Children's Book Council of Australia - 2016 BOOK of the YEAR WINNERS

2016 Inky Awards Shortlist

Vote now for your favourite book!

Vote for your favourite title, and you could win all 20 books on the 2016 Inky Awards longlist!*

The book with the most votes in each category (Gold or Silver) will win the 2016 award. Voting closes on Sunday, 18 September at 5pm (AEST).

Use the hashtag #InkyAwards to join the celebrations, and to barrack for the Inky Awards books you think are the best.

The victors will be announced at the State Library Victoria on 4 October.

BiP eNews

Recommended for 5+

Bicycling to the Moon
Timo Parvela and Virpi Talvitie     $15.99pb

I must confess to having a bit of a soft spot for European children’s books; a love for the style and presentation of the stories as much as an ongoing fascination with the tales that non-English speaking cultures want to read to their children. Bicycling to the Moon (known to Finnish children as Maukka and Väykkä) is a perfect, and very charming, example. 

Barker is a dog and Purdy is a cat. Together they live in a sky blue house on top of a hill with a huge lake at its base. Their differences – Barker is practical, wise, earthy and above all dependable; Purdy is headstrong, creative and oh so joyful – are what make them the very best of friends. Tracing a year of seasons, each with its challenges and joys, Parvela explores Barker and Purdy’s friendship, as well as their interaction within a tight-knit community of farm animals, with brevity, gentle wit and true depth of feeling. Each chapter holds a simple but powerful lesson bound up in wonderful storytelling for the astute reader. Whilst I have no doubt that confident readers of 7 and up will enjoy devouring this book independently – the gatefold cover, the wonderful (and how!) pencil and watercolour illustrations all make it highly desirable – I think it’s a book perhaps best read aloud by an adult, to be savoured with a child one beautiful chapter at a time.    BiP staff review by Lucinda

Recommended for 4+

Fabish: The Horse That Braved a Bushfire
Neridah McMullin and Andrew McLean     $24.99hb

This is the story of a brave horse called Fabish. In his racing days, he always tried his hardest. And when he retired, Fabish took care of the flighty young horses.   

The Black Saturday bushfires destroyed many lives in February of 2009. Neridah McMullin tells one of the rare, amazing stories of survival on that dark day in her new picture book. Upon retirement from racing, Fabish takes on a new role, looking after yearlings in a paddock far away from the stables. One hot, dry afternoon smoke fills the air and their trainer, knowing that he cannot protect them, sets the horses free as the bushfire heads straight toward the farm. All night the trainer battles the roaring fire, protecting the horses that he knows he can save and by morning, nothing is left. All he can think about are those horses he left to their own wiles… But he hears a distant, rhythmic thudding – could it be that Fabish has saved the yearlings? 

Dedicated to the late Alan Evett, the trainer in this true story, Neridah McMullin has created a stunning book that will appeal to all animal lovers, but especially those who love horses. Powerful and moving, Andrew McLean does a great job of matching pictures to words. We have signed copies available while stocks last.    BiP staff review by Lucinda

The 78-Storey Treehouse
Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton     $14.99pb

Finally, the 6th Treehouse book has arrived!

Join Andy and Terry in their spectacular new 78-Storey Treehouse. They've added 13 new levels including a drive-thru car wash, a combining machine, a scribbletorium, an ALL-BALL sports stadium, Andyland, Terrytown, a high-security potato chip storage facility and an open-air movie theatre. Well, what are you waiting for? Come on up! Recommended for 7 and beyond.

