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Animal antics continue to be crowd pleasers for this age group,with all kinds of nonsense going on.Furball:Spy Cat (Larrikin House) by Adrian Beck is as delightfully off the wall as it sounds. You might reconise the seagull heroes inChippy Chasers:Chippy Jackpot (Puffin) by Sam Cotton from his enormously popular and hilarious TikTok videos. And cat lovers will delight inItty Bitty Kitty (Affirm) by Maddy Mara and Noemie Gionet Landry as the titular kitten navigates a human world even though she knows all the Cat laws. FYI,she HATES being called cute.
A personal favourite this year isHow To Be … The New Person (Walker) by Anna Branford,the first in a new series by the incredibly talented author of the Violet Mackerel series. Hazel has to change schools,and no amount of “how to” tutorials can prepare her for breaking into established cliques. Perhaps she’ll have to make her own?
Of Anh Do’s 17 new releases this year,only two of them are the beginning of new series.Smarty Pup:Friends Fur-ever (Allen&Unwin) is full-colour,a PAWsome new series following a super smart,talking puppy. The Champ (A&U) sees Summer pit her new-found sport-based superpowers against an evil librarian in order to save the town. But if you’ve got a favourite series by Anh,it’d be worth checking for the latest instalment.
TheOur Stories series (Pan Macmillan) – real life,full of heart,first chapter books by diverse Australian creators – has two more great stories,29 Things You Don’t Know About Me by Solli Raphael,illustrated by Olana Janfa,andThe Very Best Doughnut by series editor Randa Abdel-Fattah,illustrated by Amani Haydar.
Anh Do had only 17 books published this year.Credit:
Other series that have new instalments include:Magnolia Moon (Walker) by Edwina Wyatt and Katherine Quinn;Zombie Diaries (Hardie Grant) by Guy Edmonds,Matt Zeremes and Jake A. Minton;Sadie (Affirm) by Lana Spasevski and Joanie Stone;Dragon Girls (Scholastic) by Maddy Mara;PD McPem (Yellow Brick) by Anna Battese and Ruth-Mary Smith; Gustav and Henri (Hardie Grant) by Andy Matthews and illustrated by Peader Thomas.
Middle Grade (ages 8-12)