It’s been a disastrous day. The radio news reports that HMAS Canberra has been sunk with the loss of 819 lives and Kokoda has been lost by the Australians.

Who knows where Des’s lot are? Somewhere on the mountain track between Kokoda and Port Moresby with the Japs hot on their heels. Harold couldn’t say too much in his latest letter, but it sounds like his division is moving to New Guinea too. In his diary, Archie records his own battles at home, against the local bully, Beefy; and how Townsville copes as it becomes a base for the Pacific campaign; and the Australian east coast reels under Japanese bombs. Archie’s two brothers are fighting in the battlefields of World War II. Des has been sent with the militia to fight in the treacherous landscape of the jungles of New Guinea against the Japanese–and his brother Harold is about to join him, after surviving the campaign in the Middle East.

There is nothing between Australia and a Japanese invasion except a small band of brave soldiers, fighting rain, mud, malaria and machine guns.          

The king’s battles with the dragon were always mighty and loud...CLING CLANG CLONG! ROAR!

Boy lived in a silent world and couldn’t hear the fighting. But Boy could see the fear around him...and how everyone would be much happier without it. 

This is my blood, this is my song.

In the early 1940s in Czechoslovakia, Rafael Ullmann and his family are sent to Terezin, the so-called ‘model ghetto’ for Jewish artists. In the 1970s in Canada, Annie Ullmann lives a predictable, lonely life on a prairie with her reclusive father and deaf-dumb mother. Thirty years later, in Australia, Joe Hawker is uncertain about himself and his future.

Told across three continents and time-lines, This Is My Song is a symphony–encouraging us to find our own music.

Whatever is coming, we'll face it together, as a family.
As long as we're together, we'll be okay.

For Miri and her family, life in Warsaw is full of simple joys. The smell of freshly baked challah, the promise of summer holidays, and Fridays when everyone comes together to celebrate the Sabbath. But when the Germans march into Warsaw with their campaign of hatred against the Jews, Miri and her family must move to the ghetto. One by one her family are taken from her, and Miri finds herself alone.

Based on true events, Within These Walls gives a realistic account of what is was like to be a Jewish child in Warsaw during the Holocaust.

Slowly, the car made its way down the street to the cheers of the crowd. Something that looked like a small black bottle came sailing through the air, and landed close to the Archduke. He brushed it aside, and it then rolled into the road behind the car. Instants later came a terrific bang, the road exploded in a shower of dust and stones, and tiny sharp things went flying through the air like angry bees.

Louis Jullian and his older brother Thomas are on holiday in Sarajevo, enjoying the privileges of life in a diplomat’s family. But the peace is shattered as a bomb explodes and the heir to the Austrian Empire is assassinated in front of their eyes.

As Europe descends into war, Louis convinces his parents to let him go to the front as a war correspondent. Sent to northern France, Louis witnesses the war’s first battles and the beginning of trench warfare.  His friends–from Australia, Britain, France, Austria, Russia–join the war effort too, with–and against–each other.

Rachel is in the kitchen, warm and safe.

Her father is in the trenches, cold and afraid.

When Rachel makes biscuits for her father, she adds the love, warmth and hope that he needs.

This is a touching story of a family torn apart by war but brought together through the powerful simplicity of Anzac biscuits. Anzac Biscuits delicately entwines the desolation of life on the front line with the tenderness of life on the home front.

Davey only wants to be one thing: a lifesaver. In his world, they’re larger-than-life, walking, talking heroes. He’s too young, but he starts to train in secret, challenging himself in the Bondi surf. But his secret comes to light one hot Sunday in 1938–a day that was to become infamous.

This story is set against the colourful world and characters of Bondi, after the Depression and just before the start of World War II, as ominous signs emerge from Europe and Jewish refugees arrive in Bondi.

France. Winter. 1918.

The First World War is over. An brave and determined little French orphan, Honore, wanders through the snow, cold and hungry and lost. When he stumbles on the Australian Flying Corps and meets airman, Tim Tovell, his life is changed forever.

This is a story of a remarkable little stowaway and his journey to his new home in Australia.

One of a series of meticulously researched, historical novels in which each book
 is written in the form of a fictional diary of a young person living during an important event
or time period in Australian history.

They had been loading the tunnel face with gelignite when the storm came over. The lightning struck the mountain and went down through an underground watercourse to the wet rockface and set off some of the charges, exploding the rock.

Eva Fischer has moved to Cabramurra, the highest town in Australia. Eva feels on top of the world too. Surrounded by people of every nationality, Eva makes new friends and tries strange foreign food, such as pizza. Eva learns to ski and ride, and even learns that being half German isn’t so bad after all. But all around her momentous things are happening. The Snowy Mountains Scheme is under way, huge dams have been built, tunnels constructed, homes abandoned, people lost.

256-pp softcover. Middle/Upper Primary.

The great Mayan civilization disappeared more than 800 years ago. Could we be next? Your friend Tom disappears on assignment in Mexico searching for clues to the sudden collapse of the Mayan civilization. Then a pool of human blood appears at the Mayan ruin where Tom was last seen alive. Has he travelled back in time?

This book is different to other books. You and YOU alone are in charge of what happens. You must use all of your numerous talents and enormous intelligence. The wrong decision could end in disaster–even death. But don't despair. At any time, YOU can go back and make another choice, alter the path of your story, and change its result.

Mel Gordon loves running, and watching Seinfeld, but mostly she loves Cathy Freeman. It's 2000 and the Olympics are going to be held in Australia. In a year of surprises, Mel finds out that Cathy Freeman is coming to talk to her school. And her family is heading to Sydney!

It becomes an unforgettable journey to Corroboree 2000, bringing together all Australians as they march and sing and celebrate Australia’s Indigenous heritage, and also acknowledge past wrongs.

Three different kids. One mission in common: ESCAPE.

Josef is a Jewish boy in 1930s Nazi Germany. With the threat of concentration camps looming, he and his family board a ship bound for the other side of the world…

Isabel is a Cuban girl in 1994. With riots and unrest plaguing her country, she and her family set out on a raft, hoping to find safety and freedom in America…

Mahmoud is a Syrian boy in 2015. With his homeland torn apart by violence and destruction, he and his family begin a long trek toward Europe…

All three young people will go on harrowing journeys in search of refuge. All will face unimaginable dangers–from drownings, to bombings, to betrayals. But for each of them, there is always the hope of tomorrow. And although Josef, Isabel, and Mahmoud are separated by continents and decades, surprising connections will tie their stories together in the end