Are you ready for the Australian Curriculum?

The following titles have been selected to fit in with the guidelines specified by the Australian Curriculum and Assessment Authority.

"The range of literary texts should include, Australian literature, including traditional and contemporary Indigenous literature and world literature, drawn from classic and contemporary texts, including texts from Asia."*

"Literary texts from various cultures (past and present), prose fiction (novels and short stories)."*

"Discussions of social issues, explanations of social phenomena."*

*K-10 Content Descriptions, Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority. acara.edu.au

Big rain Coming

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A lyrical story about waiting for the rain to come to an isolated Aboriginal community. Tension in the community builds as the rain clouds thicken and grow dark. Everybody waits. When will the rain come?

Two Hands Together

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When the Rileys move in next door, Lily and Ella become the best of friends. But Lily can't understand why her Dad doesn't like the Rileys. Why doesn't he want them to go over there? Why is he being so horrible and mean? Does something big have to...

Our Australian Girl: Meet Poppy (Book 1)

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It's 1864 . . . and Poppy lives at bird Creek Mission near Echuca.  Poppy hates the Mission, especially now that her brother, Gus, has run away to pan for gold.  What if Poppy escaped, too?  Would she survive alone in the bush?...

Born to Run

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Hi guys,Ever since I was little I only had one dream – to win a gold medal at the Olympics. When I was twenty-seven years old, my dream came true. I'll never forget that night at the Sydney 2000 Games – as I crossed the finish line, it...

Brown Skin Blue

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Belinda Jeffrey
My mum's skin is white, my skin is brown and I have a blue birthmark.  Two secrets rule my life.  One is something I need to know and the other is something I need to forget.  They won't let me go. WARNING: CROCODILE ATTACKS CAN CA...

Bye, Beautiful

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She thought of Billy, and how he would never say 'Bye, beautiful' to someone like her, that likely no one would ever say anything like that to her in her life, and how she could not do anything to change any of it.Sandy does not know if she would ...

Deadly, Unna?

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'Deadly, unna?' He was always saying that. All the Nungas did, but Dumby more than any of them. Dumby Red and Blacky don't have a lot in common. Dumby's the star of the footy team, he's got a killer smile and the knack with girls, and he's a Nunga...

Nukkin Ya

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Nukkin Ya is the sequel to Deadly, Unna?. Fifteen-year-old Gary Black, 'Blacky', isn't sure what he wants or where he is going. The one thing he does know is that he wants to escape the small country town he's grown up in.

In the Desert: Jimmy Pike As a Boy

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Jimmy Pike is one of Australia's most famous Aboriginal artists, represented in collections in all major Australian public galleries and museums. He grew up in the Great Sandy Desert during the 1940s and 1950s. This is his story as told by his lif...

Don't Take Your Love To Town

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Ginibi Ruby Langford
Ruby Langford Ginibi's bestselling first book is now back in print.With sales of over 30,000 copies since publication in 1988, Don't Take Your Love to Town is now a seminal work of Indigenous memoir. It has been set for HSC over a number of years ...

Wisdom Man: Biography of Banjo Clarke

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Some lives, like that of Banjo Clarke, are so special thy touch countless others without trying. A descendant of Truganini, Banjo was born in the early 1920s in the Framlingham Forest near Warrnambool, Victoria, a member of the Kirrae Whurrong tri...

The Tall Man: Death and Life on Palm Island

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The story of a death, a policeman, an island and a country The Tall Man is the story of Palm Island, the tropical paradise where one morning Cameron Doomadgee swore at a policeman and forty minutes later lay dead in a watch-house cell. It is ...

Little Brother

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The shots were so close they seemed to explode inside Vithy's head. He threw himself to the ground and clapped his hands over his ears . . . It's Cambodia. The killing machine that is the Khmer Rouge is in power. Vithy has lost everyone and everyt...

Wicked Warriors and Evil Emperors: The True Story of the Fight for Ancient China

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Imagine you're made king at the age of twelve. You have plenty of enemies. You have a million soldiers armed with all kinds of awesome weapons, you have tons of gold and a network of spies. What would you do with all that power? It happened t...

