Lola and the Boy Next Door

Lola and the Boy Next Door, Stephanie Perkins (Penguin)

Following on from the worldwide hit Anna and the French Kiss comes Lola Nolan. Hailing from San Francisco and queen of radical costumes - the plan is to make an enormous Marie Antoinette gown (complete with elaborate wig) for her high school dance - Lola is eccentric, hilarious and creative. She lives with her overprotective dads, who aren't too pleased about her older boyfriend Max. But Lola's smitten with bad boy musician Max. Then her childhood friend, super tall, kooky inventor, mad-haired former crush Cricket Bell moves back in next door and Lola's world is shaken up.

Funny, sweet, romantic and daring. Highly recommended.

--Kate--

We are Wonderstruck

Wonderstruck, Brian Selznick (Scholastic)

If you loved The Invention of Hugo Cabret, like we did, it is your LUCKY DAY! 


Here's another amazing book by the same author. Beautiful hardback, half in the same style of mind-boggling illustrations.


But shhh. We're still reading...


Ben and Rose secretly wish their lives were different. Ben longs for the father he has never known. Rose dreams of a mysterious actress whose life she chronicles in a scrapbook. When Ben discovers a puzzling clue in his mother's room and Rose reads an enticing heading in the newspaper, both children set out alone on desperate quests to find what they are missing. Set fifty years apart, these independent stories - Ben's told in words, Rose's in picture - weave back and forth with mesmerising symmetry. How they unfold and ultimately intertwine will surprise you, challenge you, and leave you breathless with wonder.

Arrrrr! Avast! Walk the plank me hearties!

It be international TALK LIKE A PIRATE DAY! Come along me hearties and read some rum-guzzling, swashbuckling pirate books! Here be some of our favourites:

back to the roaring twenties!

Beautiful Days, Anna Godbersen (Razorbill)

We've been waiting for this sequel to Bright Young Things for a while now.

It's summer in Long Island and Cordelia, Letty and Astrid have been spending their days lazing about the pool and attending lovely parties.

Cordelia is still feeling guilty and sad about the death of her new-found father and starting to get used to living the life of a high-profile bootlegger's daughter and sister. When her brother Charlie asks her to open a family speakeasy she jumps at the chance. But what about the mysterious pilot Max...who doesn't approve of her lifestyle? And why does what he think matter so much to her?

Astrid might be engaged to Charlie but without a ring can she really trust that her arrangements will go ahead as planned? Especially when her fiance is always away... Is she just chasing a pipe dream?

Letty is still trying to make her name on the stage. Cordelia is helping, but Letty still feels like she could make it on her own. There's a bit of a romance blossoming with scruffy writer Grady, but there's a chance Letty might mess it all up. Can this songbird create a glittering future for herself?

Dances, dresses, fancy drinks and dashing gentlemen - this is a really enjoyable and fun book that gives you a great taste for the flavour of 1920s New York.

Did you know...

That the longest flight in a hot-air balloon went for 22 days?

That a particular specimen of the gaboon viper has fangs as long as your thumb?

That the longest beard ever recorded spanned 5.33 metres in length?

Neither did I until this arrived!

One Dog and His Boy

One Dog and His Boy, Eva Ibbotson, Scholastic

Hal lives in a nice big house with his very rich parents. He has all the latest toys and his mother proudly tells her equally rich friends that he has ‘everything a boy could want’. But she is wrong, because all Hal really wants is a dog. Luckily for Albina, Hal’s mess detesting mother, Easy Pets offers the loan of pedigree dogs for an hour, a day or a weekend for a large fee.

Convinced that Hal will get sick of a dog after a day or two, his parents allow him to choose a dog from Easy Pets, neglecting to tell him of course that the dog is in fact on loan...

I have thoroughly enjoyed everything I have ever read by Ibbotson (special mention to Which Witch). Her books are a pleasure to read, and this one is no exception.

Hades

Hades, Alexandra Adornetto (Harper Collins)

Even the love of her boyfriend, Xavier Woods, and her archangel siblings, Gabriel and Ivy, can’t keep angel Bethany Church from being tricked into a motorcycle ride that ends up in Hell. What could happen to an angel in hell?

There in Hades, Jake Thorn bargains for Beth’s release back to Earth. But what he asks of her will destroy her, and quite possibly her loved ones as well. Can he be trusted in this wager? And what does Jake have Xavier believing about Beth’s fate that may result in an act of betrayal that will leave Bethany – and readers – wondering if Xavier is so good after all?

Alexandra Adornetto has written yet another suspense-filled, enchanting book which will have you turning the pages with anticipation.

Review by Jessy Allison

Douglas Bear Competition Winners!

Indigenous Literacy Day

Tomorrow, Wednesday 7 September is Indigenous Literacy Day and we will be donating 5% of our daily sales to the ILF.

Come down and support this worthy cause!

Happy September!

We got so many great new books this month it is rather overwhelming. So here are just four of our absolute favourites:

Follow the Line to School, Laura Ljungkvist (Viking)

Shift, Em Bailey (Hardie Grant Egmont)

Colours, Orla Kiely (Import Pic)

The Apothecary, Maile Meloy (Text Publishing)