Crow Country by Kate Constable
Location: online (view by clicking the image above) or TFMY (Mystery) CON
Beginning and ending, always the same, always now. The game, the story, the riddle, hiding and seeking. Crow comes from this place; this place comes from Crow. And Crow has work for you.
Sadie isn't thrilled when her mother drags her from the city to live in the country town of Boort. But soon she starts making connections—with the country, with the past, with two boys, Lachie and Walter, and, most surprisingly, with the ever-present crows. When Sadie is tumbled back in time to view a terrible crime, she is pulled into a strange mystery.
Can Sadie, Walter, and Lachie figure out a way to right old wrongs, or will they be condemned to repeat them? A fantasy ground in mythology, this novel has the backing of a full consultative process on the use of indigenous lore.
The door that led to where by Sally Gardner
When the present offers no hope for the future, the answers may lie in the past. AJ Flynn has just failed all but one of his GCSEs, and his future is looking far from rosy. So when he is offered a junior position at a London law firm he hopes his life is about to change - but he could never have imagined how much. Tidying up the archive one day, AJ finds an old key, mysteriously labelled with his name and date of birth - and he becomes determined to find the door that fits the key. And so begins an amazing journey to a very real and tangible past - 1830, to be precise - where the streets of modern Clerkenwell are replaced with cobbles and carts, and the law can be twisted to suit a villain's means.
Kokoda Track : 101 days by Peter Macinnis
This is the story of a vastly outnumbered force of poorly-trained and poorly-supplied Australian militia who stopped a huge but ill-conceived Japanese attack on Port Moresby, over the spine of New Guinea. The two villains in the piece, Australian general Thomas Blamey and US general Douglas MacArthur, should heave brought about defeat a dozen times over with their stupidity. Further down the chain, competent generals and competent soldiering undid the harm that the top generals attempted.
The Kokoda campaign was the first Allied success against the Japanese, though Milne Bay happened in the same time-frame. It was achieved by fighting a withering attrition, stretching the Japanese supply lines and holding them until reinforcements could be brought up. The 101 days of the subtitle is the time from first engagement to the Australian troops rolling back into Kokoda, a village of no strategic importance which captivated the tiny minds of Blamey and MacArthur.
Miss McAllister's Ghost by Elizabeth Fensham
Location: online ( view by clicking the image above) or TFOT (Other Times) FEN
'You can't imagine how strange it is to realise that there is no one left living who knew you,' said Miss McAllister. 'It makes you wonder if you really are alive.'
'We know you,' I replied.
When Cassandra and her brothers climb the garden wall hoping to spot the ghost in the old hollow-eyed house, they have no idea what awaits within. At first violently, then seductively, they are drawn into a world long-lost, a world preserved by a woman whose memories have kept her trapped in time and place.
But do the children really know the ghostly old lady as well as they think they do, or is there something even more bizarre living under her roof - a ghost of her own?
My brother Simple by Marie-Aude Murail ; translated by Adriana Hunter
There's unrequited love, lust (lots of it), bad romantic poetry, too many essays, and plenty of crisps. But the seventeen-year-old boy in this story has something extra to contend with. His older brother has learning difficulties and is languishing in a care home. Listening to his heart rather than his head, the boy knows he must get his brother, nicknamed Simple, out. But as their father is entirely preoccupied with his new wife, it's up to the boy to liberate Simple, and that means finding somewhere for them to live in the city.
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Location: online (view by clicking the image above) or TFOT (Other Times) BUR
When orphaned Mary Lennox comes to live at her uncle's great house on the Yorkshire Moors, she finds it full of secrets. The mansion has nearly one hundred rooms, and her uncle keeps himself locked up. And at night, she hears the sound of crying down one of the long corridors.
The gardens surrounding the large property are Mary's only escape. Then, Mary discovers a secret garden, surrounded by walls and locked with a missing key. One day, with the help of two unexpected companions, she discovers a way in. Is everything in the garden dead, or can Mary bring it back to life?
The shadow girl by John Larkin
The shadow girl never imagined she'd live on the streets. After her parents mysteriously disappear, life with her uncle and aunt takes a sinister turn. Terrified that the authorities will believe her uncle over her, she flees. She tricks herway into a new school and pretends to have a loving family. No one knows she sleeps in rail yards, sand dunes and abandoned houses. This story is a suspenseful tale of lost innocence, truth, lies and survival.