Chinese Cinderella

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When Adeline Yen Mah's mother died giving birth to her, the family considered Adeline bad luck and she was made to feel unwanted all her life. Chinese Cinderella is the true story of her struggle for acceptance and her triumph against almost overw...

Krakatoa Lighthouse

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Suddenly there was a trench across the beach, about ten meters away from the fishermen, where before there had been nothing but flat sand.  The fishermen moved quickly away as the trench heaved grey ash across the sand.  They sprinted wh...

The Ring of Water: Young Samurai: Book 5

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Chris Bradford
JACK FLETCHER HAS BEEN LEFT FOR DEAD . . . Bruised and battered, Jack Fletcher wakes up in a roadside inn wrapped only in a dirty kimono. He has lost everything, including his memory. Determined to discover the truth, Jack goes on a quest to retr...

The Peasant Prince

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'This is your one chance. You have your secret dreams. Follow them! Make them come true . . . 'In a poor village in northern China, a small boy is about to be taken away from everything he's ever known. He is so afraid, but his mother urges him to...

A Ghost In My Suitcase

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The flute music stops, and my breath catches in my throat.  Silence falls like a veil.  Then I hear something - no, I feel it in my chest.  'Steady yourself,' Por Por whispers.  'It's here . . . ' When Celeste travels to China ...

Hannah's Winter

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When her mother takes her to Japan, Hannah would much rather be back in Australia starting secondary school with her friends. But her stay turns out to be nothing like she'd imagined, and when Hannah and Miki find an ancient message in the station...

Thai-riffic!

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Albert (Lengy) Lengviriyakul, is fed up with being Thai. His parents own a Thai restaurant with the cheesy name of Thai-riffic! and Lengy is sick of being his father's curry guinea pig, longing  to just eat pizza! At school he is a bit of a t...

The Year of the Tiger

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Oh the edge of the Han Empire, the Great Wall is crumbling. And, on the other side, China's enemies are gathering strength. In the shadow of the wall, two very different boys - Hu and Ren - are thrown together, hoping to win an archery contest. Bu...

The China Coin

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Allan Baillie's masterpiece – an exciting journey into China set against the background of Tiananmen Square.

Mao's Last Dancer: Young Readers Edition

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One day, not so very many years ago, a small peasant boy was chosen to study ballet at the Beijing Dance Academy. His mother urged him to take this chance of a lifetime. But Li was only eleven years old and he was scared and lonely, pushed away fr...

Little Paradise

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As Mirabel watched him, she could not bear the thoughts creeping up on her.  JJ was in the Chinese army and his mission in Australia would one day be over.  Then she would be just like the others, a girl left behind in the wake of war.&#...

Girl in Translation

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Kimberly Chang has her world turned upside-down when she moves with her mother from their home in Hong Kong to New York. But their new life doesn't quite live up to their expectations - living in a vermin-ridden apartment in Brooklyn, the pair onl...

Growing Up Asian in Australia

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Alice Pung
Asian-Australians have often been written about by outsiders, as outsiders. In this collection, compiled by award-winning author Alice Pung, they tell their own stories with verve, courage and a large dose of humour. They tell tales of leaving hom...

Unpolished Gem

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Alice Pung
"This story does not begin on a boat." So commences Alice Pung's memoir. This is an original take on a classic story – how a child of immigrants moves between two cultures. In place of piety and predictability, however, Unpolished ...

Our Australian Girl: Meet Grace (Book 1)

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It's 1808 . . . and Grace is living with her uncle in London. They have no money, and Grace is always lonely and often hungry. The best part of her day is going to Fleet Street to talk to the horses that she loves so much. One afternoon Grac...

Our Australian Girl: Meet Rose (Book 1)

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It's 1900 . . . and Rose lives with her family in a big house in Melbourne. She wants to play cricket, climb trees and be an adventurer! But Rose's mother has other ideas.  Then Rose's favourite young aunt comes to town, and everything ...

