Scribe Publications Pty Ltd

Discover the power and beauty of our world’s languages!

My Language Rights invites young readers into the rich tapestry of multilingual communities. Through clear, engaging text and bold illustrations, children explore how our words carry our memories, heritage, and cultural identity.

This timely picture book presents a child-friendly manifesto for linguistic rights, celebrating the fundamental freedom to speak and learn in our mother tongues. Drawing from her experience as an educator, Judy Thompson crafts this essential message in collaboration with Spanish artist Tete Garcia, whose colorful artwork illuminates these important concepts for young readers.

Perfect for:

• Educators and Librarians: An invaluable resource for exploring cultural identity and human rights in an accessible way.
• Families: A thoughtful choice for multicultural households, sparking important conversations about language and heritage.
• Young Language Learners: An empowering book that validates children's experiences with multiple languages.

Drawing from PEN International's Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights, My Language Rights is a vital non-fiction picture book that educates and inspires, showing readers of all ages why protecting our diverse linguistic heritage matters.

A poetic new essay collection in which the symbols of Renaissance-era tarot brush up against life in a changing world.

In 2018, author Jessica Friedmann bought her first deck of tarot cards, a facsimile copy of the Tarot de Marseille. This 15th-century deck, with its unfamiliar images, sparked a deep immersion in the art, symbols, myths, and misrepresentations of Renaissance-era tarot.

Over the years that followed, and as tarot became a part of her daily rhythm, Friedmann’s life in rural Australia was touched by floods and by drought, by bushfires and the pandemic, creating an environment in which the only constant was change.

Twenty-Two Impressions: Notes from the Major Arcana uses the Tarot de Marseille as a touchstone for these years, blending historical research, art history, and critical insights with personal reflections. In these essays, Friedmann demonstrates how the cards of the Major Arcana can be used as a lens through which to examine the unexpectedness—and subtle beauty—of 21st-century life.

Join Jem on her adventures as a guide dog extraordinaire!

My Name is Jem introduces a lovable Labrador with a very important job. Though Jem enjoys playing with her favorite yellow bone and getting cuddles, her most crucial role is guiding her handler safely through the world.

With humor and vivid illustrations, children discover the invaluable work of guide dogs like Jem while enjoying her fun-loving yet dedicated spirit. Olivia Muscat, a blind disability activist and guide dog user, shares this authentic story in collaboration with award-winning artist Allison Colpoys, whose distinctive, colorful style brings humor and warmth to every page.

Perfect for:

• Educators and Librarians: An essential resource for teaching guide dog etiquette and disability awareness in an engaging, accessible way
• Families: A heartwarming choice for family storytime that naturally opens discussions about respect and understanding
• Young Dog Lovers: Jem's funny and inspiring adventures help children understand the special world of guide dogs

My Name is Jem is a joyful story that educates, entertains, and fosters understanding, offering readers of all ages a glimpse into the incredible collaboration between guide dogs and their handlers. Included with the book is a QR code for an audio version, narrated by Olivia Muscat herself.

From the creator of multi-award-winning I Am the Subway. 
A Kirkus Best of 2024
A 2024 Horn Book Fanfare

★ “[A] sweetly hilarious tale” —Kirkus Reviews

★ “clever, humorous” —Horn Book Review

★ "delicious" —Shelf Awareness

Making sure you get your rightful share in a family of five siblings is never easy. Everything must be carefully calculated and precisely measured to make sure no one misses out. How We Share Cake is a hilarious exploration of the timeless struggle for fairness and justice among brothers and sisters. This delightful story captures the very essence of family dynamics.

WINNER OF THE 2025 ABDA BEST DESIGNED CHILDREN'S/ YOUNG ADULT SERIES
Welcome to the plant nursery, where every visit is an adventure!

Off to the Nursery transforms a routine trip to the garden center into a vibrant exploration of the plant world. Through bold illustrations featuring a neon color palette, readers discover the magic of selecting new plants, learning about different growing needs, and understanding the joy of nurturing living things.

Award-winning author-illustrator Alice Oehr's distinctive style brings the bustling world of the plant nursery to life with geometric patterns and contemporary flair, creating scenes that capture the excitement of choosing the perfect pot, the satisfaction of getting hands dirty with potting mix, and the wonder of watching new growth unfold.

Perfect for:

• Educators introducing environmental responsibility, basic botany and plant care concepts
• Libraries seeking engaging STEAM picture books with contemporary appeal
• Families nurturing an early interest in gardening and nature
• School garden programs looking for accessible teaching resources

Off to the Nursery plants the seeds of curiosity, discovery, and caring for our natural world.

Shortlisted for the 2025 CBCA Early Childhood Book of the Year
Shortlisted for the 2025 ABDA Best Designed Children's Picture Book
Spiro’s formula for spidery success:
11% hunger to succeed (or actual hunger)
34% trying again and again … and again!
53% giving it another shot
And lots of spider silk!

In Spiro, award-winning author and illustrator Anna McGregor tells the hilarious and heartwarming tale of a determined spider looking for a decent meal. Through Spiro’s adventures, kids will learn about the importance of perseverance, resilience, and having a growth mindset. The story also explores the balance of luck and skill, while teaching valuable lessons about effort and achievement. This charming book is perfect for children and parents who enjoy humor and are curious about life in Australian suburbs.

Inspired by Robert Macfarlane and curated by Jennie Orchard, an anthology of essays about the joys of giving books to children and young people, from some of the world’s most beloved writers.

Remember the books that shaped your childhood, sparked your imagination, and ignited a lifelong love of reading? In The Gifts of Reading for the Next Generation, some of the world’s most beloved authors share their own transformative reading experiences—the books and stories that set them on the path of becoming the readers and writers they are today.

Following the success of its first edition, The Gifts of Reading, this heartwarming collection of essays is a testament to the enduring power of books. By exploring the stories that shaped them, our authors provide a powerful guide to fostering a love of reading in the children and young people in your life.

With contributions from Tristan Bancks, William Boyd, Shankari Chandran, Horatio Clare, Nicola Davies, Imtiaz Dharker, Ursula Dubosarsky, Maisie Fieschi, Pico Iyer, Wayne Karlin, Colum McCann, JohnMichael McCann, Ann Morgan, Sir Michael Morpurgo, Dina Nayeri, Matt Ottley, Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai, Alice Pung, Diana Reid, Nilanjana Roy, Nikesh Shukla, Nardi Simpson, Madeleine Thien, Thelma Young Lutunatabua, and John Wood, and an afterword by Julia Eccleshare.

All royalties generously donated to the two organizations founded by John Wood, Room to Read and U-Go, promoting literacy and education for girls and young women.

Step into a world of micro-tales that pack a mighty punch of humor!

Short Stories presents ten hilarious encounters between unexpected animal pairings, each told with remarkable economy. From the unseen dangers of a hedgehog at a birthday party to the unexpected uses of a chameleon’s color-changing abilities, these bite-sized narratives showcase the art of storytelling at its most precise and playful.

Silvia Borando’s masterful comic timing turns each page into a lesson in narrative craft. With just a few words and simple illustrations, she creates moments of surprise, irony, and pure delight that will have readers of all ages chuckling.

This collection is more than just a funny book—it’s a masterclass in brevity and wordplay.
Perfect for:

• Young writers looking to craft their own micro-narratives
• Teachers seeking an ideal tool to spark creativity in the classroom
• Families searching for funny books that support early literacy goals

Short Stories proves that when it comes to humor and narrative, less can definitely be more.

One quick tap, and bananas appear at your door the next morning like magic. Simple, right? Here’s a peek inside that seemingly effortless convenience.

Award-winning author and illustrator Jung Jinho traces the incredible journey of one banana, from phone screen to front door. Bustling trucks, lively market vendors, and dedicated night-time workers are part of the surprising connections that bring the things we need right to us.

A captivating look at the many hands and countless stories behind our daily deliveries.

Perfect for:

• Teacher Librarians: Seeking engaging and accessible ways to introduce global systems and supply chains to young readers.
• Parents & Carers: Looking for a wonderful tool to discuss the implications of modern convenience and how our choices impact the world around us with young children.
• Contemporary Illustration Lovers: Discovering a stunning example of cutting-edge contemporary Korean illustration from a renowned artist.

Banana Express is a fun, eye-opening adventure that shows us just how connected we all are, and why each of us truly matters.

At Zeyde's Deli, Sundays mean helping Grandpa serve the neighborhood's best pastrami on rye.

One moment you're carrying a tray of the deli's famous sandwiches. The next, you’re standing in a sea of broken cookies and scattered sprinkles while the lunch rush stares. But right there in the chaos, a grandchild learns what family tradition really means—and that sometimes the best memories come from our biggest messes. A warm, funny story about growing up one matzo ball at a time.

Perfect for:

• Families: Looking for a heartwarming story about intergenerational bonds, cultural heritage, and the joy of shared meals.
• Educators: Seeking an engaging way to introduce themes of tradition, resilience, and the historical significance of community spaces like delis.
• Young Readers: Who love stories about food, family, and discovering their place in a cherished tradition.

Deli Days is a celebration of tradition, resilience, delicious food and even better company.

A heartwarming picture book celebrating family, tradition, and culinary adventures.