This is what happy looks like by Jennifer E. Smith
When 17-year-old Graham Larkin sends an email to a friend about his pet pig, Wilbur, the last thing he expects is a response from the other side of the country, from one Ellie O'Neill. As their online friendship blossoms, they begin to reveal more about themselves but crucially leave out the truth about Ellie's past and Graham's career as a Hollywood heartthrob. And when a new location needs to be found for Graham's next film, he jumps at the chance to visit Ellie's hometown, Henley, Maine . But, now that they're together, it's impossible to keep their secrets for long and there's a lot to overcome if love is to blossom.
Unlikely loves : 43 heartwarming true stories from the animal kingdom by Jennifer S. Holland
Packed with beautiful, breathtaking full-color photographs, Unlikely Loves is a celebration of love between species. Here are stories of parental love, like the Dalmatian who mothers a newborn lamb—a lamb that just happens to be white with black spots! Stories of playful love, including the fox and the hound who become inseparable. And stories of orphaned animals who have found family-like ties in unexpected combinations, like the elephant who’s bonded with sea lions, goats, and other animals in her walks around the Oregon Zoo.
Ms. Holland has interviewed scientists, zoologists, and animal caretakers from around the world, tracking down firsthand sources and eyewitnesses. The stories are written with journalistic integrity and detail—and always filled with the author’s deep affection for her subjects.
400 minutes of danger by Jack Heath
Brad has fallen into the lion enclosure, and the big cats are hungry! Charith takes the wheel of an out-of-control bus after an explosion. Iresha hears strange noises... from beneath the seabed. Daniel crawls into a waste crusher after a building collapseand then it gets switched on. Tak's class goes on an excursion to an army base and now an experimental military robot is hunting them. Jack Heaths next 10 nail-bitingly dangerous short stories will fascinate and terrify during each full 40-minute count down, as the dangerous situations play out right down to the last crucial moment. Who will live and who will die? Forty minutes of danger, in 40 minutes* of reading time!
The Girl in the blue coat by Monica Hesse
Amsterdam, 1943. Hanneke spends her days procuring and delivering sought-after black-market goods to paying customers, her nights hiding the true nature of her work from her concerned parents, and every waking moment mourning her boyfriend, who was killed on the front line when the Germans invaded. She likes to think of her illegal work as a small act of rebellion. But one day Hanneke gets a very unusual request. One of her regular customers asks her to find a girl. A girl who has disappeared from the secret room in her house. A Jewish girl. As she searches for clues Hanneke is drawn into a dangerous web of lies, secrets and mysteries. Can she find the runaway before the Nazis do?
Red haze : Australians & New Zealanders in Vietnam by Leon Davidson
The Vietnam War was like no other the Australians and New Zealanders had fought. There was no front-line, no safe zone, no glory. In the jungles the Vietcong seemed to be everywhere, and nowhere and winning. To find the Vietcong, a country was tornapart. In questioning why they were there, Australia and New Zealand almost tore themselves apart.
Shauzia by Deborah Ellis
"Watch what you're doing!" the angry newspaper seller spat at her. He kicked Jasper. Jasper yelped. Shauzia pulled her dog away.
"I don't like it here," Shauzia told Jasper. Shauzia just wanted to sit some place and be quiet, but every time they sat down they were told to go away.
Imagine that you re alone in a foreign city to eat you must scrounge through rubbish, to sleep you huddle in doorways. Where do you go? Who do you trust?
When Shauzia leaves the relative safety of the refugee camp she faces many difficulties. But she has all the spirit and pluck of her friend Parvana, and with the help of her dog Jasper she knows she will fulfill her dreams.
Shauzia is a thrilling, thought-provoking companion to the bestselling Parvana and Parvana's Journey
The tale of Despereaux : being the story of a mouse, a princess, some soup, and a spool of thread by Kate DiCamillo ; illustrated by Timothy Basil Ering
Welcome to the story of Despereaux Tilling, a mouse who is in love with music, stories, and a princess named Pea. It is also the story of a rat called Roscuro, who lives in the darkness and covets a world filled with light. And it is the story of Miggery Sow, a slow-witted serving girl who harbors a simple, impossible wish. These three characters are about to embark on a journey that will lead them down into a horrible dungeon, up into a glittering castle, and, ultimately, into each other's lives. What happens then? As Kate DiCamillo would say: Reader, it is your destiny to find out.
The Visconti House by Elsbeth Edgar
Two outsiders are drawn into the mystery of the Visconti House and become close friends as they unravel its tragic secrets. Laura Horton pretends a lot of things but she can't pretend about her house, an old, rundown Italianate villa that rises in faded and dominating splendour above the small country town in which they live. To everyone at school, Laura Horton's just the girl from the haunted house. Everything changes with the arrival of Leon Murphy, a loner with a dark and tragic past. With Leon's help, Laura discovers there is more to her house than meets the eye.
