odds comes ... the best friend you could ever imagine ... Fluff!'  (Publication summary)

'Every kid wants to laugh, but Max is the boy who can make it happen.

'When his friends start talking about a new scary movie, Max realises they don't just want to laugh ... they also want to scream!

'Max is the funny kid, but does he know how to make his own scary movie?

'An oversupply of slime, a bumbling babysitter, a ghastly ghost, a melodramatic mummy and a terrifying beast called Duckenstein are just some of the things in store for Max and his friends in this brand-new Funny Kid adventure.' (Publication summary)

'I'm about 35 metres out from the goal and, running on instinct, I do a snap kick of the ball. I watch as the footy flies through the air.

'Will it bend enough?

'I can hear the roar of the crowd but my focus is on that red ball. It flies through the big white sticks.

'It's a goal!

'I'm Jy Farrar and the dream I had to play professional footy since I was a kid in outback Halls Creek has finally come true.

'Let me tell you the story of how I got here - about my mates, my family, growing up in the Kimberley around the bush and the red dirt and spinifex and goannas, playing footy and going to boarding school far away from home.'  (Publication summary)

'How did a shy Polish immigrant kid - Karl Sven Woytek Sas Konkovitch Matthew Kruszelnicki - evolve into the fabulously eccentric Dr Karl?

'The only child of Holocaust survivors who fled to Australia in 1950, Karl has always forged his own destiny in an idiosyncratic way. Before he became one of the world's favourite scientific storytellers, he ambled through a convoluted cacophony of a career.

'In the 1960s, he got his start as a physicist at the Port Kembla Steelworks and promptly joined the Steel Industries Auto Club, racing modified rally cars on Wollongong's deserted back roads. In the 1970s, he entered his self-described 'drug-crazed hippie years', making a living as a long-haired, dope-smoking taxi driver. After he applied to be a NASA astronaut in the 1980s and 'failed', he ended up live broadcasting the first space shuttle launch on Triple J instead. Unexpectedly, that blasted off his media career, and from there it was a stratospheric rise from radio to TV, books, newspapers, speaking, podcasts and the internet.

'Karl's story teaches us that you don't have to know all the answers, as long as you ask the right questions. He has wandered down more than a dozen career paths, from being a TV weatherman (really) to a professional four-wheel drive tester in the outback (really) to being a roadie for Bo Diddley (really). All of these seemingly random experiences have helped create the Karl we know today.

'In this long-awaited memoir, you will learn that it's okay to not take a linear path through life, and that by following our curiosities and our passions, we can bend the universe to our liking.' (Publication summary) 

'Simply a great middle-grade read for all kids -- fun, funny, relatable and a little bit cheeky. Just like Dylan.

''My life so far has been pretty primo.
At home I've got a great family (sure, even my big brother, Jack, when he's not being a total pain) and my pet legless lizard, Pogo (she can lick her own eyeballs, really).
At school there's my awesome friends Yusuf, Gemma and my best mate, Hannah. In between there's coding, mixing tracks and shooting hoops.
Now it's time for something new -- high school.
Confession, I'm not always a fan of new things.'

'When old friends and new collide, a teacher called Grumps is on your tail, and the school talent show looks like turning into a real-life drama, twelve-year-old Dylan discovers his family motto is going to come in handy -- it's not all about you.' (Publication summary)

'John and Elizabeth Gould sailed into Australia on a cold spring day in 1838 prepared for the most astonishing adventure of their lives. They had crossed three oceans from their London home to find the treasures of Australia's birdlife and showcase them to the outside world.

'Elizabeth had fallen pregnant for the seventh time at just 34, and there would be little rest for her in illustrating her husband's exquisite books that had made him England's celebrated 'Bird Man', and a force of nature in both science and publishing. Elizabeth had always worked in his shadow, but perhaps with his new book The Birds of Australia she would finally receive the deserved acclaim for her work.

'Gould had studied birds from the Galapagos Islands and helped Charles Darwin expound his controversial theory of evolution by natural selection. In Australia, with the help of Aboriginal guides, he would gaze upon a vast array of Australian wildlife which would generate huge praise and profits.

'The Birds of Australia would become a landmark publication and cement the reputation of the husband and wife team forever, but tragically it was one that Elizabeth would never see. This rollicking story of the astute Gould and his brilliant wife brings Elizabeth and her extraordinary talent to life - the woman behind the man and his fame - as well as the incredible array of Australian birds and wildlife that astonished the world.'  (Publication summary)

'The Nazis want everyone to be the same. If you're different, you don't belong.

'Not belonging is dangerous ...

'Anna's little sister, Eva, is frail and needs time to learn new things. She has a huge heart and a gift for loving, but Hitler doesn't value such riches. And so she's hidden away. Safe for now, but with the threat of discovery always near.

'Anna does her best to bring joy and light to Eva's small life with stories, trinkets and treasures from the outside world. But soon, more children need hiding. Risks are taken -- by Anna, by her best friend Udo, by a Nazi seamstress and feisty Brunhilde. Until Anna wonders if any of them will make it through the war ...

'Loyalty and love. Family and friendship. Understanding and tolerance. Right and wrong. Multi-award-winning Australian author Katrina Nannestad explores it all in this thrilling and powerful historical novel.' (Publication summary)

'The fascinating true story of Wayside Chapel in Kings Cross, Sydney a quiet revolution in Australian history, from a side street of the red-light district.

