Athina Clarke
Athina Clarke is from Readings Carlton
Review — 27 Jan 2020
Take Off! (Evie and Pog, Book 1) by Tania McCartney
Best friends Evie (a girl) and Pog (a dog) live in an expansive treehouse in Granny’s big backyard. They’re a lovable duo with unusual quirks: accident-prone Evie loves rolling on…
Blog post — 14 Nov 2019
The best junior fiction books of 2019
Every year our staff vote for their favourite books, albums, films and TV shows of the past 12 months. Here are our top 10 junior fiction books of the year…
Review — 21 Oct 2019
Nevertell by Katharine Orton
This compelling debut novel is full of surprises; it starts like a historical fiction set during Stalin’s reign of terror but quickly morphs into a breathless life and death struggle…
Blog post — 23 Oct 2019
Meet the bookseller with Athina Clarke
Athina Clarke is one of our brilliant children’s and young adult book specialists, and has worked at Readings since 2002 – first at the Port Melbourne shop, before moving onto…
Review — 21 Jul 2019
The Last Balfour by Cait Duggan
I do love a good witch story: there’s something exhilarating about a young woman drawing on an unknown mystical force and discovering her potential. This story surges at a breathless…
Review — 21 Jul 2019
Dear Grandpa by Kate Simpson and Ronojoy Ghosh (illus.)
This delightful picture book celebrates the powerful bond between a child and their grandparent, as chronicled through the long-distance exchange of letters between the imaginative young Henry and his equally…
Review — 21 Jul 2019
Zanzibar by Catharina Valckx and Antony Shugaar (trans.)
When renowned journalist (and lizard) Achille LeBlab goes looking for exceptional characters tofeature in his newspaper, it inspires a wonderful crow, Zanzibar, to attempt a feat so remarkable that it…
Review — 19 Aug 2019
The Curious Case of Cora Bell (Jinxed!, Book 1) by Rebecca McRitchie and Sharon O'Connor (illus.)
Cora is a foundling. She has no memory prior to her life with Dot and Scratch the cat in the city of Urt. Their survival is dependent on scavenging and…
Review — 24 Jun 2019
Pog by Pádraig Kenny
There’s so much to enjoy in this clever story with its overlay of enchantment. But at its heart, it’s a story of a family struggling to overcome its grief at…
Review — 26 May 2019
Winston and the Wondrous Wooba Gymnastics Club by Tamsin Janu
Winston and his mum live in the country town of Wooba, home of Big Bread, a towering monument to local wheat farming, currently listed as one of Australia’s Twenty Ugliest…