ARC Winter Reading Guide 2024

To and Fro - Anton Clifford-Motopi

Sam thinks he's a weird-looking white kid with an afro. He lives with his white mum (annoying but not smelly) and brown dog Trevor (smelly but not annoying). He's never met his father. He just knows that his father is black.

A delightfully funny story about family and identity, and what it means to be truly Sam.

My Side of the Mountain - Jean Craighead George

Sam Gribley is terribly unhappy living in New York City with his family, so he runs away to the Catskill Mountains to live in the woods – all by himself. He intends to survive on his own. Sam learns about courage, danger, and independence during his year in the wilderness, a year that changes his life forever.

Tweet - Morris Gleitzman

The people of the world are puzzled. Birds everywhere are sitting on highways, on buildings, on BBQs, stopping traffic, lawnmowers and leaf blowers. Then a boy and his pet budgie discover the secret to what the birds are up to. Jay and Clyde embark on an urgent, yet hilarious journey with a message about the environment for humans.

Running with Ivan - Suzanne Leal

Thirteen-year-old Leo Arnold hates his life. He doesn't want a new school, a new house or a new family. And he definitely doesn't want to be sharing a room with his new stepbrother, Cooper. So when he uncovers an old music box and turns the key, he is astonished to find himself in Prague, surrounded by whispers and fears of a second world war. A war that ended decades ago.

JT The Making of a Total Legend - Jonathan Thurston

As a young Brisbane kid, Johnathan Thurston was written off as too skinny, too slow and too wild to play rugby league professionally. But he defied the odds to become one of the game's greatest players. Follow his journey from his debut with the Canterbury Bulldogs in 2002, to State of Origin star, and to total legend of the game.
(eBook access here)

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone - J. K. Rowling

Harry Potter as you know it but narrated by the ever-entertaining Stephen Fry. Perfect to listen to on long car trips or rainy days at home.
(Audiobook access here)

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Young Readers Edition William Kamkwamba

When a terrible drought struck William Kamkwamba's tiny village in Malawi, his family lost all of the season's crops, leaving them with nothing to eat and nothing to sell. William began to explore science books in his village library, looking for a solution. There, he came up with the idea that would change his family's life forever: he could build a windmill.
(eBook access here)

Messi, Neyman, Ronaldo - Luca Caioli

The world's greatest players, head to head. Lionel Messi, Neymar and Cristiano Ronaldo have risen from humble beginnings in Argentina, Brazil and Portugal to rank among the most exciting talents football has ever seen. Caioli presents a unique insight into what makes a modern player not just successful, but truly great.
(eBook access here)

All the Broken Places - John Boyne

Ninety-one-year-old Gretel Fernsby has lived in the same mansion block in London for decades. She leads a comfortable, quiet life, despite her dark and disturbing past. She doesn't talk about her escape from Germany over seventy years before. Most of all, she doesn't talk about her father, the commandant of one of the most notorious Nazi concentration camps.

Two Sparrowhawks in a Lonely Sky - Rebecca Lim

After their family encounters terrible hardship in rural China, siblings Fu and Pei must draw on all their resilience and courage as they embark on a dangerous journey towards a better life. A compelling and poignant children's novel from the CBCA award-winning author of Tiger Daughter.

Bite Risk - S.J. Wills

Sel Archer lives in a normal town with normal residents, except for one night a month. When the full moon comes out, almost all of the adults turn into werewolves, and it's up to the young people to protect themselves from danger.

The Princess Bride - William Goldman

A hilarious adventure story that is not at all what it appears to be. Girl meets boy, and so starts a fairy tale like no other, of fencing, poison, true love, hate, revenge, giants, bad men, good men, snakes, spiders, chases, escapes, lies, truths, passion and miracles. A fine story that will have you laughing out loud.

