Australia

Materials from Australia

Mokie and Bik

Twins, Mokie and Bik, live on a boat  docked somewhere in Australia. They are looked after by a nanny because their father is away at sea and their mother is an artist. Mokie and Bik are always underfoot or overboard. The twins play on the beach with their dog, help a fisherman unload his catch for the day, and enjoy energetic games of hopscotch on the deck of the boat.

The Best Beak In Boonaroo Bay

The birds of Australia’s Boonaroo Bay hold a contest to determine which of them has the best beak.

Troy Thompson’s Excellent Peotry Book

Troy Thompson, a Grade 6 student, in trying to understand the art of poetry, as he stumbles over the Japanese form of ‘Haiku’, the ballad, the limerick and the sonnet. At the end of the year, Troy’s poetry has improved and his respect for his teacher has grown too! An entertaining introduction to poetry, which can be read as a narrative. It is divided into assignments for the reader to follow and participate in and is peppered by Troy’s doodles and margin comments to his teacher. Ms Kranke obviously has quite a soft spot for this cheeky young student, and encourages him on his way, whether writing of his love for his school sweetheart, Kylie, or revealing the heroic and moving death of his policeman father.

Being Bee

Bee can’t understand what her father sees in Jazzi. Ever since Bee’s mom died, she, her dad, and her two guinea pigs, Fifi and Lulu, have been getting along just fine. Now Bee is supposed to welcome Jazzi, with her bangled skirts and her rock-hard scones and her new way of looking at everything. Imagine how Bee feels when her dad invites Jazzi to move in! Life certainly gets more complicated, especially after Bee discovers that there is something big that Jazzi has not told Dad. Yet knowing the secret makes Bee see another side of Jazzi, one that oddly enough makes Bee more comfortable.

Good Neighbors

The Floods may bury relatives in their backyard, grow cobwebs in every room, and eat slugs for breakfast, but this loving family of wizards and witches is a delight to have next door unlike their neighbors the Dents—a mean, nasty family that shatters the calm of the whole block. Maybe a little of the Floods’ magic will cure the Dents of their obnoxious ways. And if not, a lot of magic will rid the neighborhood of the Dents once and for all.

One Beastly Beast: Two Aliens, Three Inventors, Four Fantastic Tales

A collection of four fantasy tales in which a boy joins a strange navy in pursuit of video pirates, a neglected princess seeks adventure, an orphaned inventor seeks the perfect parents, and a genius girl faces a sea serpent.

Sophie’s Big Bed

Sophie is a big girl now, with a nice, new big-girl bed. But Bunny, Bear, and Scarlett are worried that if the bed is too big, they may get lost under all those sheets and blankets.

Runner

Charlie’s father is dead, and although his mother insists he stay in school, Charlie has no patience for the classroom. All he wants is to make money, to give his mother and baby brother a better life. So when he catches the eye of Squizzy Taylor, a notorious mobster, and is offered a job as Squizzy’s courier, it doesn’t take Charlie long to accept—even if he has to go against his own mother’s wishes. At first, the job’s a thrill—running with messages, illegal liquor, whatever Squizzy orders. It fills Charlie with power. But then come the not-so-savory parts of the job. Collecting Squizzy’s debts. Dodging Squizzy’s enemies. The very real dangers of the streets. And at some point Charlie has to ask himself—how long before running for a better life means cutting his life short?

Evil Genius

Cadel Piggott has a genius IQ and a fascination with systems of all kinds. At seven, he was illegally hacking into computers. Now he’s fourteen and studying for his World Domination degree, taking classes like embezzlement, misinformation, forgery, and infiltration at the institute founded by criminal mastermind Dr. Phineas Darkkon. Although Cadel may be advanced beyond his years, at heart he’s a lonely kid. When he falls for the mysterious and brilliant Kay-Lee, he begins to question the moral implications of his studies for the first time.