Mad Magpie


Book Description

Age range 3 to 6 Mad Magpie is the third book in this successful series of morality tales from Gregg Dreise. Inspired by wise sayings and the knowledge of his Elders, Mad Magpie tells the story of Guluu, an angry magpie who is being teased by a gang of butcher birds. The more he is teased, the angrier he becomes. When Guluu seeks advice, his Elders tell him to stay calm like the river, ignore the butcher birds and to be strong on the inside. Guluu tries this, but the cheeky birds just laugh at him. One day, when Guluu is at the river looking for worms, the butcher birds arrive and steal his food. He remembers the words of his Elders and he tries again – and this time Guluu has a different outcome. He stands proudly at the riverbank and remembers how he used to sing when he was having a bad day. Guluu sings so loud he cannot hear the birds laughing at him and they eventually give up and fly away. From that time on, the animals learnt to use music to create a happy mood and they worked together to stop bullying.




The Story of Swoop


Book Description




Magpie Murders


Book Description

Don’t miss Magpie Murders on PBS's MASTERPIECE Mystery! "A double puzzle for puzzle fans, who don’t often get the classicism they want from contemporary thrillers." —Janet Maslin, The New York Times New York Times Bestseller | Winner of the Macavity Award for Best Novel | NPR Best Book of the Year | Washington Post Best Book of the Year | Esquire Best Book of the Year From the New York Times bestselling author of Moriarty and Trigger Mortis, this fiendishly brilliant, riveting thriller weaves a classic whodunit worthy of Agatha Christie into a chilling, ingeniously original modern-day mystery. When editor Susan Ryeland is given the manuscript of Alan Conway’s latest novel, she has no reason to think it will be much different from any of his others. After working with the bestselling crime writer for years, she’s intimately familiar with his detective, Atticus Pünd, who solves mysteries disturbing sleepy English villages. An homage to queens of classic British crime such as Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers, Alan’s traditional formula has proved hugely successful. So successful that Susan must continue to put up with his troubling behavior if she wants to keep her job. Conway’s latest tale has Atticus Pünd investigating a murder at Pye Hall, a local manor house. Yes, there are dead bodies and a host of intriguing suspects, but the more Susan reads, the more she’s convinced that there is another story hidden in the pages of the manuscript: one of real-life jealousy, greed, ruthless ambition, and murder. Masterful, clever, and relentlessly suspenseful, Magpie Murders is a deviously dark take on vintage English crime fiction in which the reader becomes the detective.




Kookoo Kookaburra


Book Description

Age range 5 to 8 Kindness is like a boomerang -- if you throw it often, it comes back often. Kookoo the Kookaburra is the second heartwarming morality tale - set within the cultural context of theDreamtime -- by Queensland teacher Gregg Dreise. In the same vein as his first book Silly Birds (MagabalaBooks 2014) Dreise tells the story of Kookoo, a kind and well-loved kookaburra who is famous for entertainingthe other bush creatures with his funny stories. Everyone knows Kookoo has a special gift because he cantell funny stories about the other animals without hurting their feelings. However, when Kookoo runs out ofkind stories he turns to teasing and making fun of his friends' differences.Refusing to listen to the sage advice of his uncle, Kookoo gradually alienates all his friends until he findshimself alone and ignored by the other animals. When he finally listens to the sounds of his own laughterechoing around the bush and realises it has become an unhappy sound, Kookoo is forced to remember hisuncle's words and change his ways -- kindness is like a boomerang -- if you throw it often, it comes backoften.




Beeware


Book Description

The Adventures of Danny is a new series for 7-11 year-olds by popular author Pat Flynn. Each book comprises five or more entertaining stories about Dan - a typical boy who finds himself in mostly action-based dilemmas of his own making. Flynn uses his trademark humour to wrap gentle life lessons in layers of fun. Great to read aloud and discuss afterwards, as well as for attracting reluctant readers. In the first of Dan's adventures he faces mean mutts, bumbling bees and mad magpies. It's a tough world out there in the Aussie suburbs, especially when you're squeezed between a bossy big brother and an irritating little sister. And it's even tougher when the animals are out to get you . . .




