Library
New Books!
We have some great new books here in the library - from sport to manga, a modern take on Shakespeare, YA, Fantasy, murder-mystery, war, romance to graphic novels. Have a read through these blurbs & drop into the library if you would like to read/borrow one!
FIFA women's world cup fever is here and we have 2 new books to keep you up to date on all things soccer related!
My Journey to the World Cup
Follow Sam Kerr’s incredible journey from playing Aussie rules football as a kid to becoming one of the world’s greatest athletes as she prepares to captain the Matildas in the FIFA Women’s World Cup.
Sam Kerr is widely considered to be one of the best female footballers of all time. She is famous worldwide for her skills on the soccer pitch – but before she was the Matildas captain and the leading goal scorer for Chelsea, she was just an average Aussie kid who wanted to play AFL. This is her incredible football journey to the FIFA World Cup, from making the switch to soccer to becoming one of the best female strikers in the world. Sam gives us insights into what keeps her motivated, how she handles the pressures of life as a professional athlete and what she believes is really important in life. Inside you will find:
Facts about the FIFA World Cup.
Everything you want to know about the Matildas.
Amazing facts about Sam – her early days, family life, teams, playing for Chelsea FC and the Matildas.
The official illustrated guide to FIFA Women's World Cup Australia/New Zealand 2023, covering every aspect of the tournament, from the host cities to full profiles of all 32 qualified teams, and packed with facts and stats.The definitive illustrated guide to FIFA Women's World Cup Australia/New Zealand 2023 that no football fan should be without.
The most high-profile event on the women's football calendar, the FIFA Women's World Cup will take place between 20 July and 20 August 2023, at venues across Australia and New Zealand, with 32 teams competing for the most prestigious international prize in world football.
FIFA Women's World Cup Australia/New Zealand 2023: The Official Guide covers every aspect of the tournament, from the stadiums to full profiles of all 32 qualified teams, along with features on the star players due to light up the competition. Packed full of facts and statistics, and beautifully illustrated with a superb collection of photographs, FIFA Women's World Cup Australia/New Zealand 2023: The Official Guide is suitable for fans of all ages and is the perfect accompaniment to the year's biggest football event.
The following books and reviews are from Lamont Books
Blazing Phoenix: Henshin! # 1 Saturday AM
By Bon Idle
Alex must balance becoming a superhero tasked with defeating Kaiju, making it as a journalism student, and navigating life as a gay man in modern Europe.
Nine years after a mysterious ecological disaster, journalism students Alex and Rosalia investigate the strange company that rebuilt their city and turned it into a vision of the future—that is, until Alex’s world is turned upside down by a chance encounter with a gigantic monster from another world, a Kaiju, and the mysterious masked hero fighting it! Inheriting the masked hero’s power, Alex must now take on these powerful Kaiju when he transforms into the hero Blaze.
As a gay man, Alex never imagined his cozy college life becoming deadly, but that’s just what happens as his battles uncover an unholy connection between his city, the most powerful company in Europe, and the Kaiju. Can he uncover the secret before it’s too late? Henshin!, a new, action-packed take on tokusatsu drama, features fiery fights, mysterious conspiracies, and LGBTQ romance for fans of classic Power Rangers and Kamen Rider stories.
Nine years after the magnetic pulse that took out the technology of their entire city, college journalism students Alex and Rosalia are trying to uncover the truth behind the white knight, tech billionaire Alton Grieves, who saved their city. They don’t believe all the hype, and the fact the truth is never reported makes them suspicious.
Then Alex meets a masked hero fighting a huge monster from another world, a Kaiju. When the masked hero gives Alex his powers – enter Blazing Phoenix - he must now face these monsters to both save his city, but also uncover the truth of who they are fighting for and why?
This is a wonderful adventure that those who enjoy this genre will adore. It contains many action-packed fighting scenes, as well as good versus evil, and a conspiracy of powerful people keeping society in the dark about what is really going on, that will have readers waiting in anticipation for coming volumes. Best suited to readers 13 and older.