Julia Busuttil Nishimura, known for her acclaimed cookbooks and heartwarming food stories, teams up with talented illustrator Myo Yim for their debut picture book collaboration, Sundays Under the Lemon Tree. The book, filled with family moments and culinary discovery, will captivate readers of all ages.

Sundays Under the Lemon Tree follows a young child’s memorable Sunday, with the smells and sounds of family cooking, the adventure of collecting seawater to make ricotta, and the triumph of learning to bake a special family apple cake. Busuttil Nishimura’s prose and Yim’s illustrations bring to life the comforting rituals and loving bonds that make Sundays special.

With themes of connection, heritage, and simple pleasures, this collaboration between Julia Busuttil Nishimura and Myo Yim celebrates the multigenerational bonds between food and family history. The book will also include the cherished apple cake recipe and promises to be a beloved addition to any child's bookshelf.

There is an old Buddhist adage: the teachings are like a finger pointing to the moon. To achieve enlightenment, you are not supposed to look at the finger. You are supposed to look to the celestial light.

I am asking you to look at the finger. The finger is also the moon.

A tilted head. A finger to the lips. A wave that could mean emphasis or dismissal. A raised palm of piety and fellowship.

Our gestures do not simply point to our thoughts, they are our thoughts made flesh. They can be instinctive, intuitive, or calculated—or all three. They exist in the briefest moment and through history, in a gently turned wrist and across whole nations.

Our gestures drag stories with them, whether they mean to or not. They are invitations to think about how our worlds are larger than they seem—how we are much larger than we seem.

Join award-winning philosopher Damon Young—author of The Art of Reading and Philosophy in the Garden—as he sheds light on thirteen curious gestures. Drawing equally from classical poetry and science-fiction, heavy metal and ballet, Young illuminates our varied humanity from prehistory to today.

A collection of beautiful photographs that invites you to immerse yourself and revisit the cool, quirky, glamorous, exciting, menacing, and wonderful times of Retro Sydney.

This collection of photographs celebrates the vibrant and exciting coming of age of Australia’s first city in the ‘golden era’ of 1950 to 2000. From the bustling heart of the CBD, to the quaint suburbia of the outer suburbs, the fashionable streets of Double Bay, the seedy and glamorous Kings Cross, and the carefree beachside suburbs of Sydney, Retro Sydney captures the city’s most significant postwar milestones, and highlights its development and transformation into an international metropolis.

Adapted from the highly popular ‘Retro Sydney’ Instagram account, this collection is a celebration of Sydney. It allows us to behold iconic sights and scenes—some as they were, and some as they still are, generations later. For many readers, it offers a chance to indulge in rare memories of growing up in Australia’s first city.

A revolutionary framework for living well in a broken world, from acclaimed author and psychologist.

How can I manage heartbreak? How do I cope with death? How can I learn to tolerate anxiety and have hope?

In this helpful, practical, and realistic guide to good psychological health, Dr Ahona Guha shows us how to cope, thrive, and still feel hopeful for the future. Combining techniques from a range of therapeutic modalities, she demonstrates how we can build a range of essential psychological skills, and apply them to live a more tranquil and joyful life.

Life Skills for a Broken World is a breath of fresh air, cutting through the confusion to provide solid, practical, and evidence-based answers to existential questions, big and small.

A black comedy, set in suburbia, about one woman’s struggle to be free.

When Winona Dalloway begins her day—in the peaceful early hours before her children, that “tiny tornado of little hands and feet”, wake up—she doesn’t know that by the end of it, everything in her world will have changed.

On the outside, Winona is a seemingly unremarkable young mother: unobtrusive, quietly going about her tasks. But within is a vivid, chaotic self, teeming with voices—a mind both wild and precise.

And meanwhile, a storm is brewing …

One of the few remaining living Holocaust survivors answers the questions children ask her

“There are no stupid questions, nor any forbidden ones, but there are some questions that have no answer.”

Hédi Fried was nineteen when the Nazis snatched her family from their home in Eastern Europe and transported them to Auschwitz, where she and her sister were forced into hard labor until the end of the war.

Now ninety-eight, she has spent her life educating young people about the Holocaust and answering their questions about one of the darkest periods in human history. Questions like, “How was it to live in the camps?” “Did you dream at night?” “Why did Hitler hate the Jews?” “Do you see yourself in today’s refugees?” and “Can you forgive?”

With sensitivity and complete candor, Fried answers these questions and more in this deeply human book that urges us never to forget and never to repeat.

From the author of I Hate Men, a personal and political reflection on abortion rights.

Discussion about abortion and associated rights are often limited to either ‘anti-abortion’ or ‘pro-choice’, the latter of which focuses on the importance of having the right to choose, rather than on what that right means for real people.

In this timely essay, Pauline Harmange provides an intimate, detailed account of her abortion. Reminiscent of Annie Ernaux’s Happening, Abortion is nuanced, complex, honest, and precise. Harmange gives voice to the emotions, reflections, and contradictions that someone could experience when they choose to terminate a pregnancy.

At a time in which women’s reproductive rights are being called into question around the world, Abortion is a clarion call, a powerful personal testimony, and a resolutely political vision: to restore power to our experiences, all our experiences, by sharing them, and to transform society for the better.

An enchanting collection of annotated historical images and contemporary photographs, revealing the change and development that Melbourne has experienced over the years.

In 1835, as he walked the sacred grounds of the Boon Wurrung and Woi Wurrung peoples of the Kulin Nations, John Batman wrote in his diary, ‘This will be the place for a village.’ That small village rapidly grew into the vibrant city of Melbourne.

Historical photographs are a window to the past — a time capsule that allows us to walk in the footsteps of our predecessors. Now, this collection enables us to imagine strolling down Bourke Street in 1875, or catching a Collins Street tram in 1910, or walking through the city’s inner suburbs many years ago. As well, a series of then-and-now photographs reveals a striking contrast between the Melbourne of yesteryear and the city we are familiar with today.

Adapted from the popular ‘Old Vintage Melbourne’ Instagram account, this book invites you to reminisce about and cherish the important heritage of the city of Melbourne. Turn back the clock and immerse yourself in these captivating chronicles of an incredibly diverse, unique city.

• In 1835, as he walked the sacred grounds of the Boon Wurrung and Woi Wurrung peoples of the Kulin Nations, John Batman wrote in his diary, “This will be the place for a village.” That small village rapidly grew into the vibrant city of Melbourne.

Spring, summer, autumn, and winter
The seasons come and go, bringing changes both welcome and unexpected

Miki Sakamoto has spent a lifetime tending her garden and reflecting on its mysteries. Why do primulas bloom in snow? Do the trees really ‘talk’ to one another? What are the black birds saying today? And is there a mindful way to deal with an aphid infestation?

From rising early to walk barefoot on the grass each morning, to afternoons and evenings spent sipping tea in her gazebo or watching fireflies as she recalls her childhood in Japan, in Zen in the Garden Sakamoto shares observations from a life spent in contemplation—and cultivation—of nature.

Against the backdrop of China’s Cultural Revolution and Europe’s sexual revolution, the fates of two families in London and Beijing become unexpectedly intertwined, in this dazzling new novel from the author of Mrs Engels.

Revolution is a Family Affair.

In London, sisters Iris and Eva, members of a radical performance collective, plan an attack on the West End theater where their mother is playing the title role in Miss Julie. Meanwhile in Beijing, Jiang Qing, Chairman Mao’s wife, rehearses a gala performance of her model ballet, The Red Detachment of Women, which she will use in order to attack her enemies in the Party.

As the preparations for these two astonishing performances unfold, Iris, Eva, and Jiang Qing are transformed into unforgettable protagonists in a single epic drama. The three ‘sisters’, although fighting very different personal battles, find themselves bound together by the passions of love, by the obsessions of power, and by the forces of history.

Exquisitely observed, relevant, and wise, The Sisters Mao shows us that the political is always personal.

A sequel to Old Vintage Melbourne, this collection invites you again to turn back time and revisit the diverse past of the much-loved city of Melbourne.

This captivating compilation of photographs taken between 1960 and 1990 provides a fascinating glimpse of a time that is familiar and yet different, when significant changes started to affect the city and its suburbs. As historic city buildings were demolished and streetscapes altered, Melbourne embraced modernity. The skyline grew, and so did suburban shopping centers. Under the impact of a rapidly rising population and large-scale migration, the city’s distinctive and vibrant culture that we know today began to emerge. Cafés, fashion, sport, architecture, infrastructure, technology, and even the law were all transformed.

Adapted from the highly popular “Old Vintage Melbourne” Instagram account, this collection allows us to behold iconic sights and scenes—some as they were, and some as they still are, generations later. For many readers, it offers a chance to indulge in rare memories of growing up in our unique city.

In 1988, at the age of 26, Pieter Waterdrinker was at home in the Netherlands one day when a man knocked on his door and asked him to smuggle a shipment of bibles into the USSR. The resulting adventure would lead to a lifelong journey into Russia and its history.

Waterdrinker would eventually find himself living in Saint Petersburg, with his Russian wife and three cats, on a street which a hundred years earlier had been the epicentre of the 1917 Russian Revolution. In The Long Song of Tchaikovsky Street he tells its story, from the fall of the Tsar to the collapse of the USSR, blending history with memoir to create an ode to the divided soul of Russia and an unputdownable account of his own struggles with life, literature and love.