You Must Not Miss


Book Description

One of Us Is Lying meets Carrie in this suspenseful story of friendship, family, and revenge. Magpie Lewis started writing in her yellow notebook the day after her family self-destructed. The day her father ruined her mother's life. The day Magpie's sister, Eryn, skipped town and left her to fend for herself. The day of Brandon Phipp's party. Now Magpie is called a slut in the hallways of her high school, her former best friend won't speak to her, and she spends her lunch period with a group of misfits who've all been as socially exiled as she has. And so, feeling trapped and forgotten, Magpie retreats to her notebook, dreaming up a magical place called Near. Near is perfect - a place where her father never cheated, her mother never drank, and Magpie's own life never derailed so suddenly. She imagines Near so completely, so fully, that she writes it into existence, right in her own backyard. At first, Near is a peaceful escape, but soon it becomes something darker, somewhere nightmares lurk and hidden truths come to light. Soon it becomes a place where Magpie can do anything she wants...even get her revenge. You Must Not Miss is an intoxicating, twisted tale of magic, menace, and the monsters that live inside us all.




Monsieur


Book Description

From the olive trees of southern France to Gnostic cults in Egypt, a man and his lovers are invented and reinvented in this first volume of a great literary adventure. For British doctor Bruce Drexel, a return to Provence is bittersweet. Here, at a rustic chateau, he once fell in love with Sylvie, the Frenchwoman who would become his wife, and befriended her brother, Piers. The three made up a peculiar, potent ménage for years until Sylvie’s descent into madness and Piers’s suicide. As Drexel attends to Piers’s affairs, he becomes steeped in the memories of a spiritually transformational trip to Egypt; the band of intellectual confederates who used to be his intimate friends; and a three-sided love that became his reason for being. So begins Monsieur, the masterful first entry of Durrell’s Avignon Quintet, an infinite regress of memory and imagination that challenges the formal conventions of fiction.




The Office Tower Tales


Book Description

In this ambitious long poem, Alice Major exemplifies the redemptive force of story. Through the light-hearted interplay of such literary touchstones as Chaucer, The Thousand and One Nights, and Greek myth, readers meet receptionist Aphrodite, Sheherazad in PR, and Pandora, expectant grandmother from accounting, who gather to share tales during coffee breaks from their male-dominated engineering firm. Literary pilgrims, lovers of narrative and long forms, or fans of Major’s past explorations are certain to find redemption here.




The Dominion of Youth


Book Description

Adolescence, like childhood, is more than a biologically defined life stage: it is also a sociohistorical construction. The meaning and experience of adolescence are reformulated according to societal needs, evolving scientific precepts, and national aspirations relative to historic conditions. Although adolescence was by no means a “discovery” of the early twentieth century, it did assume an identifiably modern form during the years between the Great War and 1950. The Dominion of Youth: Adolescence and the Making of Modern Canada, 1920 to 1950 captures what it meant for young Canadians to inhabit this liminal stage of life within the context of a young nation caught up in the self-formation and historic transformation that would make modern Canada. Because the young at this time were seen paradoxically as both the hope of the nation and the source of its possible degeneration, new policies and institutions were developed to deal with the “problem of youth.” This history considers how young Canadians made the transition to adulthood during a period that was “developmental”—both for youth and for a nation also working toward individuation. During the years considered here, those who occupied this “dominion” of youth would see their experiences more clearly demarcated by generation and culture than ever before. With this book, Cynthia Comacchio offers the first detailed study of adolescence in early-twentieth-century Canada and demonstrates how young Canadians of the period became the nation’s first modern teenagers.




The Willow Tree Wharf


Book Description

An intriguing new rural romance from the best-selling author of The River Gum Cottage. Samantha, owner of Settlers Bridge cafe Ploughs and Pies, is short on confidence and big on regrets. Married young to fill the void left by an unhappy childhood, she still works in the same small town where she grew up, too filled with self-doubt and insecurity to ever risk spreading her wings. Yet will the end of her abusive marriage force her to start anew? City restaurateur Pierce di Angelis knows what it is to have his career and family ripped away. However, a chance encounter with the intriguing Samantha ignites his passion, and together they concoct a plan for a destination restaurant. But, with their personalities like oil and water, will old hurts and hidden truths destroy the new business before it's afloat? Praise for Leonie Kelsall: 'Warm, witty and brimming with big-hearted country characters, renovations and romance. A fabulous, feel-good rural read!' - Maya Linnell, bestselling author of Magpie's Bend 'A welcome return that offers plenty of happiness, fun and heartbreak…with a wonderful message about letting go, seizing the day and embracing all experiences on offer … I highly recommend.' - Mrs B's Book Reviews 'Written with warmth, humour and sincerity, offering appealing characters and an engaging story ... a lovely read, sure to satisfy.' - Book'd Out