Our Australian Girl: Meet Letty (Book 1)

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It's 1841 . . . and Letty is on the docks in England, farewelling her bossy older sister who is about to take a long sea voyage to Australia. But then there is a mix-up,and before she knows it Letty finds herself on the ship too, travelling to Ne...

Running With the Horses

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Running with the Horses is a stunning picture book by Alison Lester, the much-loved creator of Are We There Yet? and many other treasured books for children. Young readers will love this beautifully illustrated classic story of adventure...

The Mostly True Story of Matthew & Trim

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Matthew Flinders and his beloved cat, Trim, circumnavigate and map Australia, travel the oceans, end up shipwrecked, saved, then captured and imprisoned on the Ile de France where Trim is separated from his beloved master. Will they ever meet agai...

Once & Then

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Morris Gleitzman's two best-selling novels in one volume for the first time. My name is Felix Once I saved a girl called Zelda from a burning house I had a plan for both of us Pretend to be someone else Be safe forever Then the Nazis came 'Haun...

Lighthouse Girl

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Dianne Wolfer
It's 1914.  Fay can shoot a rabbit and make a mean nettle stew.  She understands morse code and the semaphoric alphabet.  She knows where the penguins nest and when the humpbacks migrate.  But until she starts writing to a sold...

Captain Cook's Apprentice

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'What are they saying?' Isaac asked Taiata. 'They are calling us tupua. . . goblins and demons.' 'And what else?' 'They say they will come back and kill us all.' When young Isaac Manley sailed on the Endeavour from England in 1768, no one on board...

The Black Dog Gang

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With our bags full of rats, the five of us began walking towards the line. We'd gone only a few yards when a voice sounded off to our left. 'What 'ave we 'ere, then?' it said. We turned our heads and say Bluey Lonnegan lifting himself up off ...

Scout

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As the Scout sails from England, Kit Lovell cries for the life she is leaving and the life she could have had. Her father was a sea captain who went down with his ship before she was born. Now her mother is to marry a stranger, a lighthouse keeper...

Break of Day

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No one thought the Japanese army would come this way, but there they are – thousands of them. On the Kokoda track, in the damp, disease-filled jungles of Papua New Guinea, Murray Barrett and the rest of the 39th battalion are the only th...

Black Jack Anderson

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Anderson and his men came in under the stern of HMS Shannon, jammed her rudder and scrambled up her ropes.But the captain had been looking out for them. He had orders to capture Anderson if he came within range, and to take him to Hobart for trial...

Black Water

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The wind, blasting up over the horizon from the south, carried with it the coldness of polar ice, and wielded it like a sword. Already the waves at the Heads would be heavy and huge, Farren knew, the gale rising so fiercely that there'd be wives ...

Animal Heroes

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Here are twenty-one fascinating stories about the forgotten heroes of war: animals who have served beside Australian forces. These are all animals that dazzle with their courage and loyalty – or sometimes just by being lovable. Whether it's ...

The Australian Long Story

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A TREASURE TROVE OF THE FINEST AUSTRALIAN WRITING In this collection, acclaimed writer Mandy Sayer brings together nine of the best Australian examples of the long story - tales that combine the intensity of the short story with the complexity of ...

Town

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James Roy
From a town near you comes thirteen linked stories, spanning a year in the lives of thirteen young people. You'll live their love and loss, grief, humour and passion; feel their hope and hopelessness. From the serendipity of an unexpected moment o...

The Boat

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'The Boat raises the bar for Australian writing.' PETER CRAVEN, Heat 'Nam Le is . . . a disturber of the peace. 'Consider the subjects of his stories: a child assassin in Colombia ('Cartagena'), an ageing New York artist desperate for a reconcil...

The Penguin Book of the Ocean

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THE WORLD'S FINEST WRITING ABOUT THE WORLD'S WILDEST PLACE  Ever since the first travellers reached the coast of Africa hundreds of thousands of years ago, the ocean has been one of the wellsprings of the human imagination. Its restless ...