Reviewed by Rob
Picasso and the Greatest Show on Earth
By Anna Fienberg
Secondary Fiction Book of the Month
Frances is in a new house in a new neighbourhood and going to a new school, but no amount of new can make her forget the old, sad secret dragging at her heart. Not the pictures of bacteria that she draws with painstaking precision, not even Picasso, the puppy with the long soft ears and the cute black circle like a target on his bottom. Then Frances meets Kit, the tall, quiet boy with the two-coloured eyes. Kit is a real artist. His coloured pencils fill page after page of exercise books. He sees wonder in the rocks and ferns and sky. Though Kit has worries of his own.
But when secrets are spilled, Frances's life turns grey and drab. Not even Picasso's wet nose can brighten her up. Frances and Kit will need to face the truth of their pasts to find colour in their world again. After all, don't the most brilliant sunsets need a cloudy sky?
A beautiful novel about finding the remarkable in the ordinary and celebrating the wonder of every day, from the award-winning author of Borrowed Light.
Frances is sad, and moving to a new house and a new school is not helping. She has a secret that she has been carrying for two years, and she can’t seem to find her smile ever since. Frances has become fixated on germs and making sure everyone is safe, and she draws bacteria with exact precision. Her beautiful new puppy Picasso (named after her favourite artist) loves her to bits and he is helping her.
Frances finds peace in drawing, and when she meets Kit at school she finds someone else who loves to draw. Kit finds beauty and colour in the most ordinary of things and teaches Frances to see them too. Kit is quiet and it takes time for them to become friends, but Kit is also hiding his own secrets and they soon learn to respect each other’s boundaries. But nothing stays hidden forever, and when Kit and Frances finally face their respective pasts, they learn to find the fun in the world again and to help their families find peace as well.
This is a truly beautiful novel that will appeal to readers of all ages. Frances and Kit are wonderful characters that will stay with you long after you put this book down. Themes of friendship, grief, nature, art and family make this a novel that will touch your heart and have you hoping that Frances and Kit can smile again. Their decision to paint a mural in the school and how much time and effort they put in to make it special, despite a few problems along the way, is a delight.
This would be a great book for classroom discussion and is sure to become a favourite. I absolutely loved it, and it is suitable for all middle grade readers.
Reviewed by Michelle
Hamlet is Not Ok
By R.A. Spratt
Funny, shocking and brilliant- from bestselling author R. A. Spratt, a whip-smart take on Shakespearean moral dilemmas.
Selby hates homework. She would rather watch TV - anything to escape the tedium of school, her parents' bookshop and small-town busybodies.
So Selby didn't plan to read Hamlet. She certainly never planned to meet him.
This novel transports Selby, and the reader, into the cold and crime-ridden play itself. Here she meets Hamlet - heavy with grief, the young prince is overthinking and over everything. Selby can relate. But unlike Hamlet, Selby isn't afraid of making decisions. In her world, Selby is used to feeling overlooked. But in the bloody, backstabbing world of Shakespeare, Selby's good conscience and quiet courage might just save some lives . . . hopefully before Hamlet stabs one of her classmates.
R.A. Spratt brings us this unique and interesting look into the world of Shakespeare!
Selby is the youngest child in a family of high achievers. Her brother and sister excelled at school, her parents are highly educated and now own the local bookshop. But Selby just coasts along and flies under the radar. She is a bit of a loner, spending hours watching soap operas on TV. She just does not find school appealing at all, and struggles with it - much to the disappointment of her parents, who have always been nothing but encouraging of her. Well, until they find out just how little work she has actually been doing at school anyway!
Enter her new tutor, Dan, the annoying friend of her brother. Dan not only makes her read Hamlet, but even worse he makes her read it out loud. This does not sit well with Selby, but she doesn't have much choice. But here begins the fun, as suddenly they are both transported right into the middle of Shakespeare's play. With no idea how they got there or how they are going to get home, Selby and Dan get caught up in the middle of all the drama and plotting that is playing out right before their very eyes.
