 Hi everyone, it's Stephie from Kidlet Joy and today I am here with my middle grade recommendations by Australian authors. So I did say that I would film one of these because I am participating in middle grade March. So if you are unfamiliar with Australian middle fiction or Australian middle fiction authors, hopefully you will get a good sense of sort of what we have available over here. This list is not exhaustive. It is quite long, but it's not exhaustive. It's kind of just the books that I have been reading over the last couple of years. I am not always the biggest middle fiction reader. It tends to be depending on the age range of the children that I'm teaching, where I will read more of that readership category. But I thought I would jump in and share this with you anyway. I'm going to do it in a presentation style just because it's a little bit easier than me trying to find all the books and hold them up. And I'm probably not going to speak very long about each book. I have tried to put some notes about which categories they fit under for the middle grade March prompts. Most of them are the animal on the cover. And some of them don't fit prompts at all. And it might just be that for you, they are the books that you have never heard about before or books that you feel like you missed out on. So we're going to jump straight into it. And I am running this in present mode. So I'm probably not going to be able to see my screen. So if I'm doing something weird with my face, it's because I can't see myself. We're going to jump straight in. I've tried to loosely group these, but towards the end, I sort of lost my groupings. Anyway, that's okay. So first up, there's a whole stack of historical fiction. Some of the ones that I've read recently are Eevee and Rhino by Nerida McMullen. This is a really gorgeous story based on a true story of how some animals that were on the way to the Melbourne Zoo. When it was first set up, we're actually in a shipwreck. And in this case, a Rhino manages to get to shore and is cared for by a young girl and her family. True Sparrow Hawks and Alone in the Sky is a historical fiction by Rebecca Lim. This is about two children who live through some really tough times and end up migrating to Australia. And I've just realised there's a spelling mistake on the slide. Oops. Then there is Ming and Flow Fight for the Future. This is a historical fiction time slip kind of story. Plenty of animals in this story, but it is about a young girl who ends up travelling back in time to the early days living in Australia, I think, around just before the 1900s. Then we have some mysteries. This is the Alice England mystery series. The Deadly Daylight was a debut by Ash Harrier, and the year excavation is the second book. And there is a third book coming out relatively soon, I believe. I've seen a cover for it. It is about a group of friends who band together to solve mysteries. There is some great representation in here. I've just realised that there is an animal, there's a snake on the front cover, so that could fit another prompt. But it is a really delightful and quirky little mystery series. Then there is a mystery fantasy series, Miss Mary Kate Martin's Guide to Monsters. This is about a young girl who has anxiety but finds herself always going into situations where she is forced to confront her anxiety and solve mysteries involving some creatures, perhaps, that may or may not be inhabiting the places where she is travelling to. So there is the Wrath of the Bullington Worm, the Trouble with the Two-Headed Hydra, and the Bother with the Bond Killing Knock Beast. I've talked about all of these on my channel. This one needs no introduction. The Nevermore series by Jessica Townsend is fantastic. Nevermore was a debut by Jessica Townsend, and there are animals on the cover for all of the other books. And it is a really great fantasy series if you are looking for an alternative for the other series that shall not be named. Then we have the Kingdom and Empires series, which starts with the extremely inconvenient adventures of Brontë Metalstone and then continues with series with really long titles. So there is a slightly alarming tale of the Whispering Wars, the stolen Prince of Cloudburst, the astonishing Chronicles of Oscar from Elsewhere, and the Impossible Secret of Lily and Velvet. All of these are interconnected stories. They do follow different main characters in each book, but the characters do end up meeting in various stories. And we get a really great sense, particularly in the last book in the series, of how everything in this series is connected. They're really fun. They are quite long for middle fiction stories, but if you like quirky stories about found family and friendship and magic, then this is probably a really good series to pick up. This is where I start to deviate from my grouping. So Reese Carter's books A Girl Called Corps and The Lonely Lighthouse of Elstenfright are fantasy or supernatural fiction. A Girl Called Corps was Reese Carter's debut book. It is about ghosts and supernatural beings, and is really fun and enjoyable, and a really great series so far. And they also have illustrations in them by Simon Howe. Then there is The Booksellers Apprentice by Amelia Mellor. This is a historical fantasy-ish fiction story. It is set in Melbourne, which is where I'm from. And it is about a boy who becomes a booksellers apprentice and is targeted by a nefarious magician. And it is about how the two of them end up in this magical duel and competition. And it's very, very intriguing. I actually listened to the audiobook of this one, and it was great. Then we have some sci-fi fiction. So Mars Awakens and Mars Underground by H.M. Moore are both stories set on Mars to rival settlements who have to work together to survive the future on Mars. And then the Globe by Sophie Laguna and Mark McBride is about a world where one day everyone who is using a device just freezes, and there are only a couple of kids who don't freeze and have to investigate the strange happenings. And it is very creepy. This should probably say sci-fi horror. Very creepy, very spooky, and a good commentary on our reliance on technology. Then we have some