Baseball Genius 1 Derek Jeter

Jalen DeLuca loves baseball. Unfortunately, his dad can’t afford to keep him on the travel team. His dad runs a diner and makes enough to cover the bills, but there isn’t anything for extras. So Jalen decides to take matters into his own hands and he sneaks into the home of the New York Yankee’s star second baseman, James Yager, and steals a couple of balls from his batting cage.
(eBook access here)

A Short History of Nearly Everything - Bill Bryson

Bill Bryson's quest to find out everything that has happened from the Big Bang to the rise of civilization - how we got from there, being nothing at all, to here, being us. His challenge is to take subjects that normally bore the pants off most of us, and see if there isn't some way to render them comprehensible to people who have never thought they could be interested in science.
(Audiobook access here)

Tracks of the Missing - Carl Merrison and Haeka Hustler

Deklan 'Dek' Archer and his mates arrive at school to a tense atmosphere. 'Old Mate', Mr Henry, who has lived in town for a long time, has been found murdered. He had been selling grog on the black market for years. To add to these worries, the Year 12s, who were on camp, are now missing. The police think there is a link between the missing students and the murder.
(eBook access here)

After the Shot Drops - Randy Ribay

A powerful novel about friendship, basketball, and one teen's mission to create a better life for his family in the tradition of Jason Reynolds and Walter Dean Myers. Told from alternating perspectives, After the Shot Drops is a heart-pounding story about the responsibilities of great talent and the importance of compassion.

Snowglobe - Soyoung Park, Joungmin Lee Comfort (Translator)

Enclosed under a vast dome, Snowglobe is the last place on Earth that’s warm. Outside Snowglobe is a frozen wasteland, and every day, citizens face the icy world to get to their jobs at the power plant, where they produce the energy Snowglobe needs. Their only solace comes in the form of twenty-four-hour television programming streamed directly from the domed city.

The Boy Lost in the Maze - Joseph Coelho, Kate Milner (Illustrator)

Theo, a seventeen-year-old London schoolboy with a single mother, is desperate to track down the father who left them, whom he scarcely remembers. At school he discovers Greek mythology and the ancient story of Theseus, a fatherless son driven on a similar search. As Theo focuses on Theseus in a series of poems he composes, it becomes clear the two journeys echo each other in uncanny ways.

Four for the Road - K.J. Reilly

Asher Hunting wants revenge. Specifically, he wants revenge on the drunk driver who killed his mom and got off on a technicality. No one seems to think this is healthy, though, which is how he ends up in a bereavement group (well, bereavement groups. He goes to several.) It's there he makes some unexpected friends: There's Sloane, who lost her dad to cancer; Will, who lost his little brother to a different kind of cancer; and eighty-year-old Henry, who was married to his wife for fifty years until she decided to die on her own terms.

One Song - A J Betts

Aspiring singer-songwriter Eva has one last chance to enter Triple J Unearthed High and break into the music industry. But after three failed attempts, she needs some help. Cue the band, five people who have nothing in common but music. Can they record the most important song of their lives?
(eBook access here)

We Didn't Think it Through - Gary Lonesborough

From the author of the award-winning The Boy from the Mish, comes a compelling coming-of-age YA novel about sixteen-year-old Jamie Langton finding his future and navigating the challenges of racism, family and friendship in a small Australian town.
(eBook access here)

Keep this to Yourself - Tom Ryan

It's been a year since the Catalog Killer terrorized the sleepy seaside town of Camera Cove, killing four people before disappearing without a trace. Like everyone else in town, eighteen-year-old Mac Bell is trying to put that horrible summer behind him—easier said than done since Mac's best friend Connor was the murderer's final victim. But when he finds a cryptic message from Connor, he's drawn back into the search for the killer—who might not have been a random drifter after all.
(eBook access here)

Bligh Rob - Mundle

Meet a 24-year-old Master Bligh as he witnesses the demise of his Captain and mentor Cook; a 34-year-old Lieutenant Bligh at the helm of the famous Bounty then cast adrift by Fletcher Christian on an epic 47-day open-boat voyage from Tonga to Timor; and a 36-year-old Captain Bligh as he takes HMS Providence, on a grand scientific voyage around the world. And all this before he was forty.

One Way - S.J. Morden

It's the dawn of a new era - and we're ready to colonize Mars. But the company that's been contracted to construct a new Mars base, has made promises they can't fulfill and is desperate enough to cut corners. The first thing to go is the automation . . . the next thing they'll have to deal with is the eight astronauts they'll send to Mars, when there aren't supposed to be any at all.

Wrong Answers Only - Tobias Madden

Marco should be at university, studying biomedicine. Instead, he’s been sent to live on a cruise ship in the Mediterranean with his estranged uncle, all because of a ‘blip’ everyone else is convinced was a panic attack. (Which it most definitely was not.) And even though Marco’s trip is supposed to provide answers – about himself, about his family – all he finds on board the Ocean Melody are more and more questions.

