There’s loads of drama in store for Alice-Miranda and her friends at boarding school.
Oceania
Materials from Oceania
Love And Other Perishable Items
A fifteen-year-old Australian girl gets her first job and first crush on her unattainable university-aged co-worker, as both search for meaning in their lives.
Below
On the day Cassie was born, they drowned her town. The mayor flipped a lever and everyone cheered as Old Lower Grange was submerged beneath five thousand swimming pools’ worth of water. Now, twelve years later, Cassie feels drawn to the manmade lake and the mysteries it hides — and she’s not the only one. Her classmate Liam, who wears oversized swim trunks to cover the scars on his legs, joins Cassie in her daily swims across the off-limits side of the lake. As the summer heats up, the water drops lower and lower, offering them glimpses of the ghostly town and uncovering secrets one prominent town figure seems anxious to keep submerged. But like a swimmer who ventures too far from shore, Cassie realizes she can’t turn back. Can she bring their suspicions to light before it’s too late — and does she dare?
Violet Mackerel’s Brilliant Plot
When a creative seven-year-old girl spots a blue china bird that she desperately wants, she forms an imaginative plan for getting it.
Calvin Coconut: Extra Famous
Calvin and his friends have the opportunity to earn some money by appearing as extras in a zombie movie being filmed on a nearby beach.
The Lumatere Chronicles: Quintana of Charyn
Separated from the girl he loves and has sworn to protect, Froi and his companions travel through Charyn searching for Quintana and building an army that will secure her unborn child’s right to rule. While in the valley between two kingdoms, Quintana of Charyn and Isaboe of Lumatere come face-to-face in a showdown that will result in heartbreak for one and power for the other. The complex tangle of bloodlines, politics, and love introduced in Finnikin of the Rock and Froi of the Exiles coalesce into an engrossing climax in this final volume.
Hedgehog’s Magic Tricks
Like many amateur magicians, Hedgehog finds that his tricks don’t always proceed as planned. Mouse doesn’t quite disappear, Rabbit (being larger than Hedgehog) is difficult to pull from the hat, and Duckling is not quite brave enough to endure a turn as magician’s helper. But when Hedgehog’s friends see how sad he is, they provide a surprise that results in everyone agreeing that Hedgehog is very good at magic after all. Preschoolers will delight in the sweet illustrations and in seeing what Hedgehog doesn’t — his friends helping to make his day magical.
Wash-A-Bye Bear
Flora loves her Bear dearly, but her mom says it’s time for him to go in the wash. Beautifully imagined scenes show Bear, in the wash, remembering how much fun they had getting grubby in the first place. When Bear is clean, he’s just not the same, so Flora sets out to have some fun and get him back to his dirty but lovable self again. Then, at the end of a long day, it’s Flora’s turn to have a wash–and good old Bear still loves clean Flora just the same.
My Dad Thinks He’s Funny
Features a long-suffering boy’s eye-rolling observations of his father’s bombastic and often corny sense of humor, which is comprised of groan-out-loud puns and wisecracking rejoinders.
We Are Their Voice: Young People Respond to the Holocaust
That’s the question that prompted a writing project across North America, Italy and Australia asking young people to write about this time in history. Students wrote short stories. Some read novels and wrote about the messages that they understood from these books. Several interviewed survivors and recorded their impressions. Many talked about this history and how they have tried to make sense of it in the world in which they now live. Children wrote from their hearts with sensitivity, thoughtfulness and great insight. Their teachers saw this opportunity as a gift. Young people can make a meaningful connection to the Holocaust. And perhaps, with that in mind, they will be able to create a more peaceful future. Read their stories. Listen to their perceptions and observations. We have so much to learn from them.