Selby and Dan are concerned about what is transpiring, but can they intervene without changing the course of history too much?
Without wanting to give too much away, this is certainly a story that will have you thinking! The Shakespearean themes and language might be a bit overwhelming at times, but as R.A. Spratt says herself at the start of the book, there are words you can skip over, whilst still enjoying the story. This is a fun and unique take on a classic, and Selby is a great character, and one that many readers will certainly relate to, and you will be hoping that she manages to redeem herself! It will be enjoyed by all secondary students.
Reviewed by Sam
Inkflower
By Suzy Zail
A gritty YA novel about family secrets, hope and healing. Based on a true story.
Lisa’s father has six months to live. And a story to tell about a boy sent to Auschwitz. A boy who lost everything and started again. A story he has kept hidden – until now.
But Lisa doesn’t want to hear it, because she has secrets too. No one at school knows she is Jewish or that her dad is sick. Not even her boyfriend.
But that’s all about to change. And so is she.
In 1980's Melbourne, Lisa is a normal teenager making her way through high school just like everyone else.
When her Dad is diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease (MND) and given 6 months to live, Lisa can't even bring herself to tell her boyfriend Adam, or her best friend Deb. But as her Dad starts revealing stories from his past - of surviving the Holocaust as a young boy - Lisa starts to change, as she comes to realise that shutting the world out just to fit in is not the best option.
A captivating story told through the 'then' and 'now' perspective, of her father's childhood, and then in Lisa's time. Inkflower is a reminder of how the Holocaust still has an impact on people many years later, and how lessons learnt from the past can translate to the present. It also portrays the suffering MND can cause and gives perspective on life, death, and how we view ourselves through other people's eyes, instead of our own.
Whilst written in a teen-friendly way, due to the complex themes of the Holocaust, war, sickness and death, this story is best suited to readers aged 15+.
Reviewed by Ben
sing me to sleep
By Gabi Burton
Words sting. Songs kill. The Cruel Prince meets To Kill a Kingdom in this seductive YA fantasy debut, in which a siren must choose between protecting her family and following her heart in a prejudiced kingdom where her existence is illegal. Saoirse Sorkova survives on secrets. As the last siren in her kingdom, she can sing any man to an early grave - but her very existence is illegal, and if her true identity were ever discovered, it would be her life on the line. By day, Saoirse disguises herself as a fae, pretending to be the perfect soldier- in-training. By night, she satisfies her darker urges working as an assassin for dangerous mercenaries. And all the while, she keeps the biggest secret of all: that she is not always in control of her Siren powers, or her desire to kill. Then a blackmailer threatens her sister, and Saoirse's investigation takes her to the royal palace, and her most dangerous job yet: personal bodyguard to the Crown Prince. Saoirse expects to despise Prince Hayes. But he is kind, thoughtful, and charming, and she finds herself increasingly drawn to him . . . until he tasks her with investigating a killer plaguing the kingdom. The problem: the killer is Saoirse. Trapped by her deadly double life, Saoirse can't leave the palace until she saves her sister . . . but who will save her from herself?
This is a dark and enthralling book, full of magic, deceit and secrets.
Saoirse lives in a world where deceit and power are all around. In the Kingdom of Keirdre, fae are the most powerful of all. It is a prejudiced kingdom where being anything other than that can get you killed.
But Saoirse and her family are living with secrets. Saoirse is the last siren in the kingdom - sirens are known for their beauty and hypnotic ways that lead men to their death. If she is caught, her life will be over. But it is not her life she worries about—it is that of her younger sister Rain, who is hiding a secret of her own.
Saoirse has been training by day at the prestigious soldiers barracks, but working as a dangerous assassin by night. After graduating from the barracks, Saoirse is chosen to work as a guard to Prince Hayes at the royal palace. This is a dangerous place for her to be, and she initially refuses. But somebody knows her secrets, and the threats and blackmail start. To threaten her is one thing, but to threaten Rain is another! Taking the job at the Royal Palace might be her only way to find out who is trying to destroy them...
