Showing results by publisher "Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd" in All Categories

The three Chirnwell sisters are descended from the privileged squattocracy in Victoria's Western District - but could a long-held secret threaten their family? Harriett has a perfect life - a husband who loves her, a successful career and a daughter who is destined to become a doctor just like her. Xara has always lived in Harriet's shadow; her chaotic life with her family on their sheep farm falls far short of her older sister's standards of perfection and prestige. Georgie, the youngest sister and a passionate Teacher, is the only one of the three to have left Billawarre.

Wombat and his inseparable friends - the motherly and practical Mouse and Tabby Cat, whose pride, along with his tabby coat, is always being ruffled - were first introduced to children on ABC Radio in the 1950s and became instantly popular. When illustrator Noela Young brought the characters to life on paper, the books were born, and many of today's parents will have fond memories of these irresistible characters.

The girl is freezing. Amber instinctively pulls her close, willing her own warmth to seep into her fragile body. ‘Why can’t I remember anything?’ the girl asks. The girl on the beach has no recollection of who she is or what she is doing there. She is clutching a notebook, filled with stories and pictures she can’t recognise. Amber Caulfield finds and takes her in, unsettling a loneliness built by bitter losses. A childhood accident robbed her of three fingers. Her daughter was taken by a tragic illness. And her marriage didn’t survive her daughter’s death.

Every city, town and village has its memorial to war. Nowhere are these more eloquent than in Australia, generations of whose young men have enlisted to fight other people's battles - from Gallipoli and the Somme to Malaya and Vietnam. In The Great World, David Malouf gives a voice to that experience. But The Great World is more than a novel of war. Ranging over 70 years of Australian life, from Sydney's teeming King's Cross to the tranquil backwaters of the Hawkesbury River, it is a remarkable novel of self-knowledge and lost innocence, of survival and witness.

The story of the clipper ships, and the tens of thousands of migrants they brought to the Australian colony of the 19th century, is one of the world's great migration stories. For anyone who travelled to Australia before 1850, it was a long and arduous journey that could take as much as four months. With the arrival of the clipper ships and favourable winds, the journey from England could be done in a little over half this time.

Henry has ended his marriage to Caroline and headed off to Noosa with Mercedes' grade three teacher, Martha. Caroline, having shredded a wardrobe-full of Henry's suits, has gone after them. Craig and Lesley have dropped over briefly from next door to catch up on the fallout from Henry and Caroline's all-night row. And Janice, Caroline's sister, is staying for the weekend to look after the girls because Janice is the sensible one.

From the winner of the Roald Dahl Funny Prize, the Red House Children's Book Award, the Waterstones Children's Book Prize and the Blue Peter Best Story Book Award 2013 comes the 14th instalment in the brilliant Tom Gates series! Tom Gates and his hilarious adventures are back! Can Tom and DogZombies write a new hit song, get a peek at Delia's top secret diary and complete his doodle-a-day mission?

The epic World War II story of Australia's 75 Squadron - and the 44 days when these brave and barely-trained pilots fought alone against the Japanese. In March and April 1942, RAAF 75 Squadron bravely defended Port Moresby for 44 days when Australia truly stood alone against the Japanese. This group of raw young recruits scrambled ceaselessly in their Kittyhawk fighters to an extraordinary and heroic battle, the story of which has been left largely untold.

Pools of blood, scenes of carnage, signs of agonising death - who deals with the aftermath of violence once the bodies have been taken away? Judith Kepler has seen it all. She is a crime-scene specialist. She turns crime scenes back into habitable spaces. She is a cleaner. It is at the home of a woman who has been brutally murdered that she is suddenly confronted with her own past. The murder victim knew Judith's secret: as a child Judith was sent to an orphanage under mysterious circumstances - parentage unknown.

When Jack and Sarge move to the town of Doggeroo, Jack soon notices that things are going missing. He doesn't mind when an old boot from the yard disappears, but when his squeaker bone, dinner, dinner bowl and blanket vanish, Jack knows that something sinister is afoot. Jack Russell is a dog-detective with a nose for whodunit and, though he is often hampered by the well-meaning but bumbling "Red", he always manages to sniff out his quarry in the end.

