Terry Fide’s dad is a brilliant ghost detective. When Mr Horry Fide gets called to a haunting, he talks to the ghost to find out the why the ghost is being so scary. Problem solved!  Terry wants to be just like him, but the trouble is Terry is afraid of ghosts! All except his ghost dog Bones. Terry didn’t inherit his family’s unique way of dealing with unruly spirits. Instead, every time a ghost comes near, Terry gets wobbly knees and an itchy belly that makes him feel like a thousand fleas have invaded his clothes. Worse still, he scratches and jiggles and simply cannot stand still.
 
But when dad is called away to Sydney to attend to several meddlesome ghost sightings, he leaves Terry in charge to sort out the ghost in Miss Quibble’s bakery. Along with Bones and his best friend Max, he reluctantly heads over to the bakery. On the way the boys see Avery, who is in the same class as the two boys and insists on coming along to ‘…check this out – like it’s even true.’
 
Chaos and mayhem ensues when they try to get the ghost to talk to them. Avery, now a firm ghost believer, devises a clever trap and once caught, Terry can finally talk to the ghost and find out the true reasons behind this very messy haunting.
 
This is a fabulous, fast paced, spooky adventure that will have readers hooked from the very first page. The language, settings and characters are all easily relatable for the target audience. Love the play on words for the main character’s name – Terry Fide (terrified) and his dad Mr Horry Fide (horrified) – and the way the author expertly has us emotionally invested in Terry from the beginning with sentences like - In fact, he feared anything remotely spooky – spiders, rats, creaking floorboards, even the dark and Terry felt sick. Even a spelling test would be more fun than chasing after ghosts. I know that’s exactly how I would feel! Themes of kindness, bravery and friendship are embedded in this first book of the Ghost Detective series with the other two central characters – Max and Avery - appealing to both boys and girls. STEM plays a part in the story too with Avery’s character interested in inventing and designing.
The black and white illustrations seamlessly support and enhance the narrative throughout, and readers will love their fun, comic book feel. And the end papers are delightful!
This will be a must have series, especially for those looking for something engaging and challenging and a step up from early readers.

Teaching themes could include friendship, bravery, resilience, ghosts, design thinking, engineering, inventions, problem solving. 

Find out more about Jeannette Stampone
Find out more about Jasmine Berry

Published by About Kids Books
Release date July 2025
ISBN: 9870994642813
Highly recommended for ages 6 to 9

In a few short weeks, Callie would be starting at Birchwood High, and if they were all calling her Calliope-Jean from day one, she’d be Calliope-Jean – super nerd – until the end of time. This week at In The Rip would be her one chance to change that. In her wildest dreams she’d be CJ McGee – cool, daring, adventurous. But if Callie was what she could get away with, then Callie would do just fine. Surely if other people knew her by a different name, then she’d be different on the inside as well?
 
Every summer was the same at In The Rip. They’d been renting the house for as long as she could remember with family friends The Lanes and The Kensingtons. Callie asked why they couldn’t rent a separate house this year, but her mother had laughed and said you don’t mess with tradition. Trouble was ‘tradition’ also meant sharing the summer with Sasha, Cody and the twins. Sasha who, now that she was fifteen, had the sass and attitude to match, and had switched from being her ally to hardly noticing her. The one person Sasha was noticing was Ned, one of the local surfers. And then there was Mitch Lane and his younger brother Billy. Mitch was the same age as Callie but had made it his life’s mission to find ways to upset her. This year Mitch had brought along his cousin Owen, who seemed to have lots in common with Callie and the ability to keep Mitch in check. The three decide to investigate the series of recent robberies in the quiet coastal village of Sawyer’s Point, but it is when Sasha goes missing after sneaking out, that Callie must live up to her name and use her tenacity, perseverance, and resilience to save Sasha and discover the unexpected identity of the thief.
 
This coming-of-age story cleverly manages to bridge the gap from childhood to teenager. The pressures of having an overprotective mum, being an only child and trying to navigate your early teen years are not easy, and many readers will empathise with Callie as she tries to establish her own identity. The clandestine meetings to determine who the thief is will engage even the most reluctant of readers, with a possible ghost sighting and a near encounter with the local teenage gang in the dead of night keeping readers guessing and on the edge of their seats. Annual holidays with relatives and lame dad jokes will resonate with many, as will the feelings of frustration at not being taken seriously.
 
This is a brilliantly written middle grade novel about resilience, growing up, and navigating the sometimes confusing and complicated changes along the way to becoming who you want to be.

Teaching themes could include families, friendships, family vacations, theft, robbery, gangs, resilience, teenagers, individuality, summer, water safety, coastal towns. 
 
