After all the kissing and the hugging and the rocking and the snuggling, there at last comes a time for sleeping.
Oceania
Materials from Oceania
Vanilla Ice Cream
Following some food, a curious young sparrow stows away in the back of a truck and takes an unusual voyage south — through the lush rice paddies of India, across the rough sea, and all the way into a bright new day. As the sun rises high over the city, he finds little Edie at a café with her grandma and granddad, and for a fleeting instant, his world meets up with hers and changes her life in the most delightful way.
I’m a Dirty Dinosaur
Dirty dinosaur never have a wash, but is happy every time. Dirty dinosaur sniff in the mud. Dirty Dinosaur has dirty feet, and splash in all the puddles. Eventually, a swamp affords the dino the perfect place for a wash.
What’s Your Story
What’s Your Story is set against the backdrop of the First Settlement of Australia. It describes the friendship of a little orphan boy from England, Leonard, and the friendship he strikes with a little Aboriginal girl called Milba.
See the review at WOW Review, Volume 7, Issue 1
Let the Celebrations Begin
Miriam lives in hut 18, bed 22. She has little to eat and nothing to play with, but she can remember what it was like before, when she had her own food, her own bed, and her very own toys. As World War II nears an end, everyone says the soldiers are coming, so Miriam joins the women in planning a celebration. Every night, while the guards sleep, they busy themselves crafting toys out of scraps of their clothing to surprise the younger children. Based on a reference to a small collection of stuffed toys made by women in Belsen for the first party held after the liberation of the camp, this new edition of Let the Celebrations Begin!, originally published in 1996, is an affecting story of human survival.
Girl Defective
This is the story of a wild girl and a ghost girl; a boy who knew nothing and a boy who thought he knew everything. It’s a story about Skylark Martin, who lives with her father and brother in a vintage record shop and is trying to find her place in the world. It’s about ten-year-old Super Agent Gully and his case of a lifetime. And about beautiful, reckless, sharp-as-knives Nancy. It’s about tragi-hot Luke, and just-plain-tragic Mia Casey. It’s about the dark underbelly of a curious neighborhood. It’s about summer, and weirdness, and mystery, and music. And it’s about life and death and grief and romance.
Black Spring
In a savage land sustained by wizardry and ruled by vendetta, Lina is the enchanting but willful daughter of a village lord. She and her childhood companion, Damek, have grown up privileged and spoiled, and they’re devoted to each other to the point of obsession. But Lina’s violet eyes betray her for a witch, and witches are not tolerated in a brutally patriarchal society. Her rank protects her from persecution, but it cannot protect her from tragedy and heartbreak. An innocent visitor stands witness to the devastation that ensues as destructive longing unleashes Lina’s wrath, and with it her forbidden power. Whether drawn by the romantic, the magical, or the gothic, readers will be irresistibly compelled by the passion of this tragic tale.
Ophelia And The Marvelous Boy
Ophelia, a timid eleven-year-old girl grieving her mother, suspends her disbelief in things non-scientific when a boy locked in the museum where her father is working asks her to help him complete an age-old mission.
Mice Mischief: Math Facts in Action
Always Jack
“Jack’s life is pretty good — he has great friends, everyone loves his funny jokes and he’s an awesome inventor. But things are getting complicated. Nanna’s older and wobblier, and why does his face turn red when he sees his best friend, Anna? And to top it off, Mum and Rob’s wedding seems to be taking over the world. Something really scary has also happened to his mum and it’s going to take all of Jack’s courage to deal with it.”