BiP staff review: DCI Banks

When the Music’s Over
Peter Robinson
Aug 2016 | $32.99pb     ** BiP Price $27.95

Peter Robinson is back in top form with his twenty-third Alan Banks novel. The naked body of a young girl is found by a cyclist in a remote lane in north Yorkshire. It appears that she has been thrown from a moving vehicle. DI Annie Cabbot is heading the investigation, first to discover the victim’s identity and then to track down the perpetrator.  Her colleague, DC Gerry Masterson, puts her own life in danger trying to get the evidence they need. Newly-promoted to Detective Superintendent, Alan Banks is not only swamped with the paperwork which goes with the job, but has also been given another very difficult and sensitive case to investigate. A well-known entertainer, Danny Caxton, now a wealthy elderly man, has been accused several times of social abuse of young girls during his career. Linda Palmer, a poet, has come forward after fifty years, to ask for help to put her case against Caxton. She and her mother reported the offence to the police at the time but no action was taken. Although sceptical of her account at first, DS Banks believes her story and begins a search for solid evidence to back it up. Meanwhile Annie has uncovered the identity of the young victim and is working hard to establish the reasons for the death. When the Music’s Over is a tale of two very different cases of abuse of young girls; one of the cases has been covered up for many years. The deeper both detectives delve into their investigations the more disturbing each one becomes. As in all the Banks novels music and whisky are constant threads: Peter Robinson combines topical subjects with strong characters with an edgy sense of moral obligation. Alan Banks and Annie Cabbot are like old friends who will, hopefully, continue to grace us with their presence for many more books to come.          BiP staff review by Leonie

BiP eNews: Some topical, thought-provoking books for young people

Recommended for 4+

Out
by Angela May George and Owen Swan     $24.99hb

A little girl and her mother have fled their homeland, making the long and treacherous journey by boat to seek asylum. Out celebrates the triumph of the human spirit in the darkest times, and the many paths people take to build a new life. Owen Swan’s soft, evocative illustrations work so well with this touching story about starting a new life. This gorgeous picture book is a timely and sensitive discussion of what drives people to become refugees and the challenges they face without ever being confrontational.

A stunning book that challenges and rewards, and that is a lovely story to share with children of 4 and beyond.

The Bone Sparrow

by Zana Fraillon     $19.99pb

Subhi is a refugee. Born in an Australian permanent detention centre after his mother fled the violence of a distant homeland, life behind the barbed wire fences is all he has ever known. As he grows, Subhi’s imagination gets bigger too, until it is bursting at the limits of his world. The Night Sea brings him gifts, the faraway whales sing to him, and the birds tell their stories. The most vivid story of all, however, is the one that arrives one night in the form of Jimmie, a scruffy, impatient girl who appears from the other side of the wires, bringing a notebook written by the mother she lost that she cannot read. Subhi, however, can read and together they unravel Jimmie’s family story.

It is difficult to convey just how important, timely, brave (very) and deeply moving we have found The Bone Sparrow. Subhi is as beautiful a character as any you wiill read in children’s fiction, Jimmie too in her own sparkling, bubbly way, but it is the events that unfold at the detention centre and the impact they will have on everyone in their wake that makes this story so compelling.

Highly – and really, we cannot recommend this one highly enough – recommended for readers of 12 and up.

Welcome to Orphancorp
by Marlee Jane Ward
Aug 2015 | $14.99pb

A sharp-edged semi-futuristic riff about a rebellious teenager’s last week at an industrial orphanage, Welcome to Orphancorp is inventive and evocative. Mirii has spent just about her entire life in the Orphancorp system and despite all odds, she has figured out how to turn the place into something resembling a home. Life is not easy in the Orphancorp system, life is short and hard but there are familial bonds to be made and the book focuses on the tenderness that the kids within the system work at, to retain their humanity in the face systemic degradation.

A confident and powerful debut for readers of 14 and up.

When Michael Met Mina
by Randa Abdel-Fattah

July 2016 | $18.99pb

A boy. A girl. Two families. One great divide. When Michael meets Mina, they are at a rally for refugees - standing on opposite sides. Mina fled Afghanistan with her mother via a refugee camp, a leaky boat and a detention centre. Michael's parents have founded a new political party called Aussie Values. They want to stop the boats. Mina wants to stop the hate. When Mina wins a scholarship to Michael's private school, their lives crash together blindingly. A novel for anyone who wants to fight for love, and against injustice.

eNews cont...

