Lamington Left Behind
By Andrea Innocent
$19.99
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to talk to animals AND save the planet? Graphic novelist Andrea Innocent brings this dream to life in her new exquisitely drawn book Lamington Left Behind.
This story is anything but boring. Set in a strange Australian future where robots rule, our main character Lamington wanders the wilderness after her town floods and she is left behind in the chaos. Little does she know a ragtag group of animals have also been hiding, waiting for someone special to come along. Shocked to discover she can understand every word they say, our brave nature crusader is tasked with a perilous journey to recover a library of seeds that will decide the fate of the forest and the inhabitants that call it home.
Filled with great plot twists, talking mushrooms and some weird feral kids, this graphic novel is perfect for fans of Ember and The Island of Lost Creatures and the Lightfall series.
Age 8+
Cape Fever
By Nadia Davids
$29.99
Cape Fever by Nadia Davids is a quiet, psychological exploration of power, history and writing. Set in a fictionalised Cape Town just after World War 1, we follow Soraya, a Muslim woman who is searching for a job. When she becomes employed as a live-in maid by Mrs Hattingh, she slowly understands her employer’s idiosyncrasies. Davids injects the story with a dose of the gothic, which invites the reader into Soraya’s world of djinns and ghosts, whilst staying consistently grounded.
The relationship between the two women takes a turn when Mrs Hattingh offers to write letters for Soraya to her fiancé, while Soraya dictates. This reveals the careful game Soraya must play, appearing to be obedient and trustworthy by deceiving her employer into believing she can’t read or write English. However, Soraya begins to suspect that Mrs Hattingh may be deceptive in her own way. With an explosive ending that feels both cathartic and spooky, Cape Fever is an excellent work of historical fiction that balances genres and crafts excellent characters.
Reviews by the Sun Bookshop – sunbookshop.com
Wild Dark Shore
By Charlotte McConaghy
I enjoyed this book. It is sad, beautiful, and full of mystery. The story is about a family that lives on a small island near Antarctica. The father and his three children take care of a seed bank. They live far from other people, and life is very hard for them. One day, during a big storm, a woman named Rowan is found on the beach after the storm. At first, no one trusts each other. Everyone has secrets. The island feels cold and lonely, and the storm makes everything scarier. As the story goes on, I wanted to know what really happened to Rowan and what the family was hiding.
I liked how the book shows love in hard times. It shows how people try to protect each other, even when they are afraid. It also shows how the world is changing because of rising sea levels.
This book is about trust, family, and survival. It asks how far we would go to save the people we love. I would recommend this book to people who like stories with deep feelings, nature, and mystery.
The Silken Thread
By Gabrielle Wang
Set in the 1930s during the Great Depression, this is a story that connects two children from different worlds.
Moonie is a girl in Melbourne who wants to make beautiful dresses. Little Dipper is a boy on Chongming Island in China who looks after silkworms and wishes he could learn English. A magical silk cocoon links their worlds together. It lets the children visit each other, and they become good friends.
Moonie hopes that by sewing a beautiful dress, she can bring her mother home. Little Dipper wants to go to school, even though it’s hard for him. These show how strong children’s dreams can be and how hope, friendship, and staying strong can help people through hard times.
Reviews by Aryani Siti