“Words by Waterdrinker are as amazing as a superior circus.”
—Elsevier

“How evocatively Waterdrinker can write! A hundred years after the Russian Revolution, he makes this violent period of history shine once again.”
—Zin

For readers of Entangled Life and The Hidden Life of Trees, a fascinating journey into the world of plants and animals, and the ways they communicate with each other.

In forests, fields, and even gardens, there is a constant exchange of information going on. Animals and plants must communicate with one another to survive, but they also tell lies, set traps, talk to themselves, and speak to each other in a variety of unexpected ways.

Here, behavioral biologist Madlen Ziege reveals the fascinating world of nonhuman communication. In charming, humorous, and accessible prose, she reveals the hidden world of nature’s language, and how it can help us to understand our own place in the natural world.

"No matter what topic Morris covered over the course of her nearly eight-decade career—from travel to history to her own transition—she did so with insight, elegance and unflinching honesty." —Stuart Emmrich, Vogue

The first ever biography of a world famous author and transgender pioneer.

When Jan Morris passed away in 2020, she was considered one of Britain’s best-loved writers. The author of Venice, Pax Britannica, Conundrum, and more than fifty other books, her work was known for its observational genius, lyricism, and humor, and had earned her a passionate readership around the world.

Morris’s life was no less fascinating than her oeuvre. Born James Humphry Morris in 1926, a childhood spent amidst Oxford’s Gothic beauty and military service in Italy and the Middle East were followed by a career as an internationally feted foreign correspondent. From being the only journalist to join the first ascent of Mount Everest in 1953 to covering the trial of Adolf Eichmann, Morris’s reportage spanned many of the twentieth century’s defining moments.

However, public success masked a private dilemma that was only resolved when she transitioned genders in the late 1960s, becoming renowned as a transgender pioneer. She went on to live happily with her wife Elizabeth in Wales for another five decades, and never stopped writing and publishing.

Here, for the first time, the many strands of Morris’s rich life are brought together, portraying a person of extraordinary talent, curiosity, and joie de vivre.

Paul Clements is the author of five travel books on Ireland. He knew Jan Morris personally for thirty years.

"Perhaps the greatest travel writer of her time." —Matt Schudel, Washington Post

"To open a book by Jan Morris is like popping the cork on a bottle of champagne: pop, fizz, then bubbles of delight." —Scott Simon, NPR

"Distinctive, elegant, formidable … Morris made travel seem like the best way to truly be alive in one’s skin." —Dwight Garner, New York Times

From the photographer behind Westography and Suburbia, with an introduction by Christos Tsiolkas.

From West Brunswick to Reservoir, Fitzroy to Hadfield, Warren Kirk turns his keen eye upon the streets, buildings, and inhabitants of Melbourne’s northern suburbs, which are as iconic as they are rapidly changing. Both a tribute to the things we remember and a reminder to look anew at the world around us, the photos in Northside are a triumph of craft from an artist who invites us to really see.

The forgotten garden that inspired Charles Darwin becomes the modern-day setting for an exploration of memory, family, and the legacy of genius.

Darwin never stopped thinking about the garden at his childhood home, The Mount, in Shrewsbury, Shropshire. It was here, under the tutelage of his green-fingered mother and sisters, that he first examined the reproductive life of flowers, collected birds’ eggs, and began the experiments that would lead to his theory of evolution.

A century and a half later, with one small child in tow and another on the way, Jude Piesse finds herself living next door to this secret garden. Two acres of the original site remain, now resplendent with overgrown ashes, sycamores, and hollies. The carefully tended beds and circular flower garden are buried under suburban housing; the hothouses where the Darwins and their skillful gardeners grew pineapples are long gone. Walking the pathways with her new baby, Piesse starts to discover what impact the garden and the people who tended it had on Darwin’s work.

Blending biography, nature writing, and memoir, The Ghost in the Garden traces the origins of the theory of evolution and uncovers the lost histories that inspired it, ultimately evoking the interconnectedness of all things.

Life lessons from the ground up.

Sometimes you reap what you sow. Sometimes you reap what other people sowed. Sometimes you haven't got a clue what you are sowing, and sometimes you just get lucky, or unlucky. All these things are true of life, as of gardening.

In this thoughtful and beautifully observed book, journalist and gardening enthusiast Margaret Simons takes readers on a journey through the seasons, through her life, and through the tiny patch of inner-urban earth that is home to her garden.

Over the course of a year, within the garden and without, there are births to celebrate and deaths to mourn; there are periods of great happiness and light, and times of quiet reflection. There is, in other words, all the chaos, joy, sorrow, and splendor of being alive.

The curious reader’s companion to sex.

‘Wit, you know, is the unexpected copulation of ideas.’ Samuel Johnson

Why is screwing so funny?
How should we think about our most shocking fantasies?
What is so captivating about nudity?

Inspired by philosophy, literature, and private life, Damon Young explores the paradoxes of the bedroom. On Getting Off will f**k with your mind.

A revelatory, explosive new analysis of the military today.

Over the first two decades of the twenty-first century, Western militaries changed enormously. Multi-year campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan had a considerable financial and human cost. Yet neither war achieved its objectives. This book questions why, and provides challenging but necessary answers.

Composed from assiduous research including hundreds of interviews, The Changing of the Guard is a strikingly rich, nuanced portrait of a military institution in a time of great stress. It is informed by conversations with soldiers who served in the British Army, and the politicians who directed them, as well as interviews with members of the US military and other allies who accompanied them, and the family members who loved and—on occasion—lost them.

Award-winning journalist Simon Akam, who spent a year in the British Army when he was 18, returned a decade later to see how the institution had changed. His book examines the relevance of the armed forces today—their social, economic, political, and cultural role. This is as much a book about the politics of failure, as it is about the military.

Why did Marcel Proust have bonsai beside his bed? What was Jane Austen doing, coveting an apricot? How was Friedrich Nietzsche inspired by his ‘thought tree’?

In Philosophy in the Garden, Damon Young explores one of literature's most intimate relationships: authors and their gardens. For some, the garden provided a retreat from workaday labor; for others, solitude's quiet counsel. For all, it played a philosophical role: giving their ideas a new life. What unites the authors—Proust, Woolf, Colette, Rousseau, Orwell, Emily Dickinson, Kazantzakis—portrayed in Philosophy in the Garden is not any one ideal, but a devotion to the garden itself: to its philosophical fertility. Despite being bookworms and paper moths, they did some of their best thinking al fresco. (Even Jean-Paul Sartre, whose hero in Nausea was sickened by a chestnut tree.)

Philosophy in the Garden reveals the profound thoughts discovered in parks, backyards, and pot-plants. It does not provide tips for mowing overgrown couch grass, or mulching a dry Japanese maple. It is a philosophical companion to the garden's labors and joys.

The remarkable story of how a consul and his allies helped save thousands of Jews from the Holocaust in one of the greatest rescue operations of the twentieth century.

Jan Zwartendijk was just a businessman who worked for Philips, a manufacturer of lightbulbs and radios—until he became Dutch consul and concocted a secret plan that would ultimately save over 2,000 Jews from the Holocaust. An unsung hero, those he saved knew him only as “Mr. Philips Radio.” This is his story.

In the capital of Lithuania, desperate Jewish refugees faced annihilation in the Holocaust. That was when Zwartendijk—with the help of Chiune Sugihara, the consul for Japan—chose to break his country’s diplomatic rules. Together, the two officials opened a route to freedom. Zwartendijk issued thousands of visas to the Dutch colony of Curaçao on the other side of the world, and Sugihara ensured a clear path, allowing refugees to travel on the Trans-Siberian Express all through Soviet Russia to Vladivostok, further to Japan, and onwards to China.

Many of these Jewish refugees survived, but Zwartendijk and Sugihara were both shunned by their own countries after the war, their courageous actions left unheralded.

In The Just, renowned author Jan Brokken wrests this story from oblivion and traces the journeys of a number of the rescued Jews. This epic narrative shows how, even in life-threatening circumstances, some people make the right choice at the right time.

Adult life is full of mysteries. What should you check before renting a flat? How do you ask for a pay rise? Does anything really need to be dry cleaned? And why does everyone else seem to know these things except you? (They don’t, but this book will help.)

Being an Adult is a practical and entertaining guide to the life skills you didn’t learn at school, from when to ask for a discount or send a condolence card, to how to save money, and what you need to know before your first day at work.

If you've ever wondered when you’re going to become a ‘real’ grown-up, this book—with top tips from 20-and 30-somethings, and proper adults including a plumber, a doctor, and a personal finance expert—will give you the answers you need.

A gorgeously illustrated, warm and practical book of tips and wisdom to guide you through tough times.

This is a self-care manual for the days when you feel alone—the days when you worry that you’re too weird or broken or unfixable to be normal. With compassion, humor, and honesty, Jill offers signposts to help you find the path back to yourself.

Whether you’re having a bad day, or a run of bad days that seems never-ending, When You’re Not OK is an emotional first-aid kit for your body, mind, and soul, written by someone who’s been there too.

What are the real Swedish Values? Who is the real Swedish Model? Is Sweden all that?

In recent times, we have come to favor all things Scandinavian—their food, furnishings, fiction, fashion, and general way of life. We seem to regard the Swedes and their neighbors as altogether more sophisticated, admirable, and evolved than us. But what if Sweden has in fact never been as moderate, egalitarian, dignified, or tolerant as it would like to (have us) think?