This Must Be the Place

Maggie O’Farrell

June 2016 | $32.99pb    ** BiP Price $27.99

Maggie O’Farrell’s new novel is a story about complicated, sometimes messy lives, with well-rounded characters that you either love or loathe, sometimes both at the same time. Daniel Sullivan, a linguistics expert from New York, was in Ireland to collect his grandfather’s ashes when he met Claudette and her son on a country road in Donegal. Claudette was a famous French film star until one day she disappeared from her screen life, leaving no trace of her whereabouts. She became somewhat of a recluse, living in the Irish countryside with her son. Ten years later Daniel and Claudette are happily married with two small children of their own. Daniel is about to return to New York, rather reluctantly, for his father’s ninetieth birthday. He has always had a difficult relationship with his father, preferring his mother’s company as a child and teenager. Claudette has encouraged Daniel, while he is in America, to make contact with Phoebe and Niall, the two children from his disastrous first marriage. The meeting goes surprisingly well, despite Phoebe’s initial fury at his abandonment of them so many years before. On his way back to Donegal Daniel takes a detour to London which causes great damage to his marriage to Claudette and his relationships with all his children. Reading Maggie O’Farrell is a bit like playing chess: you never quite know where the next chapter will take you. Highly recommended.          BiP staff review by Leonie

War and Turpentine
Stefan Hertmans

July 2016 | $29.99pb

Shortly before his death in 1981, Stefan Hertmans' grandfather gave him a couple of filled exercise books. Stories he had heard as a child had led Hertmans to suspect that their contents might be disturbing, and for years he did not dare to open them. When he finally did, he discovered unexpected secrets. His grandfather’s life was marked by years of childhood poverty in late-nineteenth-century Belgium, by horrific experiences on the frontlines during the First World War and by the loss of the young love of his life. He sublimated his grief in the silence of painting. Drawing on these diary entries, his childhood memories and the stories told within Urbain’s paintings, Hertmans has produced a poetic novelisation of his grandfather’s story, brought to life with great imaginative power and vivid detail. War and Turpentine is an enthralling search for a life that coincided with the tragedy of a century—and a posthumous, almost mythical attempt to give that life a voice at last.

Music and Freedom
Zoe Morrison

June 2016 | $32.99pb    ** BiP Price $27.95

Alice Murray learns to play the piano aged three on an orange orchard in rural Australia. Recognising her daughter's gift, her mother sends Alice to boarding school in the bleak north of England, and there Alice stays for the rest of her childhood. Then she is offered a scholarship to the Royal College of Music in London, and on a summer school in Oxford she meets Edward, an economics professor who sweeps her off her feet. Alice soon finds that Edwards is damaged, and she is trapped. She clings to her playing and to her dream of becoming a concert pianist, until disaster strikes. Increasingly isolated as the years unravel, eventually Alice cannot find it in herself to carry on. Then she hears the most beautiful music from the walls of her house… This novel's love story is that of a woman who must embrace life again if she is to survive. Inspiring and compelling, it explores the dark terrain of violence and the transformative powers of music and love.

The Toymaker
Liam Pieper

June 2016 | $29.99pb    ** BiP Price $26.95

Adam Kulakov likes his life. He is on the right side of middle age; the toy company he owns brightens the lives of children around the world; he has more money than he can ever spend, a wife and child he adores, and as many mistresses as he can reasonably hide from them. And he is not the only one with secrets. In 1944, Adam's grandfather, Arkady, was imprisoned in Auschwitz and given an impossible choice. Now, as he is coming to the end of his life, he has to keep the truth from his family, and hold back the crushing memories of his time with one of history's greatest monsters. As a mistake threatens to bring Adam's world tumbling down around him, the past reaches for Arkady. Everything he has spent a lifetime building will be threatened, as will everything Adam and his family think they know of the world. Bold, dark and compelling, The Toymaker is a novel about privilege, fear and the great harm we can do when we are afraid of losing what we hold dear.

