Booklists

Australia's Western Swamp Tortoise, the world's rarest tortoise, is an endangered species. The baby tortoises' intense struggle for survival is revealed in this bittersweet story.

The Yark eats children. But not any old children. He only likes to eat the good, sweet ones. Naughty children make him terribly ill. But one night he meets Madeleine and even though she is delightfully well behaved, he finds he would rather be her friend. Can The Yark avoid eating Madeleine?

Some things to know about Billy: he's worried about starting a new grade at school, he had an accident over summer, his little sister is annoying, he can run really fast and this is his year.

A farm provides the perfect backdrop for the cycle of seasons in Australia. This picture book takes readers through a month by month description of activities and changes on a family farm.

The neighbours have moved out and now there is no one living next door, peace and quiet at last, so Dad can do his yoga and be happy. Then Tubby, Ferret and King Wally Kahuna move in. They love throwing parties and playing air guitar. Worst of all, they are yobbos and everyone knows that yobbos and yoga don't mix.

When a Traveller family experiences a run of bad luck, an imaginative boy called Yokki lifts their spirits with tales of a magical white horse. A traditional Romani tale.

The river links the present with the past, as the narrator recreates her own past and the experiences of Murrawee, her 'elder sister', living on the banks two hundred years ago.

Uncle Tobias is the fisherman Elder of an Aboriginal family. The story follows a typical day on the beach for the mob, collecting bush tucker and celebrating with family. Uncle Tobias tells stories of the original use of the Land, and remains almost oblivious to the many changes that the coming of Europeans made to this beach locale.

Did you know that a grain of rice has more genes than you? Or that you're related to dogs, dung beetles and even daffodils? Luckily, even though you're 99.9% like a chimpanzee, you're still 100% YOU! The extraordinary world of genetics has never been explained so simply. You'll be amazed at what makes you YOU.

Any three titles read from this series can be included as official Challenge books; up to five more titles can be included as your personal choice books. To see the individual book titles and their PRC ID numbers, go to the Series lists on the Booklists page, on the website. Or, you can search for a series name or the individual titles by using the Search function on the top left hand corner of the screen.

When Daisy's mother corrects her, Daisy points out that her mother does the same things. It's hard to believe that Daisy's mum does things that are that naughty.

Sometimes people say to me: 'What happened to your brother, Bill?' That's when I look them in the eye and say: 'Hun, you need to chill.' When Bill can't be found at school one day, the imaginations of the other children run wild. Is he on holiday? Is he lost in the park? Has he been eaten by a shark?! It's up to Bill's sister to explain...

Jake and Anna's dad loves his neat, orderly garden. So do the scrub turkeys. Dad devises various plans to rid the garden of the turkeys but Anna thinks they should share it.

Magical Ms Wiz has become ordinary Mrs Arnold. How can Class Three persuade her to come out of retirement and save their school? This is the tenth title in the Ms Wiz series.

First Lizzie Thompson's cat disappears. Then Lizzie herself. Ms Wiz has a mission: to find the missing pair. Who will be the next to go missing? PC Boote hopes it will be Ms Wiz. This is the third title in the Ms Wiz series.

An almost wordless picture book. The bright, entertaining illustrations show how older people interact with the young in all sorts of situations, at meals, out of doors, keeping fit and sharing stories, not to mention enjoying music, art and special occasions.

A birthday party is usually a very fun event, but this birthday party is most fun for the guest of honour. The cockroach arrives univinted but is pretty sure he is the life of the party. After all, everyone seems to make so much noise when he shows up.

In his African savannah home, Giraffe has everything he needs. But, as usual, Giraffe is bored. He'd love a friend to share things with. So, he writes a letter and sends it as far as possible across the other side of the horizon. There, he finds a pen pal called Penguin. Giraffe knows nothing about penguins and his letters are full of questions. Soon, a pen pal friendship begins as letters fly from horizon to horizon.

Jimmy Cook (or Captain Jimmy Cook, if you don't mind) found Alice Toolie's diary in the Library. He read it, and it contained some not very nice things about Jimmy. Alice and Jimmy were both really mad with each other, so their teacher made them write letters to each other to apologise. Not so surprisingly, neither of them were really in the mood to say sorry. Alice and Jimmy find plenty to fight about in their letter book but they also, quite by accident, find they have more than a few things in common.

It's a catastrophe! Alice and her worst enemy Jimmy both have their birthday parties on the same day. How will their friends decide which party to go to? There is only one obvious solution- a cake-off, who ever wins gets to have their party. Come on a hilarious journey with Alice and Jimmy to see who makes the best cake.

A fun, barf-filled action-packed, seriously gross book by the author of the '''Freaky''' series So you know all of those really yucky disgusting and gross, icky things that we talked about in Book One? Well, guess what? There's more disturbingly gross stuff that your parents don't like talking about in Book Two! For example, if you "upchuck," will it land on your head? And where does your nose go when it runs? How did a "streaker" end up in the book?

Daisy doesn't like to wear dresses and she doesn't like to look lovely, so being asked to be a bridesmaid at Aunt Sue's wedding is yuk. She can't wear a football kit, scuba gear or a leopard skin suit so it seems impossible that Daisy will ever be happy about it.

These stories are treasures of the imagination. They are lively, bold and quite unforgettable. Favourite nursery stories are retold in bold language and with brilliant vibrant pictures.