The recent rise to political prominence of an openly neo-Nazi party has begun to crack the illusion, and here now is Swede Elisabeth Åsbrink, who loves her country “but not blindly,” presenting twenty-five of her nation’s key words and icons afresh. “There is,” she writes, “a dark side to Utopia.” As she did in her acclaimed 1947, she creates a collage that helps us not only see a more complex and problematic society, but also illustrates how national identity is constructed as much by what (or who) is excluded as what (or who) is included.

An epic family saga beginning with the Russian Revolution and swirling across a century, encompassing war, loss, love requited and unrequited, ghosts, joy, massacres, tragedy. And hot chocolate.

At the start of the twentieth century, on the edge of the Russian empire, a family prospers. It owes its success to a delicious chocolate recipe, passed down the generations with great solemnity and caution. A caution which is justified: this is a recipe for ecstasy that carries a very bitter aftertaste…

Stasia learns it from her Georgian father and takes it north, following her new husband, Simon, to his posting at the center of the Russian Revolution in St Petersburg. Stasia’s is only the first in a symphony of grand but all too often doomed romances that swirl from sweet to sour in this epic tale of the red century.

Tumbling down the years, and across vast expanses of longing and loss, generation after generation of this compelling family hears echoes and sees reflections. A ballet dancer never makes it to Paris and a singer pines for Vienna. Great characters and greater relationships come and go and come again; the world shakes, and shakes some more, and the reader rejoices to have found at last one of those glorious old books in which you can live and learn, be lost and found, and make indelible new friends.

A dramatic, multi-vocal account of the personal agonies and ecstasies that played out within the walls of Ellis Island, as told by Poland’s greatest living journalist

This is the people’s history of Ellis Island—the people who passed through it, and the people who were turned away from it.

From Annie Moore, the Irishwoman who was the first to be processed there, to Arne Peterssen, the Norwegian who was the last to be taken away from the island via the official ferry boat in 1954, Ellis Island weaves together the personal experiences of forgotten individuals with those who live on in history: Fiorello La Guardia, Lee Iacocca, and other American leaders whose paths led them to the Island for various reasons through the years.

Award-winning journalist Małgorzata Szejnert draws on unpublished testimonies, memoirs, archival photographs, and correspondence from many internees and immigrants, including Russians, Italians, Jews, Japanese, Germans, and Poles. At the book’s core is a trove of personal letters from immigrants to their loved ones back home—letters which were confiscated and never delivered, finally discovered in a basement in Warsaw.

But also brought to life are the Ellis Island employees: the doctors, nurses, commissioners, interpreters, social care workers, and even chaperones, who controlled the fates of these émigrés—often basing their decisions on pseudo-scientific ideas about race, gender, and disability. Sometimes families were broken up, and new arrivals were detained and quarantined for days, weeks, or even months.

All told, the island compound spent longer as an internment camp than as a migration way-point—in addition to filling other roles through the years, including that of rescue station in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.

Now brought back to life by a master storyteller, this is a story of a place and its people, steeped in politics and history, that reshaped the United States.

A scintillating collection from the award-winning author of The Ice-Cream Makers and Mama Tandoori.

The vivid characters in these stories share lives marked by coincidences, deeply felt passions, impulsive decisions, and missed opportunities. There’s Ezio, a lonely apple-picker dangerously obsessed with spirited teenager Giovanna. Heinrich is a quiet ticket inspector who watches his passengers live their lives as he longs for a meaningful connection of his own. Klaus is a young man reflecting on his first unrequited love, Eva. And Paul’s experiences of loss bring him to a new life.

As they look back and narrate their histories, each reflects on the circuitous paths that life took them, and on the relationships that never came to pass.

Melancholic yet tender, these beautifully rendered atmospheric stories explore loss, longing, coming of age, and regret, and speak to the humanity in all of us.

A pioneering cardiac surgeon expertly sews up the heart of surgery.

The Angina Monologues speeds from the transporting of a donor’s heart up the highway’s shoulder, to cautionary stories of excessive intervention gone awry in US hospitals, to a traumatic trip to bring advanced cardiac surgery to the Palestinian West Bank. Nashef tells heartstopping stories of transplants, coronary artery bypasses, aorta repair, and cardiac arrest. He also delivers humane advice about medical realities rarely observed: the futility of obsessing over diet, the necessity of calculating risks, the role of decision making, and the resilience of doctor and patient alike.

Nashef is a magnificently warm and likeable doctor and writer; and he has the best imaginable bedside manner.

One of the few remaining living Holocaust survivors answers the questions children ask her

“There are no stupid questions, nor any forbidden ones, but there are some questions that have no answer.”

Hédi Fried was nineteen when the Nazis snatched her family from their home in Eastern Europe and transported them to Auschwitz, where she and her sister were forced into hard labor until the end of the war.

Now ninety-eight, she has spent her life educating young people about the Holocaust and answering their questions about one of the darkest periods in human history. Questions like, “How was it to live in the camps?” “Did you dream at night?” “Why did Hitler hate the Jews?” “Do you see yourself in today’s refugees?” and “Can you forgive?”

With sensitivity and complete candor, Fried answers these questions and more in this deeply human book that urges us never to forget and never to repeat.

From the photographer behind the acclaimed Westography

The sentiment that flows through these images is a balm to the knowledge that time is passing and things will change — William McInnes.

Warren Kirk's photos will strike a chord with anyone who's grown up in the Australian suburbs in the past 50 years. Somehow both achingly familiar and unimaginably strange, these luminous images continue his 30-year project of documenting a way of life that is slowly disappearing, along with the people who lived it.

Taken with loving attention and considerable skill, and with the utmost respect for the people and places that appear in them, Kirk's photos of shops and houses, of gardens and lounge-rooms, of people surrounded by the things they love, are beautifully evocative and powerfully nostalgic.

A riveting biography that shines a shaft of light on a hidden but captivating life, told with the pace, depth, and psychological richness of a great novel.

Julia Sorell was an original. A colonial belle from Tasmania, vivacious and warm-hearted, Julia’s marriage to Tom Arnold in 1850 propelled her into one of the most renowned families in England and into a circle that included Lewis Carroll and George Eliot. Her eldest daughter became a bestselling novelist, while her grandchildren included the writer Aldous Huxley, author of Brave New World, and the evolutionary biologist Julian Huxley.

With these family connections, Julia is a presence in many documented and famous lives, but she is a mostly silent presence. When extracted from her background of colonial life, extracted from the covers of marriage and family life, her story reveals an extraordinary woman, a paradox who defied convention as much as she embraced it.

What began as a marriage born of desire soon turned into a relationship riven by discord. Tom’s sudden decision to become a Catholic and Julia’s refusal to convert with him plunged their lives into a crisis wherein their great love for each other would be pitted against their profoundly different understandings of marriage and religion. It was a conflict that would play out over three decades in a time when science challenged religion, when industrialization challenged agrarian forms, when democracy challenged aristocracy, when women began to challenge men. It was a conflict that would shape not only their own lives and that of their children, but also touch the lives of all those who came into contact with them.

Amazing and astounding stories of historical, mythical, and real dogs from around the world

Powerful dogs, mythical dogs, heroic dogs, talented dogs, literary dogs, dogs who have changed the course of history, and dogs who have set the internet ablaze.

Dogs, dogs, dogs, dogs, dogs, dogs, dogs.

From the deeply misunderstood Cerberus, the multi-headed hound of Hades, to Hachikō, Rin Tin Tin, and Duke—the thrice-elected mayor of Cormorant, Minnesota (who is an actual dog).

With words by Jadan Carroll and illustrations by Molly Dyson, (Definitely) The Best Dogs of all Time tells heart-warming, absurd, and informative stories of the most exceptional hounds to have bounded across the earth, their majestic tongues flowing in the breeze, and of the humans who love them.

A revelatory biography of Australia’s longest-serving prime minister.

Robert Menzies claimed the prime ministership in 1939 and led the nation during the early years of the war, but resigned two years later when he lost the confidence of his party. His political career seemed over, and yet he staged one of the great comebacks to forge a new political party, devise a new governing philosophy, and craft a winning electoral approach that as to make him Australia’s longest-serving prime minister.

The lessons Menzies learned—and the way he applied them—made him a model that every Liberal leader since has looked to for inspiration. But debate over Menzies’ life and legacy has never settled.

Who was Robert Menzies, what did he stand for, what did he achieve? Troy Bramston has not only researched the official record and published accounts, but has also interviewed members of Menzies’ family, and his former advisers and ministers. He has also been given exclusive access to family letters, as well as to a series of interviews that Menzies gave that have never been revealed before. They are a major historical find, in which Menzies talks about his life, reflects on political events and personalities, offers political lessons, and candidly assesses his successors.

Robert Menzies is the first biography in 20 years of the Liberal icon—and it contains important contemporary lessons for those who want to understand, and master, the art and science of politics.

This is a landmark in science writing that resurrects from the vaults of neglect the polymath Jerome Cardano, a Milanese of the sixteenth century.

Who is Jerome Cardano? A gambler and blasphemer, inventor and schemer, plagued by demons and anxieties, astrologer to kings, emperors, and popes. This stubborn and unworldly man was the son of a lawyer and a brothel keeper, but also a gifted physician and the unacknowledged discoverer of the mathematical foundations of quantum physics.