sci-fi historical time-slip stories. Sci-fi because time-slip does fall under that category. Anasador does some really fantastic time-slip stories. The boy who stepped through time and a message through time are all about kids who travel back from the present day into ancient times. And then Tumble Glass by Kate Constable is about a girl who ends up traveling back in time through her street history and the people who live there and the people that her family interacted with. So really intriguing stories. We have The Kingdom of Silk series. These are actually short novels that will probably fit older junior fiction and early middle fiction. They're all contemporary and they follow the silk family and they deal with lots of different themes. There is the grief of the loss of a child in the first book. There are themes of friendship, fostering, and adoption. I think one of the stories does have an immigration story in it sort of. There are themes of aging. I think one of the books does feature one of the children who deals with chronic migraines. So it's a really great series. They're very short, very accessible books. And while they deal with some heavy themes they are absolutely beautiful, gorgeous stories about a family who just stick by each other regardless. Then some other favorites. Sea Glass by Rebecca Fraser I've talked about. I thoroughly enjoyed this book last year. It was a really, really great read about a girl who ends up having to stay with a grandparent that she doesn't really know and the connection that she builds with him through Hunting for Sea Glass on the beach. There is The Little Wave by Pip Harry, which is a contemporary verse novel. This one is about three children whose lives all converge as a country school comes to the city to visit the beach for the first time. All of the main characters that we follow are dealing with different things. And as their stories converge, we begin to see that despite the fact that they are all going through lots of different things, there are still similarities between them. Are You There Buddha by Pip Harry is a contemporary coming-of-age story about growing up and starting puberty. There is Zedima and the Dog Who Chased the Moon by Gabrielle Wang, which I absolutely adored reading last year. Kind of magical realism fiction and it does fit the prompt animal on the cover. But it is about a young girl who loves telling stories and her stories that she writes down and gifts to people often come true. Then there is H. Hyak's Hooda series and there is Hooda and Me, which was her debut and Hooda was here. This is the story of two siblings in a Muslim family who get up to all sorts of mischief. Hooda is the most delightfully precocious child. She's the younger sibling. The story is narrated from her older brother's perspective and he is just trying to keep up with her. They're all about family, love, and staying together and it is just gorgeous. Then we have the Bones Barrow by Zana Frailand, which is the opposite of Hooda and Me because this one will make you cry. It is a contemporary fiction story. It is the relationship between two children, one who lives in an immigration detention centre and the other who meets that child. It does feature an animal on the cover as well. I cannot recommend Zana Frailand's writing enough. I do come back to her books in a little bit as well but the Bones Barrow is where I started with her writing and it just blew me away. Another author that I absolutely loved last year was Merriam Master and her book No Words. This one does have an immigration and or refugee story and also has a character who is a selective mute. What about Tao? Again, contemporary fiction, immigration, refugee story. This actually follows two boys. One who is a city boy who moves to the country and another who is a refugee who moves to the small country town and about how they connect. Interestingly enough, both No Words and what about Tao? Also, what about Tao? If you listen to the audio book, Oliver Pomavan, who is the author, narrates the audio book and it was a really great listening experience. There is The Goodbye Year by Emily Gale. This is contemporary fiction. It has animals on the cover. The reason I put all of these stories together on the same page actually is because they all feature coming-of-age stories. The Goodbye Year is about the final year of primary school and one girl's journey into trying to find her place and trying to connect with her friends in that last year. There's also a magical realism element as she ends up meeting a ghost from the past. The Edge of Thirteen and Sick Bay by Nova Whitman are all contemporary fiction. As I said, they deal with coming-of-age stories. Sick Bay does have a character who is living with diabetes and it follows their journey. And then Sunshine on Vinegar Street is a contemporary fiction story. It is about a young girl who ends up moving into the inner city, into an apartment, and having to sort of rebuild her life in a new place and build new friendships at a time when it's really tricky. And then we come to sort of some more heavier middle fiction stories. There's How to Be by Bren McDibbles, which is kind of speculative fiction, does feature animals on the cover. A lot of Bren McDibbles work deals heavily with environmentalism and that is true of How to Be and also the Raven Song, which is a speculative or dystopian fiction story that is set in a post-pandemic world. And obviously there are animals on the cover. And then The Way of the Dog is a verse novel by Zana Freylin that is told entirely from the perspective of a dog from a puppy farm who escapes with a young boy, but is then separated from that boy and is trying to make their way back to them. Then we have some graphic novels, which I couldn't not include because I absolutely love these. There's the Sherlock Bones series by Renee Tramel. There are Sherlock Bones and the Natural History Mystery, Sherlock Bones and the Sea Creature feature, and Sherlock Bones and the Art and Science Alliance. It is not easy to say those titles. They are really fun. They're set in a Natural History Museum and they feature a 20 frog mouth skeleton who investigates all sorts of goings on in the museum