KYD YA Championship

Here at the Younger Sun we are continuing the Kate O'D love*, so check this out!

Kill Your Darlings is holding a YA Championship: 

From Monday 30 July until 17 August, contributors will be championing their favourite Australian YA classic from the last 30 years. At the end of each post, you will have the chance to vote to determine the winner...

One of those contributors is our very own Kate! And she is championing the John Marsden classic Tomorrow When the War Began. 

Go Kate!

Other wonderful books to be championed (not by Kate but by other excellent folk) include: 

Came Back to Show You I Could Fly (Robin Klein)

Space Demons by Gillian Rubenstein

Looking for Alibrandi by Melina Marchetta

and Deadly Unna? by Phillip Gwynne

If you would like to hear more about it all, check this out. 

HOW EXCITING!

*or possibly stalking, depending on your point of view. Kate, we hope you view it as the former. 

Once again...

It's National Bookshop Day!

Well, not today. But soon! The 11th of August is the day, and it will be such fun!

For more information look at our website, here. 

Now, get excited! 

I know I am. Particularly because aside from all the FABULOUS, AMAZING, TOTALLY MARVELLOUS celebrity book sellers that will be joining us in store, we also get to welcome back the DELIGHTFUL, WORDS CANNOT EXPRESS HOW WONDERFUL, Kate O'D.  for the day.
And what an excellent day it will be!

HOOOOOOOOORAY!!!!!

Here Be Dragons

What is it about dragons that we love so much? There are myths about dragons found in cultures throughout the world. Is it that they can fly? Or breathe fire? Whatever it is, we've got some dragons for you. From dragons that won't go to bed to dragons with skills in mathematics... Here are some of our favourite dragons.

The Worst Princess by Anna Kemp & Sara Ogilvie

Puff the Magic Dragon by Peter Yarrow

Zog by Julia Donaldson

Herb, the Vegetarian Dragon by Jules Bass & Debbie Harter

Again! by Emily Gravett

I Don't Believe in Dragons by Anna Walker

Dragonkeeper Series by Carole Wilkinson

How to Train Your Dragon Series by Cressida Cowell

(The audiobooks are narrated by David Tennant and they are awesome)

Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini

The Last Dragonslayer by Jasper Fforde

Seraphina by Rachel Hartman

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkein

CALLING  ALL YOUNG ARCHITECTS!

Draw Me A House  is a fabulous activity book that introduces the basic concepts of design and architecture.

Design a house to suit the eight-legged monster who wants to move in, decorate a street-corner with a fantastical street-light, or join the dots to discover which iconic building is hiding on the page!

                                    

We can sometimes take architecture for granted; we accept that houses, streets, buildings and all the frills are just a fact of life. This is a wonderful scrap book to bring awareness to the process of designing cities, sites of significance, and houses meant for dwelling. Think about climate, lighting, gardens and the world's most famous architects, and come up with your own wacky designs!
Every page has a different and exciting activity, and all you really need is some coloured pencils and a pen- perfect for rainy days and long car trips!

The bear returns!

In his newest adventure Bear is no longer very cranky. 

Or very itchy. 

This time he is very HUNGRY. 

Another excellent rhyming adventure by Nick Bland. And this one has a polar bear!

The road less travelled.

Want to go travelling this winter but don't have the funds? Try some of these books. You could road trip across America with Cam, Q, Amy or Colin. How about Paris with Ginny or Anna? Take your pick. Or maybe an Australian road trip with Rose? Go travelling from the comfort of your couch with these novels.




Paper Towns by John Green

Quentin Jacobsen has spent a lifetime loving the magnificently adventurous Margo Roth Spiegelman from afar. So when she cracks open a window and climbs back into his life–dressed like a ninja and summoning him for an ingenious campaign of revenge – he follows.

After their all-nighter ends and a new day breaks, Q arrives at school to discover that Margo, always an enigma, has now become a mystery. But Q soon learns that there are clues–and they’re for him. Urged down a disconnected path, the closer he gets, the less Q sees of the girl he thought he knew.

Going Bovine by Libba Bray

All 16-year-old Cameron wants is to get through high school - and life in general - with a minimum of effort. It's not a lot to ask. But that's before he's given some bad news: he's sick and he's going to die. Which totally sucks. 


Hope arrives in the winged form of Dulcie, a loopy punk angel/possible hallucination with a bad sugar habit. She tells Cam there is a cure - if he's willing to go in search of it. With the help of a death-obsessed, video-gaming dwarf and a yard gnome, Cam sets off on the mother of all road trips through a twisted America into the heart of what matters most. 


Libba is also the author of Beauty Queens and the Gemma Doyle Trilogy (A Great and Terrible Beauty, Rebel Angels and The Sweet Far Thing).





13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson

Here’s the deal: Aunt Peg, the New York artist and the person Ginny Blackstone depended on to make her life interesting, took off to Europe without a word three years ago. Aside from a few postcards, Ginny hasn’t heard much. Then she gets a horrible phone call that changes everything.