The Quantum Astrologer's Handbook, like Jerome, has multiple occupations: it is at once a biography, a history of science, an explanation of quantum theory, and an engrossing story which is truly original in its style and, in the manner of the modernists, embodies in its very form its theories about the world.

The Quantum Astrologer’s Handbook is a science book with the panache of a novel, a work of and about genius.

Few Australians realize that of the 62,000 Anzac soldiers who died in the Great War, over one-third are still listed as ‘missing’. With no marked graves, the only reminders of their sacrifice are the many names inscribed on aging war memorials around the world.

Bennett deftly tells the story of such missing Anzacs through the personal experience of three sets of brothers—the Reids, Pflaums, and Allens—whose names he selected from the Memorials to the Missing. Bennett traces their paths from small, peaceful towns to three devastating battlefields of the Great War: Gallipoli, Fromelles, and Ypres. He reveals the carnage that led to their disappearance, and their family’s subsequent grief and endless search for elusive facts.

Bennett’s unflinching account addresses many painful questions. What circumstances resulted in the disappearance of so many soldiers? Why did the Australian government fail in its solemn pledge to recover the missing? Why were so many families left without answers about the fate of their loved ones—despite the dedicated efforts of Vera Deakin and her co-workers at the Australian Red Cross inquiry bureau, first in Cairo and then in London? Vera, a daughter of Australia’s second prime minister, had had a privileged upbringing, and yet devoted herself tirelessly to seeking answers for the families of the missing.

The Nameless Names lays bare the emotional toll inflicted upon families, describing those caught between clinging to hope and letting go, those who felt compelled to journey to distant battlefields for answers, and those who shunned conventional religion and resorted to spiritualism for solace.

This moving book delicately reveals the human faces and the devastating stories behind the names listed on the stone memorials.

Intellectual. Feminist. Polemicist. Provocateur.

This riveting biography of Germaine Greer traces the personal and political history of one of the most important, radical, and controversial women of twentieth and twenty-first century feminism. It reveals how her public persona has shifted with time from sixties trailblazer to present-day rabble-rouser, and why her legacy deserves to be reexamined.

Upon the publication of her seminal book The Female Eunuch in 1970 (written at the urging of Sonny Mehta), Greer became an international celebrity, known worldwide as a charismatic and compelling voice in women’s liberation. She appeared on the cover of LIFE Magazine; took on Norman Mailer in an infamous Town Hall debate with Betty Friedan and Susan Sontag in the audience (made into a documentary by DA Pennebaker and, last year, into a Wooster Group performance), debated William F. Buckley Jr in Cambridge, founded the Center of the Study of Women's Literature at the University of Tulsa, and reputedly had trysts with Warren Beatty, Federico Fellini, Martin Amis, and, of all people, her regular sparring partner Norman Mailer.

Although she’s been largely forgotten in the US, and controversial statements about rape and transgender persons have caused widespread denunciations, she remains a profoundly influential figure in second-wave feminism. In this new biography, Elizabeth Kleinhenz draws on unprecedented access to Greer’s personal archives to create a complete picture of a powerful but divisive figure and, in so doing, adds to our understanding of the entire feminist movement.

Available in English for the first time, here is David Vogel’s previously unknown novel that had literary Israel abuzz when it was published in 2012, almost one hundred years after the author started working on it.

David Vogel has long been regarded as a leading figure in modern Hebrew literature, and his work has been compared to that of Joseph Roth, Thomas Mann, and Franz Kafka. Vogel was thought to have written only a single novel: his masterpiece, Married Life, which was published to great acclaim in 1929. Yet he had been working on another novel, which was only discovered recently.

Set in the early 1900s, Viennese Romance tells the story of Michael Rost, an eighteen-year-old Jewish youth who travels to Vienna, hungry for experience. There, he forms passing relationships with everyone who crosses his path — prostitutes, revolutionaries, paupers, army officers, and rich men alike. When a shady businessman takes the penniless Rost under his wing, he rents a room in the home of an affluent bourgeois family. He is seduced by the lady of the house while her husband is away on business, and shortly after begins an affair with her sixteen-year-old daughter as well. This love triangle threatens to destroy the entire family.

With a foreword that explains how this lost novel came to light, Viennese Romance is a seminal work that explores the conflicts faced by many Jewish intellectuals in early twentieth-century Europe. A compelling portrait of a decadent society, it also lays bare the obsessive–destructive nature of love.

Winner of the 2020 Australian National Biography Award and the 2020 NSW Premier’s Non-Fiction Award.

The oddly compelling story of a man regarded as Australia’s worst prime minister.

William McMahon was a significant, if widely derided and disliked, figure in Australian politics in the second half of the twentieth century. This biography tells the story of his life, his career, and his doomed attempts to recast views of his much-maligned time as Australia’s prime minister.

After a long ministerial career under Menzies, McMahon became treasurer under Harold Holt, and fought a fierce, bitter war over protectionism with John McEwen. Following Holt’s death in 1967, McEwen had his revenge by vetoing McMahon’s candidature for the Liberal Party’s leadership, and thus paved the way for John Gorton to become prime minister. But almost three years later, amid acrimony and division, McMahon would topple Gorton and fulfill his life’s ambition to become Australia’s prime minister.

In office, McMahon worked furiously to enact an agenda that grappled with the profound changes reshaping Australia. He withdrew combat forces from Vietnam, legislated for Commonwealth government involvement in childcare, established the National Urban and Regional Development Authority and the first Department of the Environment, began phasing out the means test on pensions, sought to control foreign investments, and accelerated the timetable for the independence of Papua New Guinea. But his failures would overshadow his successes, and by the time of the 1972 election McMahon would lead a divided, tired, and rancorous party to defeat. 

A man whose life was coloured by tragedy, comedy, persistence, courage, farce, and failure, McMahon’s story has never been told at length. The Life and Stories of William McMahon fills that gap, using deep archival research and extensive interviews with McMahon’s contemporaries and colleagues. It is a tour de force - an authoritative and colourful account of a unique politician and a vital period in Australia’s history.

A revelatory and original contribution to our understanding of the role of religion in society and politics.

India’s leading public intellectual, Shashi Tharoor, lays out Hinduism's origins and its key philosophical concepts, major texts and everyday Hindu beliefs and practices, from worship to pilgrimage to caste. He is unsparing in his criticism of extremism and unequivocal in his belief that what makes India a distinctive nation with a unique culture will be imperiled if Hindu “fundamentalists”—the proponents of “Hindutva," or politicized Hinduism—seize the high ground. In his view, it is precisely because Hindus form the majority that India has survived as a plural, secular democracy.

A book that will be read and debated now and in the future, Why I Am a Hindu, written in Tharoor's captivating prose, is a profound re-examination of Hinduism, one of the world's oldest and greatest religious traditions.

J.M. Coetzee: a life in writing is the first biography of Nobel prize-winning author J.M. Coetzee. A global publishing event of the rarest kind, the book has been written with the full co-operation of Coetzee, who granted the author interviews, and put him in touch with family, friends, and colleagues who could talk about events in Coetzee’s life.

For the first time, Coetzee allowed complete access to his private papers and documents, including the manuscripts of his sixteen novels. J.C. Kannemeyer has also made a study of the enormous body of literature on Coetzee, and through archival research has unearthed further information not previously available.

The books deals in depth with Coetzee’s origins, early years, and first writings; his British interlude from 1962–65; his time in America from 1965–71; his 30 years back in South Africa, when he achieved international recognition and won the Booker prize; and his Australian years since 2002, during which time he won the Nobel Prize.

J.M. Coetzee: a life in writing is a major work that corrects many of the misconceptions about Coetzee, and that illuminates the genesis and implications of his novels. This magisterial biography will be an indispensable source for everybody concerned with Coetzee’s life and work.

He was the reformer who made Victoria a leader in social equality, the arts, and the environment. He and his government built the underground rail loop, decriminalised homosexuality, abolished capital punishment, and outlawed sexual discrimination in the workplace.

Hamer and his team ended the demolition of the inner suburbs, preserved the best of the state’s buildings and landscapes, and set aside large areas of diverse ecosystems as national parks. They gave Melbourne key infrastructure such as the West Gate Bridge and the Thomson Dam, extended the city’s tramlines for the first time in half a century, and built art galleries, libraries, and theatres all over the state.

Yet Dick Hamer was a Liberal: a Toorak boy educated at Victoria’s best schools, who served for years under the conservative Sir Henry Bolte before taking the reins himself and making the Liberal Party a spearhead of reform from 1972 to 1981.

Hamer was a different kind of politician. He was intelligent, fair-minded, courteous, and hard-working, and governed with the longterm interests of his people in mind. He never tried to manufacture issues or direct debates for short-term political gain.

Victorians recognised this, and elected him three times in a row as their premier—the last Liberal premier in Australia to have achieved this feat. He stands as the exemplar of important qualities in the Liberal tradition. Dick Hamer: the liberal Liberal is the first biography to be written of this remarkable man, who so embodied a quality now lacking in our public life: integrity.

A brilliantly evocative memoir from the golden age of newspaper publishing, from a man who helped define our modern media.