The Hanging Club

Tony Parsons

May 2016 | $32.99pb

Max Wolfe and his daughter Scout return in the third book of the series by Tony Parsons. London is in the grip of a heatwave when the body of a taxi driver is found in the middle of Hyde Park, in a significant historical location. The police know exactly who he is after a video of his murder by hanging goes viral on the internet. Everyone is horrified and the media is in a frenzy. It is going to be an eventful summer for Max and Scout, who has just finished her first year of school. While walking home they see a homeless man outside Smithfield Market. Max recognizes the man’s voice: it is his best friend from school. What could have happened to Jackson Rose during the intervening years? They invite Jackson home to stay for a while. Was this the right thing to do? In quick succession a drunk driver who killed a child and a hate preacher are kidnapped. The police are faced with what appears to be a paramilitary group who have appointed themselves judge, jury and hangman. What is the connection between all of the victims? Who will be next? The Hanging Club is intriguing and fast-paced with great characters.          BiP staff review by Leonie

BiP eNews - New Fiction

The winter publishing season has begun, with many good new books coming out every month. The Dry has been published to great acclaim and has become very popular with readers. Film rights have already been sold to Reece Witherspoon’s production company.

BiP staff review by Leonie

The Dry
Jane Harper     $32.99pb    ** BiP Price $27.95

Kiewarra is a small Victorian town, dying through years of drought and heatwaves. Like many small towns it lives on secrets, lies and suspicion of newcomers. Everyone is shocked when young farmer Luke Hadler is found shot dead, together with his wife Karen and son Billy. His baby daughter Charlotte has been left alive in her cot. The homicide team sent from nearby Clyde quickly sign off on the incident as a murder-suicide. Luke’s parents cannot believe that their son would kill his own family and beg Luke’s childhood best mate, Aaron Falk, to come back for the funerals. Aaron, who is now a Federal police officer specializing in financial crimes, reluctantly makes the long drive up from Melbourne. He left Kiewarra with his father many years earlier after they were both suspected of complicity in the suicide of Aaron’s teenaged friend Ellie Deacon. It does not take long for some of the locals to make it clear to Aaron that he is still not welcome, which makes his stay at the local pub even more unpleasant. After talking to Luke’s parents Falk goes out to the Hadlers’ farm, where he meets the new police sergeant, Raco, who also feels that there is something wrong. 

Jane has a distinctive writing style which draws you along page by page. Her descriptions of the town and the drought-stricken countryside are stunning. She has also managed to skilfully maintain an undercurrent of menace throughout the book. I was hooked by the end of the second paragraph. I love reading good books by new Melbourne authors.

Vinegar Girl - The Taming of the Shrew retold

Anne Tyler     $29.99pb    ** BiP price $24.95

Kate Battista is feeling stuck. How did she end up running house and home for her eccentric scientist father and uppity, pretty younger sister Bunny? Plus, she's always in trouble at work – her pre-school charges adore her, but the adults do not always appreciate her unusual opinions and forthright manner. Dr Battista has other problems. After years out in the academic wilderness, he is on the verge of a breakthrough. His research could help millions. There's only one problem: his brilliant young lab assistant, Pyotr, is about to be deported. And without Pyotr…

When Dr Battista cooks up an outrageous plan that will enable Pyotr to stay in the country, he is relying – as usual – on Kate to help him. Kate is furious: this time he is really asking too much. But will she be able to resist the two men's touchingly ludicrous campaign to win her round? Anne Tyler's retelling of The Taming of the Shrew asks whether a thoroughly modern, independent woman like Kate would ever sacrifice herself for a man. The answer is as individual, off-beat and funny as Kate herself.

The Light of Paris
Eleanor Brown     $29.99pb

Chicago 1999. Madeleine is trapped – by her family’s expectations, by her controlling husband – in an unhappy marriage and a life she never wanted. But when she finds a diary detailing her grandmother Margie’s trip to Jazz Age Paris, she meets a woman she never knew: a dreamer who defied her strict family and spent a summer living on her own, and falling for a charismatic artist. When Madeleine’s marriage is threatened, she escapes to her hometown to stay with her disapproving mother. Shaken by the revelation of a family secret and inspired by her grandmother’s bravery, Madeleine creates her own summer of joy. In reconnecting with her love of painting and cultivating a new circle of friends, the chance of a new life emerges – but will she be bold enough take it?

