The Brain Sucker by Glenn Wood (NZ)

Lester Smythe has a black heart. He s invented a dangerous brain-sucking machine that removes the goodness from its victims, and he intends to use it to rid the world of all human kindness. But Lester didn t count on thirteen-year-old Callum McCullock and his two best friends, Sophie and Jinx. The trio vow to destroy the brain sucker. And nothing will stop them.

 

Around the World in Eighty Days, illustrated by Robert Ingpen

A newly illustrated edition of this classic tale by one of Australia s greatest children s book illustrators. Unabridged version.

Set out on a thrilling voyage with the quintessential English gentleman, Phileas Fogg. To fulfil a wager made at the Reform Club in London, Fogg and his newly appointed manservant, Passepartout, embark on the race of a lifetime to circumnavigate the globe in just eighty days! Travelling by steamboat, train, and even elephant, and with adventure around every bend, the intrepid duo find themselves rescuing a young Indian woman from sacrifice, escaping kidnap, and battling hurricane winds and all the while, tenacious Detective Fix of Scotland Yard is in hot pursuit, believing Fogg to be the criminal mastermind behind a Bank of England robbery. Rich in humour and excitement, Around the World in Eighty Days deservedly remains one of Jules Verne s most popular books. This handsome new edition brings together the complete and unabridged text with over 70 magnificent illustrations by the award-winning artist Robert Ingpen.

 

The Queen and the Nobody Boy: A Tale of Fontania by Barbara Else (NZ)

Hodie is the unpaid odd-job boy at the Grand Palace in the Kingdom of Fontania. Fed-up, he decides to leave and better himself in the South. But the young Queen, 12 year old Sibilla, is fed-up, too, because of gossip about her lack of magical ability. She decides to go with him, insisting he go north to get his mother’s bag back from the Emperor of Um’Binnia.

 

The Boy in the Olive Grove by Fleur Beale (NZ)

On the night of her seventeenth birthday Bess Grey sees images of a witch-burning unfold in front of her as if in a movie. She also sees images from a different time — lovers, and the girl, she’s sure is — was – herself. When she meets Nick she recognises him as the boy. There’s an immediate connection. However when her father nearly dies from a heart attack there’s no time to brood as Bess tries to save her father’s business. She falls in love with Nick but her difficult mother interferes, forcing Bess to make the hardest decision of her life.She must decide whether to lose her mother or the boy she loves.

 

Friday Brown by Vicki Wakefield

Seventeen-year-old Friday Brown is on the run—running to escape memories of her mother and of the family curse. And of a grandfather who’d like her to stay. She’s lost, alone and afraid.

Silence, a street kid, finds Friday and she joins him in a gang led by beautiful, charismatic Arden. When Silence is involved in a crime, the gang escapes to a ghost town in the outback. In Murungal Creek, the town of never leaving, Friday must face the ghosts of her past. She will learn that sometimes you have to stay to finish what you started—and often, before you can find out who you are, you have to become someone you were never meant to be.

 

Liar and Spy by Rebecca Stead

From the Newbery Medal–winning author of When You Reach Me

When Georges moves into a Brooklyn apartment building, he meets Safer, a twelve-year-old coffee-drinking loner and self-appointed spy. Georges becomes Safer’s first spy club recruit. His assignment? Tracking the mysterious Mr X, who lives in the apartment upstairs. But as Safer becomes more demanding, Georges starts to wonder: how far is too far to go for your only friend?

 

The Edge of Nowhere by Elizabeth George

The first young adult book by a #1 New York Times bestselling author

Whidbey Island may be only a ferry ride from Seattle, but it’s a world apart. When Becca King arrives there, she doesn’t suspect the island will become her home for the next four years. Put at risk by her ability to hear “whispers”–the thoughts of others–Becca is on the run from her stepfather, whose criminal activities she has discovered. Stranded and alone, Becca is soon befriended by Derric, a Ugandon orphan adopted by a local family; Seth, a kindhearted musician and high school dropout; Debbie, a recovering alcoholic who takes her in; and Diana, with whom Becca shares a mysterious psychic connection.

 

Elf Boy and Raven Girl #1: Fright Forest by Marcus Sedgwick

Raven Boy has short black spiky hair, amazing night vision and can talk to animals. Elf Girl is light of foot, sharp of mind and…elfish all over. She hadn’t expected to meet Raven Boy; it’s not that often someone falls out of the trees and squashes your home flat like Raven Boy did.

Before they know it they are plunged into some very strange, creepy, altogether spooky and hilarious adventures as they save their world from trolls, ogres, witches and things that slither and slide in the fiendish forest.

 

Metawars by Jeff Norton

In an unforgiving future, two warring factions – the MILLENNIALS and the GUARDIANS – are locked in a brutal battle over control of an online virtual world called the Metasphere.

Jonah Delacroix has always known which side he’s on – the same side as his dead father. But when he assumes his father’s avatar, he learns that things aren’t as black and white as he once believed. He’s catapulted into a full-throttle race through both worlds – but can he find the truth?

 

Maggot Moon by Sally Gardner

Sally Gardner tells a story that is rich in drama and ideas as Standish Treadwell, an unlikely hero, takes on the vicious forces of the repressive motherland in a novel set in a bleak world that is redeemed only by the very human qualities of some of the survivors. Standish and his remarkable grandfather keep going, eking out a living after the disappearance of Standish’s parents. Standish struggles at school and is the victim of relentless bullying.  But then he finds a friend in the newly arrived Hector. When Hector is taken, the only hope lies in Standish…Luckily, Standish has just the qualities that are needed.

 

Shrunk by F. R. Hitchcock

Jed ‘Model Village’ Perks discovers the ability to shrink things and gleefully shrinks some sheep, a few boats and… the planet Jupiter. But then he loses it. With the *accidentally* miniaturised school bully shouting up at him, Jed has to find Jupiter and return it to orbit before the earth collides with the sun.