Prince Hayes is intrigued by Saoirse and her forthright attitude. He trusts her, but little does he know the truth about her and what she has done and is capable of! And when he puts her in charge of finding out the identity of the kingdom's mysterious killer, Saoirse finds herself with an even bigger problem—how do you investigate yourself? And how is she going to deal with the growing chemistry between them?
This is an epic YA fantasy novel that will have you intrigued right until the very end. It is graphic at times, so will best suit those that 14 and older.
Reviewed by Sam
threads that bind
By Kika Hatzopoulou
Filled with mystery, betrayal and powerful, simmering romance, and inspired by Greek mythology, Kika Hatzopoulou's electrifying, genre-defying debut is perfect for fans of Alexandra Bracken's Lore and Chloe Gong's These Violent Delights.
In the city of Alante, the descendants of the Greek gods live alongside mortals.
Io is the youngest of three sisters, descended from the Fates. She is able to see threads- shimmering silver lines connecting every person. When a new relationship is formed, a new thread appears. When a person's life-thread is cut, it's their time to die. Io uses her gifts as a private investigator, trying to make ends meet in a world which treats other-born people like her with suspicion and prejudice.
Then Io is witness to a murder - but this is no ordinary murder. Io can clearly see that the killer's life-thread has already been severed. This woman should be long dead.
More complicated still, there is another witness - Edei, a member of the Rossi mob - the gangsters who rule Alante. And what Io can see immediately, although Edei cannot, is that there is a bright silver fate-thread connecting them. This boy is her destiny...
Io and her two sisters are other-born bound together by the gods - one to weave the threads, one to draw the threads together, and one to cut threads. Io is the youngest, so she is the cutter. She can see the threads of peoples lives and all that they hold dear, including their life thread.
In their city, other-born like Io are looked down upon. But when Io witnesses a murder it sets of a chain of events that are intrinsically linked, and will have far reaching consequences.
This is a wonderful fantasy novel about love, family ties, loyalty, justice and political intrigue entwined with Greek mythology. Io is fascinating character, and there are so many subplots and twists that you will find this to be a very hard book to put down.
Perfect for those in middle secondary and above who love fantasy, laced with an intriguing murder mystery.
Reviewed by Michell
We didn't think it through
By Gary Lonesborough
The thought comes to me: This is how I die. Dally is going to lose control and crash us into a pole or a house and we will be killed on impact.
The justice system characterises Jamie Langton as a 'danger to society', but he's just an Aboriginal kid, trying to find his way through adolescence.
Jamie lives in Dalton's Bay with Aunty Dawn and Uncle Bobby. He spends his downtime hanging out with his mates, Dally and Lenny. Mark Cassidy and his white mates - the Footy Heads - take every opportunity they can to bully Jamie and his friends. On Lenny's last night in town before moving to Sydney, after another episode of racist harassment, Jamie, Dally and Lenny decide to retaliate by vandalising Mark Cassidy's car. And when they discover the keys are in the ignition... Dally changes the plan. Soon they are all in Mark Cassidy's stolen car cruising through town, aiming to take it for a quick spin, then dump it.
But it's a bad plan. And as a consequence, Jamie ends up in the youth justice system where he must find a way to mend his relationships with himself, his friends, his family and his future.Words sting. Songs kill.
Jamie is a First Nations' kid in Year 11, and he lives in a community where race plays a huge part in school life. Jamie was taken from his parents when he was six and, together with his brother Trey, was sent to live with Aunty Dawn and Uncle Bobby. Trey disappeared to Sydney when he was 16, and Jamie almost never sees him.
Jamie is hanging out with bad influences, where alcohol plays a big part in daily life, when Jamie’s mate Dally convinces him and Lenny that it is time to seek revenge on their bullies. They are planning to damage a car, but when they arrive and see the keys in it, Dally steals it instead and the others go along with it. A police chase and crash follow, leaving Jamie at the mercy of the courts, and a five month stint in juvenile detention follows.