Showing Up - Nedd Brockman

Nedd Brockmann isn't afraid to dream big. Fresh after running fifty marathons in fifty days, the twenty-three-year-old had an idea: a 4000-kilometre run across Australia, averaging 100 kilometres per day with the aim of completing it in the fastest known time of 43 days. He wasn’t chasing fame or public recognition. He just wanted to test his limits and raise a million dollars for homelessness in the process.

The Wolf You Feed - Andrew Webster

Webster shows us a complex, brilliant and difficult man. We come to admire the good wolf of Bennett's nature - the genius who transforms young unformed players into titans of the game. And the bad wolf - the wrangler who plays the dark arts of football politics with obsessive determination.
(eBook access here)

Into the Wild Jon Krakauer

The true story of Chris McCandless, a young man, who in 1992 walked deep into the Alaskan wilderness and whose SOS note and emaciated corpse were found four months later. Jon Krakauer explores the obsession which leads some people to discover the outer limits of self, leave civilization behind and seek enlightenment through solitude and contact with nature.
(eBook access here)

Wool - Hugh Howey

In a ruined and hostile landscape, in a future few have been unlucky enough to survive, a community exists in a giant underground silo. Inside, men and women live an enclosed life full of rules and regulations, of secrets and lies. To live, you must follow the rules. But some don't. These are the dangerous ones; these are the people who dare to hope and dream, and who infect others with their optimism. Their punishment is simple and deadly, they are allowed outside.
(Audiobook access here)

The Extinction Trials - S.M Wilson

Betrayal. Sacrifice. Survival. Welcome to The Extinction Trials... In Stormchaser and Lincoln's ruined world, the only way to survive is to risk everything. To face a contest more dangerous than anyone can imagine. And they will do anything to win.
(eBook access here)

Safe Haven - Shankari Chandran

After arriving in Australia seeking asylum, Fina dedicates herself to aiding the refugees held in a detention centre at Port Camden, a remote island outpost. Appalled by the mistreatment of those in custody, Fina speaks out to the media about the poor conditions within the facility, as a result she is arrested, taken from her home in the small country town of Hastings and threatened with deportation.

The Wager - David Grann

From the international bestselling author of Killers of the Flower Moon and The Lost City of Z, a mesmerising story of shipwreck, mutiny and murder, culminating in a court martial that reveals a shocking truth.

Into Your Arms: Nick Cave's Songs Reimagined - Kirsten Krauth (Editor)

These stories, from some of Australia's favourite creators, respond to Cave's visionary genius with their own original and unsettling tales of death, faith, violence and love. This collection is best read with accompanying music. It's as much a listening experience as it is reading one.

What Happened to Nina? - Dervla McTiernan

Nina and Simon are the perfect couple. Young, fun and deeply in love. Until they leave for a weekend at his family's cabin in Vermont, and only Simon comes home. What happened to Nina? Nobody knows. Simon's explanation about what happened in their last hours together doesn't add up.

Soon, facts are lost in a swirl of accusation.

Open Water - Caleb Azumah Nelson

At once an achingly beautiful love story and a potent insight into race and masculinity, Open Water asks what it means to be a person in a world that sees you only as a Black body, to be vulnerable when you are only respected for strength, to find safety in love, only to lose it.
(Audiobook access here)

Klara and the Sun - Kazuo Ishiguro

From her place in the store, Klara, an Artificial Friend with outstanding observational qualities, watches carefully the behaviour of those who come in to browse, and of those who pass in the street outside. She remains hopeful a customer will soon choose her, but Klara is warned not to invest too much in the promises of humans.
(eBook access here)

Midnight in Chernobyl - Adam Higginbotham

A harrowing and compelling narrative which brings the 1986 disaster to life through the eyes of the men and women who witnessed it first-hand. Drawing on hundreds of hours of interviews conducted over the course of more than ten years, as well as letters, unpublished memoirs, and documents from recently declassified archives, this book makes for a masterful non-fiction thriller.
(eBook access here)

Suite Francaise - Irene Nemirovsky

In June 1940 France fell to the Nazis. The effects of this momentous event on the lives of ordinary Parisians and the inhabitants of a small rural community under occupation are brilliantly explored in Irene Nemirovsky's gripping and heartbreaking novel. Nemirovsky herself was a tragic victim of the Nazi regime but she left behind her this exceptional masterpiece. In Suite Francaise she conjures up a vivid cast of wonderful characters who find themselves thrown together in ways they never expected.
(Audiobook access here)