after dark. And then there is Ghost Book by Remy Lye, which is a supernatural fiction story. It is the connection between a girl and a boy who is a ghost. I don't know why I left animal on the cover on there. There's no animal on the cover. Then we have some first nation titles and I'm starting off with some non-fiction. So there is the first scientists and this book thinks you're deadly by Corrie Tutt. The first scientist is a history of all of the first scientists and the first inventions from Australia's First Nations peoples. It is an absolutely incredible book. This book thinks you're deadly is a collection of biographies of amazing Australian First Nations people who have done incredible things in all sorts of fields from the arts to the sciences to sports to the media. You name it. They're in here and it is a wonderful, wonderful collection. And then Young Dark Immu, A True History by Bruce Pascoe looks at challenging the idea that Australia was terra nullius or that there was no one there. It highlights how Australia's Indigenous population were farmers and had great agricultural skills and worked the land before settlers came here. There is an adult version of Young Dark Immu but this one is written for young audiences and is really incredible and well worth checking out. Some more First Nations fiction. There is Black Cockatoo and Durran by Carl Merrison and Hakeah Hustler. These are great, really short stories. They're kind of more upper middle grade early young adult stories but they would fit into that upper middle grade category. So I've included them here in case people are interested in checking them out. They are much shorter. They do feature animals on the cover. Obviously the Black Cockatoo which is one of my favourite Australian birds and both books follow the same character. Then there is Nira, Deep Time Traveller, The Broken Rainbow. This is by Tasman Walton and Samantha Campbell. This is a First Nations time slip story as Nira who lives in the present day ends up travelling back in time to help solve a mystery that has happened with some of the figures from the dreaming. It was a really interesting and fun story. I've got a couple of other First Nations fiction books that I'm hoping to read this year so hopefully I'll be able to expand this list out in the future. A few more titles. There is Sister Heart by Sally Morgan which is a First Nations historical fiction verse novel. It is incredible, highly recommend. Who Am I by Anita Heiss is a First Nations historical fiction story and then also Our Rise for Reconciliation by Anita Heiss is a contemporary fiction story by the same author. All of them deal with very important themes that we should all be reading about. Then we come to Ando who is prolific at the moment and you guys will know because I talk about his books fairly often. He has a number of ongoing serial stories at the moment including these three which are more of the middle grade variety. So there is Wolf Girl, Rise of the Mythics and Sky Dragon. I've just included the first books from each of these series on here. There are so many of these books I cannot even tell you and they disappear off the library shelves very quickly. These are all speculative adventure fiction stories, serial stories and most of them do feature animals on the cover because there are lots of animals involved in these stories. These were the books that I added because I forgot to add them earlier. So there is The Year the Maps Changed by Danielle Binks which is a recent historical fiction that takes place in the 1990s. It's kind of wild to think of that that is like 30 years ago but we digress. I've put that this is a debut because this was Danielle Binks debut novel. She had previously published work in Young Adult Anthologies and been the editor of those but this was her first novel that she released and it is well worth checking out. Oh I should have put down this does also deal with themes of immigration and refugees but it is absolutely gorgeous and then Jack Heath is just awesome. I love his mystery adventure fiction stories. He has the minutes of mystery series and the minutes of danger series and they are incredibly fast-paced and enjoyable and really good at hooking those kids who want something that's going to hold their attention. Then we have The Children of the Dragon series by Rebecca Lim. There is The Relic of the Blue Dragon and The Race for the Red Dragon. These are kind of adventure supernatural fiction stories about a boy who ends up getting caught up in some I think it's a heist for memory and also ends up meeting a character who may or may not be a bit of a dragon shifter and then we have Paul Jennings who is also a prolific Australian author. He's been writing books since I was a kid but these are some of the ones that I've read recently a different boy a different dog in a different land. They're all historical fiction. He has a beautiful storytelling style. Most of these have animals on the cover so it fits that prompt but they are really interesting well-told stories that are worth checking out if you've got someone who enjoys historical fiction in your life. Those are some recommendations. Hopefully that is enough to get you started as I said it is not exhaustive and clearly when I was putting this together last night left some typos on the page but that's okay. I'll leave a list of all of the books down in the description but obviously you can come back to this at any point in time and have a look at the titles and the covers and things like that and see what you think but if you do decide to pick up any of these books feel free to let me know. Just be aware that I'm using Australian titles because they were published here. Sometimes they do get published under other names overseas so just make sure you check you search for the author because that will help you to find the right title. If you think I have left out something really important off this list if you're Australian feel free to let me know down below otherwise I hope that we're on the world just staying safe and healthy. I hope you have a really fantastic middle grade march and I will see you in my next video. Thanks so much for watching. Bye everyone.