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Six Summers of Tash and Leopold
by Danielle Binks
Alytash and Leopold - Tash and Leo - are neighbours who used to be best friends, but aren't anymore, for reasons that Leo doesn't entirely understand. But now it's the last week of Year Six and Tash is standing in Leo's front yard with a misdelivered letter - and a favour to ask. It's a request that will set off a chain of events in their little crescent in Noble Park, a suburb that is changing, and fast. As they solve an unfolding neighbourhood mystery and help Ms Shepparson, a reclusive neighbour with a tragic past, Tash and Leo each has to confront fault lines in their own recent histories and families. They will discover that friendships can grow and change, that bravery takes many forms, and that, most of all - whatever the future holds - friends and family are what matter.
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Stage Stars : The Audition
by Penny McNamee
'Dad says I just haven't met my people yet. But I wondered, Who are my people?' Millie Von Trapp has always been too much. Talks too much. Fidgets too much. Daydreams too much. Maybe that's why she doesn't really have any friends. But when she discovers a theatre club called Stage Stars, all that begins to change. Can Millie audition and get the part she so desperately wants? Or will the school bully and resident diva, Sophia Jekyll, ruin her chances? And could this be the moment Millie finally finds her tribe? Written by stage and screen star, Penny McNamee, a book about loving who you are and finding your people.
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Riley's FAILPROOF Guide to Breaking a School Record
by Dani Vee
Riley Noodle has been trying to break a school record for seven years. There is only one problem: Riley doesn't think she's very at good anything. From being superglued to the principal's dog, accidentally swallowing the class pet and being constantly embarrassed by her dad who is intent on saving the world in a kaftan, this year has been nothing but a series of FAILS! Can Riley and her two best friends - Henry, the school's hot dog eating champion, and the sassy new girl Olivia - help Riley achieve the ultimate goal of finally breaking a school record?
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Meet Me at the Moon Tree
by Shivaun Plozza
A tender Australian story about searching for the impossible in the places where magic and science meet. For Carina Sugden, there is nothing more special than a moon tree - a tree grown from the seeds taken on the 1971 Apollo mission into space. Her father taught her everything she knows about them. But he passed away before they found one together. When Mum relocates the family to a small town in the Otway Ranges, Carina becomes determined to find a moon tree on her own. Like a scientist, she methodically searches the forest behind her new house. But after a mysterious encounter with a black cockatoo, Carina realises there's magic in this forest. And if magic really exists, anything is possible, like seeing her dad one last time...Meet Me at the Moon Tree is a heart-healing book about believing in magic, in science, and in the power of love.
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How to Break a World Record and Survive Grade Five
by Carla Fitzgerald
What world record would you like to break? The biggest slice of cake eaten in one go? The highest trampoline bounce? The most socks put on one foot? This hilarious middle-grade novel from the author of How to Be Prime Minister and Survive Grade Five is perfect for fans of Nat Amoore and Tim Harris. Sam is a kind and thoughtful eleven-year-old, but he's not particularly great at anything. His sister, Ava, is a soccer star, and his best friend, Vihaan, is an award-winning artist. The one thing Sam is good at is knowing all about the extraordinary feats in the Big Book of Records. When Sam is set a class project about a moment he's proud of, he can't think of anything and takes inspiration from his favourite book. He knows he'll be proud of himself if he can break a world record! But breaking a world record isn't easy. And things get even harder when someone close to Sam needs his help and he must decide- will he be good? Or be the best?
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All the Beautiful Things
by Katrina Nannestad
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.
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Little Bones
by Sandy Bigna
A unique and lyrical verse novel for middle-grade readers that speaks to our childhood joy of collecting small, intriguing objects and creating connections in the most unlikely places. Since the death of her brother, eleven-year-old Bones spends her time drawing animal skeletons and scavenging for dead things to add to her collection. She's drifted away from her friends and doesn't want to make new ones, especially not with her chatty new neighbour, Tenny. One night, under a full moon, Bones accidentally resurrects the skeleton of a baby bird. Bird wants to return to his natural (dead) state, so Bones agrees to reverse the curse - not that she knows how. As she and Bird work out the secrets of the magic, Bones remembers what it's like to have a friend. How can she let Bird go when she doesn't want to say goodbye?
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Pearly and Pig and the Island of Secrets
by Sue Whiting
Pearly Woe is a worrier. On remote Mammút Island off the coast of Iceland, Pearly's worrying is put to the ultimate test when she and Pig are winched from a helicopter onto the island to complete a five-day survival challenge - alone. But they are not alone. And that is not the only surprise in store for Pearly and Pig as Mammút Island reveals its many secrets.
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Freddie Spector, Fact Collector. Space Cadet
by Ashleigh Barton
Freddie Spector loves collecting facts - about anything and everything. His latest obsession is space. It's all he talks about: stars, planets, galaxies, astronauts, space travel - and, of course UFOs and extraterrestrials. Freddie writes all his facts on sticky notes that his mum and big sister, Henrietta, keep finding in weird places - like in their sock drawers or their sandwiches. But whenever Freddie collects facts on a topic, his very active imagination always gets involved too. And, after noticing some very suspicious goings-on, Freddie realises it's up to him to discover the answer to a burning question: could aliens have landed in his neighbourhood?
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Always your sister
by Frances Prentice
Dear Noah, I miss you so, so much. Living on a farm Millie has a lot going on. Life as a pre-teen brings big, mixed feelings, but with friends, family and the school chaplain she just might make it through. Millie's baby brother, Noah, was stillborn 4 years ago. She writes to him in heaven, confiding her anxieties when her parents announce they are going to have another baby. Millie is both excited and scared. What if this baby dies like Noah did? What if something happens to her mum? As Millie learns to take life day-by-day, she finds that even in storms there are sometimes rainbows.
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