Trey comes back into his life and news of his father’s terminal illness causes Jamie reevaluate his life. But going back to the old town and his old mates when he is released surely can’t work out for him. Will Jamie be able to turns his life around before it is too late?
This book hooks you in, it is terrifically well-written and tackles the challenges of life on the fringe faced by so many of our youth. With themes of displaced kids, racial tensions, alcohol abuse and trying to write a better story of your life, it will be best suited to readers ages 15 and older. Please note that it does contain strong language, but it fits in with the nature of the storyline and difficult themes tackled.
Reviewed by Rob
A Curse of Salt
By Sarah Street
A heartless king trapped by a curse
A brave sister searching for answers. And a love so strong it will drown the raging sea ... THIS FAIRYTALE IS CURSED
Prepare for stormy seas and swoony romance in this addictive retelling of Beauty and the Beast set on board a cursed ship where love blooms in the darkest of hearts ...
Ria is waiting and worried. Trapped in a coastal town at the end of the world, living in poverty with her two sisters, as every day more bodies wash ashore - bodies that were sailors on her father's ship. She is waiting for the day when the body is her father's ... and she knows the Heartless King will be to blame.
When her father surprisingly returns alive, he does so with a terrible choice - the Heartless King will spare his life in exchange for her sister. But what could the Heartless King possibly want with her poor, sickly sister? And what secrets are her father and older sister keeping from her?
Determined to save her sister, Ria decides that she must take her place. After all, it's not as though the Heartless King will have any idea what her sister looks like. And Ria has always loved the sea, and it seems like this time it's calling to her...
Quickly coming face-to-face with pirates and the Heartless King himself, Ria becomes a prisoner on his ship. The legends of his reign of terror haunt her memory, but the Heartless King and the ship itself are much more mysterious than the stories she has heard. As she slowly discovers the man behind the King's hood, she discovers that she is at the centre of a battle for revenge - as well as for the entire kingdom - many years in the making.
Can Ria unravel the web of secrets and figure out the curse before it's too late? And can she ever truly love someone without a heart anyway? When faced with a terrible choice, Ria must figure out who to trust and how to save everything she cares about...
With a pirate ship as the setting, this is an action-packed retelling of the Beauty and the Beast story, but not as we know it! With themes of fate, love, the consequences of our actions and looking beneath the surface, this will be enjoyed by middle to upper secondary readers who enjoy YA fantasy romances.
Reviewed by Kate
This summer's secrets
By Emily Barr
One hot summer, first love, so many buried secrets . . .A bold new story for fans of We Were Liars, intertwining past and present, love and loss, from the bestselling
author of The One Memory of Flora Banks. One hot summer, first love, so many buried secrets . . .
Senara has never been in love before. She's not done anything exciting before. Always the sidekick . . Until the summer that changes everything.
Cliff House is closed off for most of the year until its rich Londoner owners come down to Cornwall for the summer. This year, despite herself, Senara finds herself pulled into this world of wealth and ease, sunbathing and beautiful people. She even finds herself falling in love for the first time.
But Cliff House and its owners are hiding things. They've been hiding things for too long and now, despite all their efforts, their secrets are coming out . . . Secrets that involve Senara's friends and her family in a way she could never have imagined.
Set in a Cornish seaside village, where the locals are generally doing it tough, the wealthy tourists arrive for summer. The richest of the tourists own the Cliff House - which is mostly empty, although rumours abound around what may have happened within its walls over the years.
When three local students doing a school project decide to fly a drone over the Cliff House to get a better look, it crashes and in their attempt to retrieve it one the students, Senara, is discovered by the 92-year- old owner, Martha.
Martha is a wonderful character, with an incredible story. At the age of ten she was taken in by the brother and sister who owned the estate as a London evacuee. When her family all died during the war she was adopted and eventually became the sole owner of the property. With her family rarely visiting her since COVID, Martha hatches a plan that will ensure all of them come scrambling back one last time.