The Lost Time Accidents
John Wray     $29.99pb

The Lost Time Accidents is a bold and epic saga that races through one family's experience of the twentieth century, embracing philosophy, science, history and politics along the way. Haunted by a failed love affair and the darkest of family secrets, Waldemar 'Waldy' Tolliver wakes one morning to discover that he has been exiled from the flow of time. The world continues to turn, and Waldy is desperate to find his way back. In his fiercely inventive new novel John Wray takes us from turn-of-the-century Viennese salons buzzing with rumours about Einstein's radical new theory to the death camps of the Second World War, from the golden age of post-war pulp science fiction to a startling discovery in a modern-day Manhattan apartment packed to the ceiling with artefacts of contemporary life.

The Unfortunate Englishman
John Lawton     $29.99pb

After he shot someone in what he believed was self-defence in the chaos of 1963 Berlin, Joe Wilderness finds himself locked up with little chance of escape. But an official pardon through his father-in-law Burne-Jones, a senior agent at MI6, means he is free to go - although forever in Burne-Jones's service. His latest operation will take him back to Berlin, which is now the dividing line between the West and the Soviets. A story of innocence and intrigue unravels, one in which Wilderness is in and out of Berlin and Vienna like a jack-in-the-box. When the Russians started building the Berlin wall in 1961, two 'Unfortunate Englishmen' were trapped on opposite sides: Geoffrey Masefield in the Lubyanka, and Bernard Alleyn (alias KGB Captain Leonid Liubimov) in Wormwood Scrubs. In 1965 there is a new plan to exchange the prisoners, a swap upon Berlin's bridge of spies. But, as ever, Joe has something on the side, just to make it interesting, just to make it profitable. The Unfortunate Englishman is a thrilling tale of Khrushchev, Kennedy, a spy exchange... and 10,000 bottles of fine Bordeaux. What can possibly go wrong?

Breaking Cover
Stella Rimington     $27.99pb

A new Cold War is coming, and Liz Carlyle is about to find herself on very thin ice. Back in London after a gruelling operation in Paris, she has been posted to MI5's counter-espionage desk. Her bosses hope the new position will give her some breathing space, but they haven't counted on the fallout from Putin's incursions into the Ukraine. Discovering that an elusive Russian spy has entered the UK, Liz needs to track him down before he completes his fatal mission - and plunges Britain back into the fraught days of the Cold War. Meanwhile, following the revelations of whistle-blower Edward Snowden, the intelligence services are in the spotlight. In response to the debate raging around privacy and security, they hire Jasminder Kapoor, a young and controversial civil rights lawyer, to explain the issues to the public. But in this new world of shadowy motives and secret identities, Jasminder must be extra-careful about whom she can trust. Gripping, tense and drawn from her own experience as Head of MI5, Stella Rimington's latest thriller brings the new Cold War vividly to life.

BiP eNews (cont.) - New Picture Books for Children

Recommended for 3+

The Snow Wombat
Susannah Chambers and Mark Jackson
$24.99hb

It is refreshing to come across an Australian picture book set in the snow, and The Snow Wombat, set in Australia’s High Country, is just stunning. Meeting animals, birds and people along his path, a little wombat makes his way through the cold landscape to his cosy burrow. The story itself is rhythmic, with just the right amount of repetition to keep young readers guessing what the wombat will do next. Lovely endpapers (a map of the wombat’s journey, recalling E. H. Shepard’s delicious endpapers that grace The Wind in the Willows) and the expressive face of the wombat make this picture book a stand out. Perfect for reading aloud.

Recommended for 4+

The Detective Dog
Julia Donaldson and Sara Ogilvie
$24.99hb

When a crime needs solving... There is only one dog for the job!