Les Hinton was 15 when he first worked for Rupert Murdoch, and Murdoch’s “empire” was a single evening newspaper. In the next half century, he travelled the world on the wagon train of his boss’s vast ambition, first as a correspondent, and then as one of his closest aides.

As head of Murdoch companies in newspapers, magazines, and television — including The Wall Street Journal, The Times of London, Fox Television Stations, the New York Post, and TV Guide — Hinton has been present at and directed several key scenes in the media’s revolutionary transformation.

His career has spanned three continents: from Fleet Street to Wall Street; from the bucolic small town of Adelaide in Australia, where young Murdoch first dreamed of his media conquests, to the febrile world of Hollywood.

Here Hinton depicts the demonic drive of his boss, and the upheavals that swept his trade, with the same widescreen perspective and sharp colors he deploys to show us how politicians such as Bill Clinton and Tony Blair dealt with the media. From phone calls from Princess Diana, to living next door to O. J. Simpson, Hinton provides a revelatory new angle on the people who make the news.

And, in a book that comes to comprise one of the defining media memoirs of our age, we get the clearest portrait yet of Rupert Murdoch — the man who followed giants such as Hearst, Pulitzer, and Henry Luce, to build a media superpower that overshadowed them all.

A meditation on writing, reading, first words, and last words.

On a bright spring day in 2015, as Georgia Blain was mowing the lawn, she collapsed on a bed of blossoms, blood frothing at her mouth. Waking up to find herself in the back of an ambulance being rushed to hospital, she tries to answer questions, but is unable to speak. After the shock of a bleak prognosis—a tumor sitting right in the language center of her brain and a long, gruelling treatment schedule—she immediately turns to writing to rebuild her language and herself.

At the same time, her mother moves into a nursing home with Alzheimer’s; weeks earlier, her best friend and mentor had been diagnosed with the same brain tumor. All three of them are writers, with language at the core of their being. The Museum of Words is a meditation on writing, reading, first words and last words, picking up thread after thread as it builds on each story to become a much larger narrative. This idiosyncratic and deeply personal memoir is a writer’s take on how language shapes us, and how often we take it for granted—until we are in danger of losing it.

Hundreds of Australian first-person narratives of World War I have been published, but none more riveting than this one.

The wartime letters and diaries of Pompey Elliott, Australia’s most famous fighting general, are exceptionally forthright. They are also remarkably illuminating about his volatile emotions. Pompey not only wrote frankly about what happened to him and the men he was commanding; he was also frank about what he felt about both. Having arranged a no-secrets pact with his wife for their correspondence before he left Australia in 1914, he adhered to that agreement throughout the conflict.

Moreover, Pompey expressed himself with vivid candour in his diaries and other correspondence. He wrote rapidly and fluently, with fertile imagery, a flair for simile, and an engaging turn of phrase. His extraordinary letters to his young children turned even the Western Front into a bedtime story.

Pompey was prominent in iconic battles and numerous controversies. He was wounded at the Gallipoli landing, and four of his men were awarded the Victoria Cross for conspicuous bravery at Lone Pine. No one was more instrumental than Pompey in turning looming defeat into stunning victory at both Polygon Wood and Villers–Bretonneux. No Australian general was more revered by those he led or more famous outside his own command.

Ross McMullin, the author of the award-winning and best-selling biography Pompey Elliott, has collected Pompey’s words from a variety of sources and shaped them into a compelling narrative. This book will transform our awareness of Pompey's importance in the dramatic final year of World War I.

Inglorious Empire tells the real story of the British in India and reveals how Britain’s rise was built upon its plunder of India.

In the eighteenth century, India’s share of the world economy was as large as Europe’s. By 1947, after two centuries of British rule, it had decreased six-fold. Beyond conquest and deception, the Empire blew rebels from cannon, massacred unarmed protesters, entrenched institutionalised racism, and caused millions to die from starvation.

British imperialism justified itself as enlightened despotism for the benefit of the governed, but Shashi Tharoor takes on and demolishes this position, demonstrating how every supposed imperial “gift”—from the railways to the rule of law—was designed in Britain’s interests alone. He goes on to show how Britain’s Industrial Revolution was founded on India’s deindustrialization, and the destruction of its textile industry. In this bold and incisive reassessment of colonialism, Tharoor exposes to devastating effect the inglorious reality of Britain’s stained Indian legacy.

Alan Turing saved millions of lives. But Bletchley Park wasn’t the only major code-breaking operation during World War II. Down under, there was Central Bureau.

Central Bureau—Australia’s own large and sophisticated intelligence network, built from scratch. It was this group of mathematicians, code-breakers, and radio experts who intercepted the travel plans of the architect of the Pearl Harbor attack, Admiral Yamamoto, leading to his ambush and death. Australian signals intelligence also played a vital role in the battles of the Coral Sea, Milne Bay, Hollandia, and many others. General Douglas MacArthur, the supreme commander of the local Allied forces, went so far as to insist that the men of Central Bureau accompany him on his counter-attack in the Pacific.

After the war, the US sought to give these non-combatants the highest awards possible—honors that were suppressed by the Australian government in their need for secrecy. A groundbreaking work of military history, The Secret Code-Breakers of Central Bureau gives these talented and dedicated individuals their due at last. It is a rich account of the shadowy side of military strength and of the men and women whose work was, in the words of the US navy, of ‘immeasurable importance in the successful prosecution’ of the Pacific War.

It’s Saturday morning, and Milo’s been cooking his famously delicious pancakes. They’re ready to serve but Henry doesn’t feel like getting up. Now it’s up to Milo and the twins to find a solution!

Dada Henry doesn’t feel like pancakes this morning, and Milo and the twins aren’t sure why. They persist making more and more elaborate concoctions: ‘Maple Come Back for More’, ‘Little Puddings Supreme’, and ‘Brussels Sprouts Forget Me Never’, but nothing will lure Henry out of bed. 

Come on a chaotic culinary adventure as the fox family finds the perfect answer to a familiar problem. A funny, and heartwarming tale from award-winning creators Bernadette Green and Daniel Gray-Barnett in their first collaboration.

Perfect for:

• Parents, teachers, and librarians looking for funny kids’ books that deal gently with parental mental health
• Anyone seeking books with incidental representation of LGBTQI+ families
• Food-obsessed kids who love to experiment in the kitchen
• Readers who would enjoy the joyful world-building of Richard Scarry with the soulful heart of A Sick Day for Amos McGee.

Climb on my lap. We’re under the moon. We might hear some animales soon.

I Hear a Búho is a rhyming story with text in English and Spanish, which encompasses language, the parent-child bond, nature, and the benefit of being still, and listening.

A mother and daughter are snuggling together on their porch, listening to the sounds of the night. A girl makes animal calls and her mother responds sweetly. To their surprise a real owl appears and flies across the night sky.

A KIRKUS REVIEWS BEST BOOK OF 2022
A PUBLISHERS WEEKLY CHILDREN’S BOOK FOR FATHER’S DAY 2022

If I could meet my grandpa,
this is what I would tell him …
When I grow up, I want to be like my dad.

Oliver has never met his grandpa, and neither has his dad.

In this heartwarming book, Oliver imagines telling his grandpa about the most important person in his life—the man who teaches him to live with joy and feel deeply.

A moving ode to parenthood, the bonds we share with our children, and the ways we shape their lives.

Reena hates rainy days. She hates the way the dark clouds make everything look so dull.
Rekha loves rainy days. She loves the way the rain makes the earth smell.

When Rekha spots a rainbow, she rushes indoors to tell her sister about it. Reena will want to paint it, for sure!

But when the sisters go outside to find it, the rainbow disappears. Where could it have gone? 

A vibrantly illustrated tale about finding light even in the gloomiest of times, How to Find a Rainbow will warm your heart—and give you a handy guide to making your own rainbow, too!

WINNER OF THE 2024-5 ALABAMA SCHOOL LIBRARY ASSOCIATION'S YELLOWHAMMER BOOK AWARD FOR PICTURE BOOK
WINNER OF THE 2024-5 VERMONT YOUTH BOOK AWARD'S RED CLOVER AWARD
WINNER OF THE 2024 ABDA BEST DESIGNED CHILDREN'S PICTURE BOOK AND BOOK OF THE YEAR
A 2024 White Raven selection
A dPICTUS 100 Outstanding Picture Books selection for 2024
Shortlisted for the 2024 World Illustration Awards

Fergus lives down in the deepest, darkest sea and is scared of just one thing … the light! Fresh and funny narrative non-fiction from the award-winning Anna McGregor.

From award-winning creator Anna McGregor (author of Anemone is Not the Enemy) comes this hilarious tale of the deepest of sea creatures. Seamlessly combining humor, narrative, and non-fiction, McGregor introduces young readers to the wonders of the ocean’s ‘midnight zone’, where no sunlight at all is able to penetrate. We meet Fergus as he hides from a parade of sea-creatures that use bioluminescence to find their way in the dark. At least, we think he is hiding … or is it something else entirely?

This book is ideal for:

• Educators and librarians looking for humorous stories to use as a launching pad for further non-fiction investigation into the ocean environment;
• Parents and carers looking to combine narrative and non-fiction to entertain and educate their children simultaneously;
• Kids who just want funny books!

An alphabet of delicious things from around the world

A is for artichokes and long spears of asparagus. It’s for bright, creamy avocados and salty little anchovies!