Senara quickly develops a bond with Martha, and also with her mega-rich granddaughter, Clem. But as they do we slowly uncover the relationships, mysteries and potential murders from the past that effect all of their families today. And when human bones are found within the Cliff House walls, questions of their identity, secrets from the past, and links to possible crimes linger everywhere...
The ending is as spectacular as it is just, and this is a marvellous murder mystery spanning 80 years and three generations. With themes of belonging, war, truth, finding love, family and doing what is just, this will be enjoyed by teenage readers 14 and older.
Reviewed by Rob
Insomniacs after school
By Makoto Ojiro
Two sleepless teenagers find kinship as they escape to their school’s astronomy observatory.
Unable to sleep at night, Ganta Nakami is cranky in class and unpopular with his classmates. He discovers that the school observatory, once used by the now-defunct astronomy club, may be the perfect place for a nap—but he’s not alone. Fellow insomniac Isaki Magari is willing to share the observatory with Nakami, and a friendship between the two begins as they bond over the most unlikely of things.
Dark rumors about what befell the members of the astronomy club keep people away from the school observatory, and that’s what makes it the perfect sanctuary for Nakami and Magari to get some much-needed rest. Unfortunately, the school faculty can’t allow its unsanctioned use. But if there were a new astronomy club, maybe these two insomniacs could have a place to call home!
Ganta Nakami suffers from insomnia meaning he is always cranky and not getting along with others at school. Isaki Magari also has insomnia, but she is still friendly and sociable.
Although they are in the same class, they don’t interact. This changes when Nakami goes into the abandoned Astronomy Club room looking for boxes, and finds Isaki and her secret hideaway.
No one goes in there because of the deaths of Astronomy Club members in the past and, it turns out, Magari spread rumours of it being haunted to keep people away.
They soon make this their safe place, and understanding that they are different and share the same problem, they form a bond. They share their troubles and find that together they can actually get some sleep. They even go out late to explore a whole new brighter and more exciting world.
Luckily, when their hideout is discovered, the school decides it is great that the Astronomy Club and its expensive equipment would be in use again.
With themes of mental health, sharing problems with others, and finding a happy place this is an easy-to-read and happy story that will be best suited to younger teens. Reviewed by Rob
The Cool Code
By Deirdre Langeland & Illustrated by Sarah Mai
In this funny and heartfelt slice-of-life graphic novel for fans of Raina Telgemeier and Kayla Miller, when coding whiz Zoey goes from homeschooled to new school, she develops an app to help her make friends. Will the Cool Code help Zoey fit in or will it completely crash her social life? In an attempt to fit in, Zoey develops an app called the Cool Code with a cute llama avatar that will tell her everything from what to say to what to wear based on pop culture algorithms she’s uploaded.
But when the app gives her ridiculous advice, awkwardness and hilarity ensues. With a few upgrades and a bit of debugging from the coding club, the app actually works—Zoey gets really popular . . . and gets her pulled in all kinds of directions, including away from her real friends.
Life’s most complicated choices. . . is there a code for that?
Zoey has been home schooled for her entire life. But now, in the middle of Year Eight, her parents’ business is about to take off and they have decided it is time for that to change.
Luckily, Zoey is a pretty good programmer and she hopes that her newly developed Cool Code program might be able to help steer her towards coolness and make some friends.
When she is invited to an after school Coders Club, she meets Daniel and Morgan. They find out about the Cool Code and decide that it should be a joint project to perfect it.
So after lots of work, Version 2.0 is ready and designed to make Zoey cool – leading to her running for president and gaining lots of friends. It seems like the Cool Code has really worked!
But is this what Zoey wants, and at what cost to her relationship with both Daniel and Morgan?
This is an easy to relate to junior secondary graphic novel that has excellent characters including a female lead who is a coder, together with the ups and downs of being ‘cool’, and the importance of real friendship, making this a great book for those aged 10 – 14 years.
Reviewed by Rob