Find out more about A.L. Tait
Published by: Scholastic Australia. 
Release date: 1 August 2023
ISBN: 9781760260163 (PB)
Highly recommended for ages 11+

This fourth installment in the Cat Kid Comic Club series from Dav Pilkey is another triumph, not only because of its trademark graphic format, but for the inspiration within for young writers and illustrators. Join Li'l Petey, Molly, Flippy and the baby frogs, as they share their successes and failures in story creation with the world. They also provide an insight into the process of writing, with each chapter using either a slightly different graphic format and/or a different writing technique. In Wendy and Raine’s chapter about their dad’s life story, they use a traditional comic format in the illustrations, but have incorporated A LOT of exaggeration in the actual story. Gilbert and Curly learn about copyright and parody in their creation of Frogzilla. Summer and Starla use photography and the art of Haiku for their story.

There are chapters highlighting storyboarding, recycling toys to create completely different characters, using real life sequential images instead of illustrations, 3-D modelling, being an agent, getting published, and all the while learning to be respectful, resilient, creative and collaborative. My favourite chapter is Billie and Corky’s story Run Little Baby, Run!!! because it incorporates mondegreens – the misinterpretation or mishearing of phrases to create totally new meanings – and an order of two large French fries and a supa-sized shake becomes two large French flies and a supa-sized snake with hilarious consequences. 
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The thing I love about the Cat Kid stories is that readers won’t even know they are absorbing and learning all of these creative insights because of the very clever and thoughtful way Dav Pilkey writes and presents the books. Bright, colourful, humorous illustrations with large, colourful fonts, and funny, engaging stories that are quick and easy to read, are what capture the children’s imaginations.  And the graphic novel format has been such a drawcard for reluctant readers. Many children who found chapter books a struggle are now avid readers, thanks to authors and illustrators like Dav Pilkey who make reading accessible, appealing and most of all - fun!

Watch the trailer for Melvin and Naomi's comic creation Chubbs McSpiderbutt: Easy Spider below

Supporting teaching themes include family, persistence, resilience, collaboration, respect, copyright, graphic novels, photography, recycling, storyboarding, story writing and publishing.

Find out more about the Cat Kid Comic Club series.
Find out more about Dav Pilkey.

Published by Graphix, an imprint of Scholastic 
Release date November 29th, 2022. 
ISBN: 9781338846621 (HB)
Highly recommended for ages 7 - 10. 

Ibis (affectionately known as Bin Chicken) has had enough of the noise and crowds of the city at Christmas. ‘Bah humbug! Not this again!’ she grumbles. ‘I can’t find my dinner with that racket below – shoppers and carols and all that ho-ho!’ Even the pigeon is wearing a Santa hat! She decides to gather her chicks and head to the beach. But what she doesn’t realise is that many other Australians have exactly the same idea, and when they arrive there are lots of children creating a very loud hullabaloo!
Out from the shadows of the scrub steps a bush turkey, who knows exactly where to get some yummy food. They wait till the children have left for the beach with their ‘. . . boogie boards, beach towels and inflatable toys!’, and ever so quietly (watch out for the dog!) make their way inside the house, where they find a treasure trove of delectable Christmas delights. They poke their noses into everything – including some of the carefully wrapped presents – which is when their plan begins to unravel. They start pulling on the Christmas cracker from opposite ends and BOOOM! Oh no! This wakes the dog, sends the turkey into uncontrolled flight, and bird poo and feathers begin flying around as the Christmas tree tumbles. They manage to escape and luckily for Ibis, the bush turkey knows that if they wait just one more day, there will be tons of Boxing Day leftovers!
 
This is another hilarious addition to Kate and Jol Temple’s Bin Chicken stories.  The talented duo brilliantly captures the frenetic pace and noise of the holiday season in a city, and the feeling of wanting to get away from it all and head to the coast. The appearance of the bush turkey adds more humour with his ‘in the know’ information about how to get inside the house and start sampling the Christmas Day feast. It is the perfect slap stick companion for the Ibis and the chaos that ensues. The bit about ‘Bird poo flying around!’ will definitely be a winner with readers. The language is also very relatable with words like ‘servo’, ‘hotdog franks’ and ‘boogie boards’ making it very clear that this is an Aussie Christmas. The illustrations are a joy, with the bright colours and attention to detail a delight. Readers will notice something new each time they turn a page from the Christmas baubles and credit cards on the opening spread, the wonderful snaking lights of the highway, the old-fashioned television, and the last double page spread of a game of beach cricket. Plus there’s a sneaky little mouse who pops up on almost every page as well! My two absolute favourite details are the hats – Bin Chicken’s tuna tin and Bush Turkey’s crash helmet fit each creature’s personality perfectly!     
 
Supporting teaching themes could include Christmas, celebrations, birds, the Ibis, the bush turkey, hats, summer, beach life, friendship and resilience.
 
Find out more about Kate and Jol Temple
Find out more about Ronojoy Ghosh
 
Published by Scholastic Australia Pty Ltd.
ISBN: 98791761202414
Highly recommended for ages 3 - 7