For as long as Esmerine can remember, she has longed to join her older sister, Dosinia, as a siren - the highest calling a mermaid can have. When Dosinia runs away to the mainland, Esmerine is sent to retrieve her. Using magic to transform her tail into legs, she makes her way unsteadily to the capital city. There she comes upon a friend she hasn’t seen since childhood - a dashing young man named Alandare, who belongs to a winged race of people. As Esmerine and Alandare band together to search for Dosinia, they rekindle a friendship….

Mirabelle and her class are going on a school trip to a magical-creature sanctuary, and Mirabelle can't wait! Even being partnered with annoying goody-two-shoes Lavinia can't ruin her day. But when she accidentally lets the bittens (part bat, part kitten, totally adorable, slightly fierce) out of their enclosure, their day becomes a bit more complicated.

A little known story of two Australian battalions abandoned in Java during World War II and the heroes who kept them alive in the worst of Japan's prisoner of war camps. They were thrown into a hopeless fight against an overwhelming enemy. Later, hundreds died as prisoners of war on the Thai-Burma Railway and in the freezing coal mines of Taiwan and Japan. Through it all, wrote Weary Dunlop, they showed 'fortitude beyond anything I could have believed possible'.

Five strange fingers form fate's hand, each plays its part at fate's command.... When his little sister Annad is snatched from Rin by a monstrous flying creature, Rowan must travel to the distant land of Rin's ancient enemies, the Zebak, to rescue her. The journey is a perilous one, and Rowan and his companions have only a series of mysterious, riddling prophecies to guide them. At the end of their quest, they come upon an even greater mystery, and an extraordinary secret is revealed.

Both harrowing and life-affirming, the final novel from Carnegie Medal-winning author Mal Peet is the sweeping coming-of-age adventure of a mixed race boy transported to North America. Born from a street liaison between a poor young woman and an African soldier in the 1900s, Beck is soon orphaned and sent to the Catholic Brothers in Canada. Shipped to work on a farm, his escape takes him across the continent in a search for belonging.

This collection includes "Lunar Strike", "Sudden Drop", "Shockwave", "High Risk", "Undercover" and "Thrill Ride."

The thrilling finale to the much-loved Polly and Buster trilogy, written by award-winning and best-selling author Sally Rippin. Is being best friends enough to save a whole town? Polly and Buster have always believed that witches and monsters can be friends, but it seems no-one else agrees. With the witches furious and the monsters in uproar, their whole town is heading for a war...and yet no-one realises that a much greater menace lurks nearby. Can Polly and Buster bring everyone together in time to save their town from the biggest danger of all?

Sol is a gifted but also terrifying six year old; his mother believes he is destined for greatness. He has a birthmark, like his dad, his grandmother and great-grandmother. But when they all make an unexpected trip to Germany, terrible secrets emerge about their family's story during World War II. Perhaps birthmarks are not all that has been passed down through this family.

Written 20 years ago, Puberty Blues is the best-selling account of growing up in the 1970s that took Australia by storm and spawned an eponymous cult movie. Puberty Blues is about "top chicks" and "surfie spunks" and the kids who don't quite make the cut: it recreates with fascinating honesty a world where only the gang and the surf count. It's a hilarious and horrifying account of the way many teenagers live, and some of them die.

Jack's back! The fourth collection of stories from the popular Hey Jack! series, featuring Billie B Brown's best friend, Jack. 'The Toy Sale': Jack is selling the toys he doesn't play with anymore. There's some old Lego, a scruffy teddy bear and a robot dog that doesn't work. But when Jack sees other kids having fun with his stuff, will he regret the whole idea? 'The Other Teacher': Jack's class has a new teacher who seems really cool. But then Jack breaks a rule he didn't even know existed! Maybe the teacher's not so great after all....