Angela Crocombe
Angela Crocombe is the Readings Prize and Readings Foundation coordinator and a senior buyer for Readings Kids. She is also the author of two books on sustainable living, A Lighter Footprint: A Practical Guide to Minimising your Impact on the Planet and Ethical Eating: How to Make Food Choices That Won’t Cost the Earth.
Review — 24 Jun 2024
Two Sides to Every Murder by Danielle Valentine
An abandoned summer camp called Camp Lost Lake is the setting for this spooky murder mystery. The teen camp was abandoned because 15 years prior to when this story begins…
Review — 24 Jun 2024
Maria Petranelli is Prepared for Anything (Except This) by Elisa Chenoweth
This year’s winner of the Ampersand Prize for unpublished manuscripts is a contemporary coming-of-age novel that focuses on family and discovering your own identity.
Maria is a deadpan misanthrope who…
Review — 19 May 2024
Parade by Rachel Cusk
Rachel Cusk’s Outline trilogy was so innovative and exciting that it transformed how many people think about fiction. Cusk’s new novel successfully continues her inventive style.
It starts with a…
Review — 19 May 2024
What’s Murder Between Friends by Meg Gatland-Veness
Set in a town so small it doesn’t even have a police station, this murder mystery is narrated by self-confessed drama nerd Hallie, with the main characters (and suspects) her…
Review — 19 May 2024
Liar’s Test by Ambelin Kwaymullina
The new novel by Ambelin Kwaymullina, the First Nations author of The Tribe trilogy and Catching Teller Crow, is an intricately plotted fantasy that features a gutsy, clever heroine…
Review — 22 Apr 2024
Into the Mouth of the Wolf by Erin Gough
Amelia Westlake was a stand-out title when it was published in 2018, winning The Readings Young Adult Prize. It’s been a long wait for Erin Gough’s next novel, but the…
Review — 25 Mar 2024
Black Beauty (Oxford Children’s Classics) by Anna Sewell
As a child, I was utterly obsessed with this story of a beautiful horse and his journey from childhood to old age in 19th-century England, a time when horses were…
Review — 26 Mar 2024
Deep Is the Fen by Lili Wilkinson
Lili Wilkinson’s stories are always a delight and her foray into fantasy has been particularly successful, with her most recent novel, A Hunger of Thorns, winning the Victorian Premier’s…
Review — 26 Feb 2024
The Grimmelings by Rachael King
This novel places the Scottish mythological creature of the Kelpie within a contemporary, realistic setting in New Zealand. When 13-year-old Ella curses a boy who is bullying her on the…
Review — 26 Feb 2024
The Invocations by Krystal Sutherland
Australian author Krystal Sutherland has once again written an evocative story of powerful women and dark magic in this thrilling young adult story.
Three very different women have their own…