From apple pie to zeppole, and everything in between, Artichoke to Zucchini introduces young readers to fruit, vegetables, and dishes from around the globe. Full of tasty favorites and delicious new discoveries, it’s sure to lead to inspiration in the kitchen.

Following on from the award-winning Off to The Market, acclaimed artist Alice Oehr takes you on a mouth-watering trip through the alphabet and around the world.

• Perfect for:
• Storytime librarians looking to engage with the smallest of readers with an engaging read-aloud alphabet book
• Parents and carers who are encouraging young children to try new foods
• Kids who are interested in food shopping and cooking
• Readers who love bright and fashion-forward illustration

Next, I brushed my hare and put on my new pear of shoes.

Mum painted her nails before we set out for the day.

Join Banjo and his mom on what starts as a straightforward day out, only to have it upended by homophones (two words with the same pronunciation but with different meanings), turning the narrative into the delightfully absurd. Kids and adults alike will love this joyful new wordplay extravaganza from debut author Mel Amon with illustrations by international superstar Sophie Beer. The hilarious wordplay combined with delightful illustrations have kids “in on the joke” from the very beginning.

WINNER OF THE 2025 ABDA BEST DESIGNED CHILDREN'S/ YOUNG ADULT SERIES
Sunday is market day. We are looking for pumpkin, apples, eggs, and bread. What else will we find? Where did it come from? And what will we make with it?

Learn all about produce in this delightful child’s tour of a food market, full of fun facts, delicious new discoveries, and charming characters.

A loving ode to the people who bring food to our table and connection to our community, from acclaimed artist Alice Oehr.

• A gorgeous gift for young children to inspire a lifelong love of food.
• A wonderful resource for educators and librarians to help students build visual and produce literacy, connecting words for a broad array of produce with images of it, and building a sense of curiosity about trying new foods.
• Just right for fans of Louise Elhert’s classics Market Day and Eating the Alphabet, and Chris Butterworth and Lucia Gaggiotti’s How Did That Get in My Lunchbox?

A 2023 White Raven selection.

A brilliant onomatopoeic text accompanies the iconic illustrations of Anna Walker in this hilarious and utterly adorable frog adventure.

How will Frog escape the swoops, snips, and snaps of all sorts of animals in the forest and get to the party on time? This is a delightful, gripping, and funny adventure narrative aimed at very young readers, that will no doubt appeal to older children and adults alike.

A joy-filled cheer of appreciation for loud, trouble-making, outrageous kids.

Katerina Cruickshanks is a wild child, a trickster, and a ringleader. But when they wreak some serious chaos, their friends decide their shenanigans have gone too far and say, “No more!”

Brimming with humor and warmth, Katerina shows us that there’s no such thing as being too much; it’s just a matter of finding the friends who will love you as you are.

A BOOKSTAGANG FUTURE CLASSIC, 2023

A stunningly illustrated and essential volume on children’s rights: an introduction for kids and a reminder for adults.

I have the right to have a name and a nationality.

I have the right to the best healthcare.

I have the right to an education.

I have the right to a home where I can thrive.

With poetic text and exceptional art, internationally acclaimed Iranan illustrator Reza Dalvand introduces children to the universal rights they are entitled to under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Adopted in 1989 and ratified by 140 countries, the convention promises to defend the rights of children and to keep them safe, respected, and valued. Dalvand’s stunning illustrations speak to children all around the world, some of whose rights are often challenged and must be protected every day.

The afterword, by renowned pediatrician Dr Catherine Gueguen, links these rights to the fundamental building blocks of a stable, safe, and fulfilling life.

Perfect for:

• Educators and librarian looking for conversation starters around human rights and lived experience;
• Parents and carers looking for books that will introduce their kids to to the experiences of children growing up in countries and cultures different to their own, and help them develop empathy;
• Lovers of exceptional art: Reza Dalvand’s evocative illustrative world-building creates an immersive visual narrative.

A young readers’ edition of the bestselling book from Auschwitz survivor Hédi Fried that answers lasting questions about the Holocaust.

Hédi Fried was nineteen when the Nazis arrested her family and transported them to Auschwitz. While there, apart from enduring the daily horrors at the concentration camp, she and her sister were forced into hard labor before being released at the end of the war.

After settling in Sweden, Hédi devoted her life to educating young people about the Holocaust. In her 90s, she decided to take the most common questions, and her answers, and turn them into a book so that children all over the world could understand what had happened.

This is a deeply human book that urges us never to forget and never to repeat.

“Timeless lessons taught with simple eloquence.”
—Kirkus Reviews

• The perfect conversation starter for educators to teach young people about the reality of the Holocaust from lived experience.
• Wonderful companion piece to Art Speigelman’s Maus.
• In the wake of recent reports that a shocking proportion of young people in the US know little to nothing about the Holocaust, alongside a concerning new wave of antisemitism in the US and Europe, this deeply personal first-hand account is especially timely.

An adorable story about making new friends and finding creative solutions to playground problems.

A pair of pears rocked on a seesaw.

A pair of pears played ping-pong.

A pair of pears rode their tandem bike.

Until one day, someone new wanted to join their fun.

Big Pear and Little Pear love playing together. But when Orange joins in, their games don’t work and Big Pear feels left out. A relatable, hilarious, and kind-hearted tale about navigating friendship when three definitely starts to feel like a crowd! From the author of CBCA Honour Winner, Anemone is not the Enemy.

• The ideal gift for new kindergarten and school starters 
• A perfect conversation starter for teachers and librarians supporting children as they grapple with the challenges of friendship dynamics
• Would suit fans of Love, Triangle by Marcie Colleen & Bob Shea, Mo Willem’s Can I Play too? and Mac Barnett & Jon Klassen’s Shapes Trilogy.

A funny tale of mishap, misunderstanding, and the search for true friendship in an ocean rockpool.

All Anemone wants is a friend, but friends are hard to make when you accidentally sting everyone who comes near you.

Perhaps Clownfish has a solution to the problem...

Perfect for fans of Jon Klassen, Mac Barnett, and Mo Willems. With bright, neon illustrations.

Sometimes we find what we’re looking for in the most unexpected places—for Wren, this means a little corner of quiet.

Wren just wants a bit of peace and quiet. What he gets is the noisiest baby sister you could ever imagine! But when Wren runs away to the country, he discovers that maybe peace and quiet isn’t all he needs…

With bright, modern illustrations from rising star Sophie Beer (Love Makes a Family and Kindness Makes Us Strong) and a powerfully simple story, any child (and any parent!) who’s ever had to deal with a noisy sibling will love Wren.

The follow-up to bestselling All the Ways to be Smart by Davina Bell and Allison Colpoys.

Good or bad, the things you do
are all a part of being you —
of learning how to take your boat
on stormy seas and stay afloat.

From the creators of All the Ways To Be Smart comes a message of hope: hard days come and go, but love is with us always. A healing and uplifting tribute to learning and growing — to making mistakes and making amends.

• The perfect gift for children embarking on new challenges
• A wonderful educational tool for teachers and librarians helping children process big changes and big emotions
• Just right for fans of I am Human by Susan Verde & Peter H. Reynolds and The Bad Seed by Jory John and Pete Oswald.

'What a spectacular story’ Phoebe Bridgers

A buoyant and heartwarming celebration of individuality, identity, and dressing to suit yourself!

It’s almost Frankie’s birthday and everything is ready—except for something to wear. All of her party dresses feel wrong. Her family tries to help, but it’s no good.

What Frankie longs for is a suit. A spectacular suit …

Can Frankie find the outfit of her dreams?

• The perfect gift for birthday parties, crafters, and children who don’t identify with traditional gender roles
• Wonderful conversation starter for teachers and librarians to explore gender and identity with age-relevant material from #ownvoice creators
• Would suit fans of Julián is a Mermaid by Jessica Love and When Aidan Became a Brother by Kyle Lukoff and Kaylani Juanita

Following on from Doodle Cat Wears A Cape, writer Kat Patrick and illustrator Lauren Farell have created another hilarious tale featuring the irreverent bright red squiggle who loves just about everything.

A cinematic journey through the Seoul subway that masterfully portrays the many unique lives we travel alongside whenever we take the train. A poetic translation of the bestselling Korean picture book.

SIX STARRED REVIEWS

★ “Lucky readers, climb aboard: extraordinary explorations await.” —Shelf Awareness

★ “I Am the Subway makes for an unforgettable journey.” —Bookpage

★ “[S]ensitive, closely observed portraits.” —Publishers Weekly

★ “A contemplative, poignant rendering of everyday journeys.” —Kirkus Reviews

★ “[B]eautiful and unusual.” —Youth Services Book Review

★ “Bewitching.” —Foreword

Accompanied by the constant, rumbling ba-dum ba-dum of its passage through the city, the subway has stories to tell. Between sunrise and sunset, it welcomes and farewells people, and holds them—along with their joys, hopes, fears, and memories—in its embrace.

Originally published in Korean and brought to English-speaking audiences with the help of renowned translator Deborah Smith (The Vegetarian), I Am the Subway vividly reflects the shared humanity that can be found in crowded metropolitan cities.

