February 2012

'The Sisters Brothers' by Patrick deWitt

Oregon, 1851. Eli and Charlie Sisters, notorious professional killers, are on their way to California to kill a man named Hermann Kermit Warm. On the way, the brothers have a series of unsettling and violent experiences in the Darwinian landscape of Gold Rush America. Charlie makes money and kills anyone who stands in his way; Eli doubts his vocation and falls in love. And they bicker a lot. Then they get to California, and discover that Warm is...
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'Dead End in Norvelt' by Jack Gantos

Winner of the 2012 Newbery Medal

Melding the entirely true and the wildly fictional, Dead End in Norvelt is a novel about an incredible two months for a kid named Jack Gantos, whose plans for vacation excitement are shot down when he is "grounded for life" by his feuding parents, and whose nose spews bad blood at every little shock he gets.

But plenty of excitement (and shocks) are coming Jack's way once his mom loans...
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'A Ball for Daisy' by Chris Raschka

Winner of the 2012 Caldecott Medal

Here's a story about love and loss as only Chris Rashcka can tell it. Any child who has ever had a beloved toy break will relate to Daisy's anguish when her favorite ball is destroyed by a bigger dog. In the tradition of his nearly wordless picture book,Caldecott Medalist Chris Raschka explores in pictures the joy and sadness that having a special toy can bring. Raschka's signature swirling, impressionistic...
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'A Common Loss' by Kirsten Tranter

From the critically acclaimed author of The Legacy They were originally five. Elliot. Brian. Tallis. Cameron. And Dylan - charismatic Dylan - the mediator, the leader, the man each one turned to in a time of crisis. Five close friends, bonded in college, still coming together for their annual trip to Las Vegas. This year they are four. Four friends, sharing a common loss: Dylan's tragic death. A common loss that, upon their arrival in Vegas, will...
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'Various Positions' by Martha Schabas

Nuanced, fresh, and gorgeously well-written, Martha Schabas' extraordinary debut novel takes us inside the beauty and rigour of professional dance, and the young women striving to make it in that world. Shy and introverted, and trapped between the hyper-sexualised world of her teenaged friends and her dysfunctional family, Georgia is only at ease when she's dancing. Fortunately, she's an unusually talented and promising dancer.

'Torrent: Toowoomba and the Lockyer Valley' by Amanda Gearing

Of all the stories to emerge from the catastrophic floods that hit Queensland in the summer of 2011, the most starkly tragic and dramatic were those that emerged from Toowoomba and the Lockyer Valley.