Uno's Garden

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When Uno arrives in the forest one beautiful day, there are many fascinating and extraordinary animals there to greet him. And one entirely unexceptional Snortlepig. Uno loves the forest so much, he decides to live there. But, in time, a little vi...

Blueback

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Abel Jackson has lived by the sea at Longboat Bay ever since he could remember. He helps his mother each day and loves to dive. One day he meets Blueback, the biggest and most beautiful fish he's ever seen. When Abel's mother is approached by d...

Destroying Avalon

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Kate McCaffrey
Being fourteen is hard but it's even harder when your parents uproot you from a cosy little country town to a huge urban high school.Already unsettled and anxious about the prospect of starting year ten at a new school, Avalon's first day is a dis...

Kill the Possum

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A girl desperate to live a normal life.A family tormented by a monster's cruelty.Two boys with a plan to make him stop. Forever. From the award-winning author of Lost Property and Bridge to Wiseman's Cove comes a gripping and powerfully moving sto...

So Yesterday

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We are all around you.You don't think about us much, because we are invisible. Well, not exactly invisible. A lot of us have hair dyed in four colours, or wear five-inch platform sneakers, or carry enough metal in our skin that it's a hassle getti...

Swerve

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One of the country's finest young cellists, 16 year-old Hugh Twycross has a very bright future. A future that has been mapped out by his parents, his teachers, by everybody, it seems, except Hugh Twycross. Hugh has a secret, though: he loves ca...

Doppelganger

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A black tunnel began to form around me. My room started to spin. Desperately I tried to cry out but I couldn't make a sound. Then, like shattering glass, I crashed straight through the tunnel and out to the other side. Propelled out of his safe, o...

The Reluctant Fundamentalist

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'Excuse me, sir, but may I be of assistance? Ah, I see I have alarmed you. Do not be frightened of my beard. I am a lover of America...'So speaks the mysterious stranger at a Lahore café as dusk settles. Invited to join him for tea, you learn...

Matched

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ON HER SEVENTEENTH BIRTHDAY, CASSIA MEETS HER MATCH.  SOCIETY DICTATES HE IS HER PERFECT PARTNER FOR LIFE. EXCEPT HE'S NOT. In Cassia's society, Officials decide who people love. How many children they have. Where they work. When they die. ...

Across the Universe

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Amy has left the life she loves for a world 300 years away Trapped in space and frozen in time, Amy is bound for a new planet. But fifty years before she's due to arrive, she is violently woken, the victim of an attempted murder. Now Amy's lo...

The Burnt Stick

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John Jagamarra grew up at the Pearl Bay Mission for Aboriginal children in the far north-west. It was beautiful there, but it wasn't home. This is a tale for everyone about the pain of separation, and the strength of the human spirit. Visit anthon...

The Word Spy

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Dear Readers, You may not know me, but I know you. I am - the WORD SPY. Ever since I can remember, I've been listening to, speaking, reading, and yes, spying on words. The time has come for me to share with you some of the many things I have disco...

The Return of the Word Spy: A funny and fantastic voyage into language, grammar and beyond...

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From the beginning of time, the WORD SPY has been creeping down hallways, hiding in shadows and journeying through different lands to discover everything there is to know about the English language. In her first book, The Word Spy, she shared with...

Camel Rider

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Adam and his family live in a compound with other foreigners who work in the Middle East. He's got everything he wants, everything he needs, and there's a lot he takes for granted.Then war breaks out, and, in the confusion to escape, Adam runs awa...

Little Brother

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The shots were so close they seemed to explode inside Vithy's head. He threw himself to the ground and clapped his hands over his ears . . . It's Cambodia. The killing machine that is the Khmer Rouge is in power. Vithy has lost everyone and everyt...

Wicked Warriors and Evil Emperors: The True Story of the Fight for Ancient China

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Imagine you're made king at the age of twelve. You have plenty of enemies. You have a million soldiers armed with all kinds of awesome weapons, you have tons of gold and a network of spies. What would you do with all that power? It happened t...