• A wonderful gift for parents, carers, and grandparents of train-loving children
• Perfect for teachers and librarians looking for books that share global experiences and lives from an own-voice perspective
• Great for fans of Next Stop Grand Central Station by Maira Kalman, Subway by Christopher Neiman, and Last Stop on Market Street by Matt de la Peña and Christian Robertson

Howl is a masterfully told and exquisitely drawn story of a young girl’s way of expressing and resolving big feelings.

Maggie has had a very bad day.

First of all, the sun was the wrong shape, in a sky that was too blue. The spaghetti was too long, and her pajamas were the wrong kind of pajama.

Then Maggie begins to have wolfish thoughts ...

Izzy loved her island. But most of all, she loved Frank the seagull.

Izzy and Frank spend blue-sky-sunny days and gray-cloud-rainy days roaming and playing by the sea.

But when Izzy has to leave her lighthouse and island life behind to move to the city, she also has to say goodbye to Frank.

The city is crowded and noisy, and Izzy misses the sand and the sea.

Can Izzy find a place for herself in her new home? And will she ever see Frank again?

Elvi has two moms at her house, but Nicholas wants to know which one is her real mom. “They’re both my mom,” she says. Poignant, but written with a light and humorous touch, this beautifully illustrated story captures what lies at the heart of family life—love.

“Elvi, which one is your mom?”
“They’re both my mom.”
“But which one’s your real mom?”

When Nicholas wants to know which of Elvi’s two moms is her real mom, she gives him lots of clues. Her real mum is a circus performer, and a pirate, and she even teaches spiders the art of web. 

But Nicholas still can’t work it out! Luckily, Elvi knows just how to explain it to her friend. . .

This beautifully illustrated story celebrates nontraditional families and captures exactly what lies at the heart of family life—love.

A beautiful tale celebrating the invisible, protective, omnipresent love love between parents and children.

From this award-winning creative duo comes a stunning celebration of the joy and comfort that love can bring—wherever we roam in the big, wild world.

No matter what challenges children may face, they can always rely on the love umbrella above them.

Arno and His Horse is a beautifully written rhyming text, matched with exquisite illustrations, that explores love, memory, loss, and the power objects can hold.

Arno had a horse,
it was brown and it was black.
He took it with him everywhere,
but did he bring it back?

When Arno loses his precious toy horse, all the kids in town help him to look for it. They look everywhere, but will Arno ever see his horse again?

A touching story about memory, dreams, and the mysterious ways we feel connected to those we love.

A bold and playful celebration of movement, energy, pattern, color and shape!

In a world oversaturated with beautiful photos (hello Instagram!) and imagery (hello 'Golden Age of Illustration'!) we sometimes forget the power that photos can have for our children. Seeing photographs of other kids in action promotes empathy, acknowledges the diversity of our community and encourages PLAY!

Celebrates the myriad ways for kids to be smart—being empathic, artistic, athletic, and inquisitive.

A tender, funny, and exquisitely illustrated picture book celebrating all the unique and wonderful qualities that make children who they are.

With heartwarming rhyming text all about knowing what makes you special, All the Ways to Be Smart is a wonderful introduction to conversations about self-esteem.

A hilarious tale of friendship and fun where Doodle Cat learns that sometimes kindness is the most important superpower of all.

He can perform all kinds of superhero acts, like catching humans when they fall from trees and firing furballs at top speed. But will Doodle Cat’s superpowers work when his friend is sad? Maybe he’ll have to try something new.

Filled with Doodle Cat’s signature exuberance and joy…

Members of the last generation of inmates and staff return to the now-forgotten prison to tell the true and brutal story of Pentridge before developers bury it forever.

Rupert Mann has worked with the past all his life, and is interested in how we use, forget, and celebrate it today. This priceless work, completed over five years, is an attempt to hear the voices of the last generation who lived and worked at Pentridge Prison, now the only ones who can tell the tale before the site is redeveloped and its true history is lost.

Within the forgotten and decaying walls of this once shining fortress, fifteen people returned to their memories and to Pentridge — many for the first time since being released or having retired up to 60 years before — to bear witness to its end and to be photographed amongst the decay as a testament to the resilience of the human spirit.

They include former prisoners, such as Jack Charles, Billy Longley, and Ray Mooney; former staff, such as Peter Norden and Pat Merlo; musicians who played there, such as Paul Kelly; and Brian Morley, a legal witness to Ronald Ryan's execution in 1967.

Pentridge was, for 146 years, a concentrated crossroads of disparate song lines and an integral if unwanted part of Melbourne’s identity. In its cells, corridors, and halls can be found the remnants of an endless litany of love, hate, loss, and discovery, friendship and conflict, political dealings and petty squabbles. There is no betrayal, affirmation, or epiphany that has not occurred there. And during all those years, life was messily split between jailer and prisoner by bluestone and iron. This is their collective story.

More information about Rupert's work and the book can be found here

A beautiful celebratory tribute to the powers of one of our most undervalued skills. 

‘What you are doing right now is, cosmically speaking, against the odds.’

As young children, we are taught to read, but soon go on to forget just how miraculous a process it is, this turning of scratches and dots into understanding, unease and inspiration. Perhaps we need to stop and remember, stop and learn again how to read better.

Damon Young shows us how to do exactly this, walking alongside some of the greatest readers who light a path for us — Borges, Plato, Woolf. Young reads passionately, selectively, surprisingly — from superhero noir to speculative realism, from Heidegger to Heinlein — and shows his reader how cultivating their inner critic can expand their own lives as well as the lives of those on the pages of the books they love.

From a small backyard workshop on the outskirts of Melbourne, Maton Guitars has grown into a truly inspiring Australian success story.

In 1946, Bill May crafted a guitar in his Melbourne garage that he wanted the world to hear and to play. In a matter of years, it was in the hands of Elvis Presley on film. Later, a Maton played the riff that defined a generation on the Rolling Stones' 'Gimme Shelter'. Today, Maton are an essential part of music culture in Australia and around the world.

This is not only a book for guitar lovers — it's an intimate family history and an essential part of Australian music history. Compiling over ten years of research, and over two years in production, this book is as well-crafted and family-owned as Maton guitars themselves.

Go behind-the-scenes to meet the artisan guitar makers. Read the stories behind the songs created with Maton guitars. And go backstage to meet the bands and musicians that have, with a Maton in hand, shaped our musical world.

Packed full of interviews with the greats — from jazz legend George Golla to guitar virtuoso Tommy Emmanuel; from Archie Roach, and The Wiggles, to Daniel Johns, Paul Kelly, and Josh Homme, and many more ...

Published to coincide with Maton's 70th anniversary, The Music That Maton Made is a comprehensive, full-colour tribute to a home-grown guitar range that has been embraced by famous musicians and guitar enthusiasts around the world.

Australian Vietnam vet Barry Heard draws on his own experiences as a young conscript, along with those of his comrades, to look back at life before, during, and after the Vietnam War. The result is a sympathetic vision of a group of young men who were sent off to war completely unprepared for the emotional and psychological impact it would have on them. It is also a vivid and searingly honest portrayal of the author’s post-war, slow-motion breakdown, and how he dealt with it.

Well Done, Those Men attempts to make sense of what Vietnam did to the soldiers who fought there. It deals with the comic absurdity of their military training and the horror of the war they fought, and is unforgettably moving in recounting what happened to Barry and his comrades when they returned home.

As we now know, most Vietnam vets had to deal with a community that shunned them, and with their own depression, trauma, and guilt. Barry Heard’s sensitive account of his long journey home from Vietnam is a tribute to his mates, and an inspiring story of a life reclaimed.

David Vogel has long been regarded as a leading figure of Hebrew literature, and his work has been compared to that of Joseph Roth, Thomas Mann, and Franz Kafka.

Married Life, which was first published in 1929, is Vogel’s magnum opus—a sweeping portrait of a doomed marriage and a doomed city. Set in Vienna, the novel tells of the relationship between the penniless writer Rudolf Gurdweill and Baroness Thea von Takow, who treats her husband with cruelty and disdain. In spite of this, Gurdweill struggles to find the will to leave his wife, even when the devoted Lotte Bondheim offers him the prospect of true happiness.

Yet this is no mere story of a love triangle. In astonishingly vivid detail, Vogel evokes the atmosphere of 1920s Vienna, taking us from fashionable cafés and aristocratic estates to the shoemaker’s workshop and the almshouse. With decadence and poverty existing side by side, Vienna is depicted as a city on the brink of collapse—a haunting prefigurement of the horrors to come.

With its rich, vital prose, and its profound insight into the human condition, Married Life is truly a modern classic.

Controversially challenges the conventional wisdom that the Versailles Peace Treaty sowed the seeds for World War II.

The Versailles Peace Treaty, the pact between Germany and the Allies that ended World War I, has not enjoyed a positive reputation since its signing in June 1919. Conventional wisdom has it that the treaty’s requirements for massive reparation payments crippled the economy of the Weimar Republic and destabilized its political life. Ultimately, it is believed, the treaty prevented the seeds of democracy sown in the aftermath of the Great War from flourishing, and drove the German people into the arms of Adolf Hitler.

In this authoritative book, Jurgen Tampke disputes this commonplace view. He argues that Germany got away with its responsibility for World War I and its behavior during it; that the treaty was nowhere near as punitive as has been long felt; that the German hyperinflation of the 1920s was at least partly a deliberate policy to minimize the cost of paying reparations; and that World War II was a continuation of Germany’s longstanding war aims.