And that fabulous dog just happens to be the multi-talented Detective Dog Nell, the latest lively creation of Julia Donaldson (The Gruffalo and many, many more books that children and parents both adore). Nell’s human Peter takes her to school one Monday morning where tragedy has struck – all of the books in the library have been stolen! Luckily, Nell has a nose for solving crimes…this book is classic Julia Donaldson, replete with singsong language, clever rhymes and tonnes of jokes for the reader layered in the text. Sara Ogilvie is a great new match for Donaldson – her whimsical illustrations suit this story so well. This book is destined to become a much-loved classic.

Recommended for 5+

Circle
Jeanne Baker

$27.99hb

A new book by Jeanne Baker always heralds much celebration and Circle is… Well, it’s simply breathtaking. From the creator of the critically acclaimed Where the Forest Meets the Sea and Mirror, comes a poetic, eco-conscious picture book which explores the complex interdependency of nature. This is the story of the little-known Bar-tailed Godwit who, following invisible pathways that have been used for thousands of years, undertakes the longest unbroken migration of any bird, a total of 11,000 kilometres, flying from their breeding grounds in Alaska across the Pacific Ocean to Australia or New Zealand. Facing hunger and treacherous conditions to reach their destination, their flight is one of bravery, tenacity and strength, and Jeannie's stunning mixed media collages, inspired first-hand by the spectacular landscapes of Alaska and China, will amaze readers, and take them on an extraordinary visual journey to the corners of our Earth. Baker’s pictures are, as ever, incredible, the sort of imagery that children and adults alike pore over for hours and the message is, typically, bang on.

The new Harry Potter story will soon be here!

The countdown has begun…..

 J. K. Rowling’s new Harry Potter book will be released in Australia at 9.01am on Sunday 31st July 2016

Books in Print is offering customers a special pre-paid price of $29.95 (RRP $45.00)

Pre-paid orders will be accepted until

5.00pm Saturday 30th July

The store price will be $34.95 from Sunday 31st July

To place a pre-paid order call us on

03-9500-9631 or visit us in store

The eighth book in the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Parts I and II is a play in two parts, based on a new story by J. K. Rowling, Jack Thorne and John Tiffany. It is intended to be seen in order on the same day (matinee and evening) or on two consecutive evenings.

It was always difficult being Harry Potter and it isn’t  much easier now that he is an overworked employee of the Ministry of Magic, a husband and father of three school-age children.

While Harry grapples with a past that refuses to stay where it belongs, his youngest son Albus must struggle with the weight of a family legacy he never wanted. As past and present fuse ominously, both father and son learn the uncomfortable truth: sometimes, darkness comes from unexpected places.

Sam Clemmett (Albus), Jamie Parker (Harry Potter) and Poppy Miller (Ginny) in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.

2016 Miles Franklin Literary Award Shortlist

• HOPE FARM by Peggy Frew (Scribe Publications): A quietly powerful and haunting novel, full of the aching intensity of the outcast, rendered in pitch-perfect tone and heartbreakingly believable.

• LEAP by Myfanwy Jones (Allen & Unwin): A beautiful story about the resolution of grief, not by moving on or forgetting, but by finally accommodating, absorbing and accepting its weight.

• BLACK ROCK WHITE CITY by A.S. Patric (Transit Lounge): A fresh and powerful exploration of the immigrant experience and Australian life that explores the damages of war, the constraints of choice, the possibility of redemptive love and social isolation amid suburbia.

• SALT CREEK by Lucy Treloar (Pan Macmillian): This portrait of frontier life is a time-traveller’s delight as it unsettles assumptions about European ‘settlement’ and its devastating effects on Aboriginal culture, while graphically charting the unequal nineteenth-century power relations between men and women.

• THE NATURAL WAY OF THINGS by Charlotte Wood (Allen & Unwin): A confronting story of misogyny that is both shockingly realist in its details and deeply allegorical in its shape.