But the story is only beginning. Soon after, Ginny receives one little blue envelope from Aunt Peg containing a thousand dollars and some very strange instructions…




Other travel-y books Maureen has written are: The Last Little Blue Envelope and Girl at Sea.



Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

 

Anna was looking forward to her senior year in Atlanta, where she has a great job, a loyal best friend, and a crush on the verge of becoming more. So she's less than thrilled about being shipped off to boarding school in Paris - until she meets Étienne St. Clair: perfect, Parisian (and English and American, which makes for a swoon-worthy accent), and utterly irresistible. The only problem is that he's taken, and Anna might be, too, if anything comes of her almost-relationship back home. As winter melts into spring, will a year of romantic near - misses end with the French kiss Anna - and readers - have long awaited?




There is a companion novel to Anna called  Lola and the Boy Next Door.






Amy & Roger's Epic Detour by Morgan Matson

Amy Curry is having a terrible year. Her mother has decided to move all the way across the country and needs Amy to drive their car from California to the East Coast. There's just one problem: since the death of her father, Amy hasn't been able to get behind the wheel of a car. Enter Roger, the son of an old family friend, who turns out to be unexpectedly cute… and dealing with some baggage of his own.

Meeting new people and coming to terms with her father's death were not part of Amy's plans for the road trip. But then neither was driving on the Loneliest Road in America, seeing the Colorado Mountains, visiting diners, dingy motels and Graceland. But as they drive, and she grows closer to Roger, Amy finds that the people you least expected are the ones you need the most ­ - and that sometimes you have to get lost in order to find your way home.




An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

When it comes to relationships, everyone has a type. Colin Singleton’s type is girls named Katherine. He has dated–and been dumped by–19 Katherines. In the wake of The K-19 Debacle, Colin–an anagram-obsessed washed-up child prodigy–heads out on a road trip with his overweight, Judge Judy- loving friend Hassan. With 10,000 dollars in his pocket and a feral hog on his trail, Colin is on a mission to prove a mathematical theorem he hopes will predict the future of any relationship (and conceivably win the girl).




John Green is the author of some other amazing books: Looking For Alaska, Will Grayson, Will Grayson and The Fault in Our Stars.








Rose By Any Other Name by Maureen McCarthy

Rose is all packed up. She's got a van full of petrol and a stack of CDs. She's got a surfboard in the back and a secret that won't go away. But that's okay. She also has enough attitude to light up the night sky. Then her mother decides to come along... and Rose's road trip takes an unplanned U-turn, straight to the heart of last summer.




Other great books by Maureen McCarthy are Somebody's Crying, Chain of Hearts, When You Wake and Find Me Gone, Queen Kat, Carmel and St. Jude Get a Life.

Where's the...

Meerkat?

In the grand tradition of Where's Wally comes Where's the Meerkat? (Paul Moran, Chirpy Bird). Join the meerkat family on their trip round the world, from Innsbruck to Moscow, Easter Island to Marrakesh. 

Have fun spotting all ten members of the meerkat family on each page, whether it be Florian (an excellent banana milkshake maker and amateur folk dancer), Samson (a bookworm with a black belt in karate) or perhaps Miranda (never without a clean hankie and knows the lyrics to every James Bond theme). 

This 'spot 'n learn' is complete with interesting facts about each place the meerkats visit. 

Simply meervellous. 

Horrible Who?

Horrible Harriet! 

Aren't you overjoyed to see her lovely face again? I know I am. 

This time she is starring in her brand new chapter book sized adventure 

Horrible Harriet's Inheritance 

(written by Horrible Harriet but assisted by Leigh Hobbs and published by Allen and Unwin).

When Fred the postman actually comes to the door to deliver a letter instead of hurling the mail over the fence and fleeing, Horrible Harriet is mildly surprised. She is also quite surprised by the news contained in the  letter, but regains her decorum quickly, just as a royal should. For it turns out that Horrible Harriet is a long lost member of the Royal Family! And also possibly a queen. All she needs to do now is find evidence of her family tree...

Horrible Harriet is a thoroughly memorable character, and is definitely one of my favourites.
Her delightful smile, her somewhat mad eyes, her charm.

I think she would make a wonderful queen, don't you?

CBCA Short List 2012

Here are some of the picture books that made the Children's Book Council of Australia Shortlist 2012. We really love The Runaway Hug and Come Down, Cat.


The Runaway Hug by Nick Bland illustrated by Freya Blackwood

Come Down, Cat! by Sonya Hartnett illustrated by Lucia Masciullo

That's Not a Daffodil! by Elizabeth Honey

The Last Viking by Norman Jorgensen illustrated by James Foley

No Bears by Meg McKinley illustrated by Leila Rudge

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Rudie Nudie by Emma Quay

Look, a Book! by Libby Gleeson illustrated by Freya Blackwood

Flood by Jackie French illustrated by Bruce Whatley

A Bus Called Heaven by Bob Graham