'Alana Valentine's mother, Janice, was married by the charismatic and controversial Methodist minister Ted Noffs at the Wayside Chapel in 1969. Not long after that, however, Janice died, leaving behind many unresolved questions for her family. Years later, Alana found a photo of her mother on her wedding day, and the longing to speak to her about that day â" a day when her mother radiated hope for a new beginning â" drove her to seek out and find others who had begun new chapters of their lives at Wayside, an institution that is etched into the folklore of Sydney and this country more generally.

'As part of the research process for the play that was to become Wayside Bride, staged at Belvoir Theatre in 2022, Alana set up a website where people could upload stories and photos of their own marriages. This book contains many of the remarkable stories that didn't make their way into the play, stories that reshape our understanding of this country's social history, from a uniquely Australian institution where people have been welcomed for decades in spite of social taboos around race, class, religion and sexuality.' (Publication summary)

'Sometimes you need to repeat something a hundred times before a bell rings in the colony.'

'From the bestselling author Bruce Pascoe comes a deeply personal story about the consequences and responsibility of disrupting Australia's history.

'When Dark Emu was adopted by Australia like a new anthem, Bruce found himself at the centre of a national debate that often focussed on the wrong part of the story. But through all the noise came Black Duck Foods, a blueprint for traditional food growing and land management processes based on very old practices.

'Bruce Pascoe and Lyn Harwood invite us to imagine a different future for Australia, one where we can honour our relationship with nature and improve agriculture and forestry. Where we can develop a uniquely Australian cuisine that will reduce carbon emissions, preserve scarce water resources and rebuild our soil. Bruce and Lyn show us that you don't just work Country, you look, listen and care. It's not Black Duck magic, it's the result of simply treating Australia like herself.

'From the aftermath of devastating bushfires and the impact of an elder's death to rebuilding a marriage and counting the personal cost of starting a movement, Black Duck is a remarkable glimpse into a year of finding strength in Country at Yumburra.' (Publication summary)

'Yen Se has lost everything to the Khan's brutality.

'Left with one eye and one leg, he is forced out of his home village to work in the city as a horse handler. Witness to the Khan's violent crusade, their raids sweeping across Eurasia, he travels with the theatre of war, but exists outside of it; stunned every morning to find himself alive.

'Yen Se moves randomly across Europe with a loose band of survivors – men who think of survival, men who think of resistance, and women who dare to dream of peace.

'Whilst narrated by a male, women are at the forefront of this story; often the most active of the characters, both for their plight and for their guidance.

'Imperial Harvest tells the story of war, but more importantly, of hope.' (Publication summary)

'The inspiring story of the nursing hero who survived a wartime massacre and dedicated her life to saving others - from the critically acclaimed, bestselling author of Flinders, The Remarkable Mrs Reibey, Hudson Fysh and Banjo

'Bangka Island, 1942: Australian Army nurse Vivian Bullwinkel was just twenty-six when Japanese soldiers marched her and her fellow nurses into the shallow waters of a remote beach to be executed.

'Miraculously, Vivian would be the lone survivor - and she committed the rest of her long life to an exceptional peacetime career which she lived in tribute to her lost friends. The Lieutenant-Colonel would also be the first woman to be honoured with a statue at the Australian War Memorial for her extraordinary bravery and service - a country girl who become one of the highest ranking women in the Australian army, and who spent her life caring for others.

'Growing up in Broken Hill, New South Wales, Vivian started work at a local hospital and joined the Australian Army Nursing Service in World War II. When the Japanese attacked Singapore in 1942, she and sixty-four other nurses were ordered to evacuate, but soon their ship was bombed by enemy aircraft. Some of the women drowned, but Viv made it to Radji Beach on Bangka Island, off Sumatra, with twenty-one of her nursing colleagues.

'There Japanese soldiers forced the women to wade back into the sea, and as Vivian felt a bullet slam into her back, she fell face down into the water then waited to die as the soldiers bayonetted survivors. Somehow Vivian lived.

'For the next three and a half years Viv was a prisoner of war in a series of brutal Japanese camps where she helped other inmates survive the horror. When peace was restored, she went on to become a giant of Australian nursing - and was a key driver of Operation Babylift, the mass rescue of young orphans during the Vietnam War. For her extraordinary efforts, Vivian was awarded numerous honours, but she never forgot her fallen colleagues, whose lives she paid tribute to with her service to nursing.

'From the bestselling, critically acclaimed author of Flinders, The Remarkable Mrs Reibey, Banks and Hudson Fysh, Sister Viv tells the astonishing story of the courage, sacrifice, service, and love of an Australian nursing hero who survived against the odds and dedicated her life to the care of others.' (Publication summary)

'It’s Mother’s Day, and Milly doesn’t know what to do.
Is there a way to celebrate her family too?

'When Milly’s school hosts a party for Mother’s Day, Milly feels left out. But families come in all shapes and sizes – and soon Milly realises she’s got a lot to celebrate!

'Welcome to the School of Monsters: the funniest, silliest and most accessible series for first readers!

'Start by reading only the last word on every line and work your way up to reading the whole story. With tumbling rhymes and an infectious sense of humour, the weird and wonderful students at the School of Monsters are guaranteed to spark a love of reading!' (Publication summary)