The winner will be announced at the

Melbourne Writers Festival on 26 August 2016

BiP eNews - New fiction for older readers

BiP staff review by Lucinda

The War That Saved My life

by Kimberley Brubaker Bradley

May 2016 | $16.99 pb

An exceptionally moving story of triumph against all odds, set during World War Two. This masterful work of historical fiction is equal parts adventure and a moving tale of family and identity — a classic in the making.

Nine-year-old Ada has never left her one-room London flat. Her working-class mother is too humiliated by Ada’s twisted foot to let her outside, knows no better than to treat Ada as, in her own words, a cripple. Ada’s younger brother Jamie returns from school one afternoon with devastating news: the children of London are being shipped out of the city to escape the war. Ada – bereft at the thought of life without Jamie – does not waste a minute. She must make herself walk so she can sneak out to join him. So begins a new adventure for Ada, a blank slate on which she can write a new life for them both. Miss Susan Smith, the woman who is forced to take in the two children, embarks on an adventure of her own when they are delivered to her door. As Ada teaches herself to ride a pony, learns to read and write, and watches for German spies, she begins to trust Susan—and Susan begins to love Ada and Jamie. But in the end, will their bond be enough to hold them together through wartime? Or will Ada and her brother fall back into the cruel hands of their mother?

Books set during the evacuation of children during WWII rank among my favourite, notably C.S. Lewis’The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe (I always loved the bits set outside of the wardrobe best) and Michelle Magorian’s beautiful, heart-breaking (then heart-warming) Goodnight Mister Tom. There is an evergreen something about the notion of exploring the English countryside without parents that authors and children relate to well, and while The War That Saved My Life doesn’t cover new territory, it is moving, beautifully-written and, ultimately, triumphant. Ada is a determined little girl, one whose life is irrevocably changed, as the title promises, by WWII.

Shortlisted for the Newberry Medal this year, The War That Saved My Life will appeal to good readers of nine and up who will be rooting for Ada all the way through.

Highly recommended for readers 9-13

BiP eNews - New illustrated fiction for young readers

Pax

by Sara Pennypacker
illustrated by Jon Klassen

April 2016 | $19.99 hb

“Searingly honest and heartbreakingly lovely, Pax is, quite simply, a masterpiece.” — Katherine Applegate, Newbery Award-winning author of The One and Only Ivan

Pax was only a cub when his family was killed and he was rescued by 'his boy', Peter. Now the country is at war and when his father enlists, Peter has no choice but to move in with his grandfather. Far worse than leaving home is the fact that he has to leave Pax behind. But before Peter spends even one night under his grandfather's roof he sneaks out into the night, determined to find his beloved friend, and so begins a heart-wrenching (but, thankfully, well-resolved!) tale
about the unbreakable bond between a boy and his fox. Told in chapters that alternate between Peter and Pax’s voices, this very special hardback book is only enhanced by Klassen’s sensitive, lovely black and white illustrations, the perfect match to Pennypacker’s heartfelt words. Ideal for animal lovers.

Recommended for 10+

Ollie's Odyssey

by William Joyce

May 2016 | $27.99 hb

From the creator of The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore and The Guardians of Childhood comes an grand adventure of valor, friendship, and a look into the mysterious world of favorite toys.

When the wonderful William Joyce publishes a new book, children’s booksellers get rather excited and Ollie’s Odyssey, a grand adventure of valour and friendship, is no exception! Handmade by Billy’s mother, Ollie is a very special toy indeed. He becomes Billy’s best friend and confidante. But, as in Disney’s Toy Story series, there are villains in the Toy World, and Zozo, the clown king, is the most feared. He and his toy henchman (the Creeps) have sworn to steal and imprison favourite toys until they forget their children and become forever lost. When Ollie is toynapped, Billy must rescue his beloved favourite from Zozo’s subterranean lair in the old Carnival Place, past the park, through the woods, and into the night.

Beautiful illustrations and a gorgeous hardcover edition make this a standout book for younger readers of 7 and up and it’s perfect to read aloud at bedtime to younger children as well. 

Recommended for 5+