Looking for holiday reads?
Try our bite-sized tastes of 13 books from junior fiction to YA
It’s not easy typing from the sofa/beach/other comfortable surface, but we’ll give it a try. After an epic 2024, we’re having a few weeks off before gearing up again in Feb, but that is NOT TO SAY that we don’t have news and updates for you.
For starters, we have some great listening for you, with our podcast Summer Series rolling out over January. Called FIRST CHAPTERS, it features 13 Australian authors reading the first chapter (or two) of their latest novels, from junior fiction to YA.
It’s a bite-sized intro to each book and, at less than 20 minutes an episode, perfect for a car ride, walk around the block, or to get the kids excited about reading something new.
Episodes so far include:
#1 Allison Rushby reads ‘The Christmas Wish’
#2 Judith Rossell reads ‘The Midwatch’
#3 Deb Fitzpatrick reads ‘Kelpie Chaos’
#4 Helen Edwards reads ‘Legend of the Lighthouse Moon’
#5 A. L. Tait reads ‘The First Summer Of Callie McGee’
#6 Dani Vee reads ‘Riley’s Failproof Guide To Breaking A School Record’
#7 Amelia Mellor reads ‘The Lost Book Of Magic’
Find them here or where you get your podcasts.
UPDATES FROM TEAM YKNR
HELLO FROM MEGAN DALEY
Megan is an award-winning teacher-librarian working in Brisbane, the author of Raising Readers: How to nurture a child’s love of books, and co-host of the Your Kid’s Next Read podcast. Her debut picture book THE BEEHIVE is out now! More about Megan here.
Happy New Year! Gosh what a year 2024 was in Team DaleyArk (Daley + Arkadieff = DaleyArk, a shipload of chaos). In 2024 we built and moved into a house, landscaped a yard with native bush foods, trees and shrubs for pollinators, ‘The Beehive’ was released and I did approx. 563 school visits (maybe an exaggeration…), The Beekeeper had a massive year of honey flows, varroa mite disruptions and antique collecting and our kids settled into a house that is our own.
It’s been a long few years for us as a family and while we are incredibly happy as a blended family of six, there is also tears, grief, chaos, BUSY, multiple diagnoses, sibling squabbles and so many rounds of food behind the smiles. We wouldn’t have it any other way, but I’m always conscious of not portraying a picture of perfection online. Blended family, all families really are a complex balancing act are they not?
Over the break I read some great adult books – mostly those from our list in the December paid newsletter, as well as a few uncorrected proofs which will come out early in 2025. In 2025 I’m doing more work with Somerset Storyfest, a spot of literary judging, a smidge of writing and continuing work as a teacher librarian and ‘rainforest guardian’ at St Peters Lutheran College.
I’m also really excited that there will be a new edition of ‘Raising Readers’ out in August 2025 with lots of updates – this book is my first book baby and I have been overwhelmed by how people have continued to connect with it.
BOOKS TO WATCH FOR IN 2025
I mentioned I have been reading some uncorrected proofs, here are my top three to keep at eye out for over the next few months!
TITLE: ‘Hidden Treasure’ by Jessie Burton (March 2025)
BLURB: For the people who live on the banks of the Thames, the river is a living, breathing thing. It can take your treasures. It can hide your treasures. And, sometimes, it can give them back.
Bo and Billy are two children who have never met. Billy is an orphan. Bo's dad died when she was small and now her brother is off to war. Both children are poor, but they have each found half of a priceless treasure, given up by the river. A treasure which – when the pieces are reunited – holds the power to give back to one of them the most precious thing they have ever lost.
But should the treasure be put back together again? And why has the river given it up now?
TITLE: ‘How to Sail Somewhere’ by Ashleigh Barton (March 2025)
BLURB: Beatrice Glass – Bea – lives in a tiny fishing village that's sleepy all year until the summertime, when the tourists flock in and most of the locals leave. But summer is also when Bea's favourite person in the entire world, her fun and hilarious uncle, Byron, comes to stay.
That was last year. Now summer has arrived, but Byron hasn't. And now it looks like he never will.
Are the book and Byron's disappearance linked? Byron has left some clues for Bea - a scavenger hunt of sorts designed to bring her and her new friend, Arabella, together and give Bea one last magical summer. Could Somewhere hold the key to both Bea's and Arabella's future?
TITLE: ‘Willow Bright’s Secret Plot’ by A. L. Tait (yes OUR Allison Tait!) (May 2025)
BLURB: After moving to the city from the country, Willow Bright feels like she’s lost her mum all over again—and landed on another planet. Her clothes are wrong, her taste in music is wrong, and even the food she eats is wrong. But when Willow spots a pattern in a series of puzzling accidents and mishaps, she forms an unlikely friendship—and finds new purpose.
Can Willow solve the mystery and find room to be herself along the way? Or will her plot to run home to the wide-open spaces and memories of her mum land Willow in even more trouble?
HELLO FROM ALLISON RUSHBY
The award-winning, bestselling author of many, many books for children and adults, Allison Rushby’s novels are firm favourites in the Your Kid’s Next Read community. Her latest illustrated junior fiction series, The Wish Sisters, is fast gaining fans. More about Allison R here.
Do we have any idea what day it is yet? Are we surviving on a diet of random bits of cheese, chocolate and leftover ham? Isn’t this just the most perfect time of year? I so hope you’re all just floating about in pools and reading, for surely it will soon be time to know what dratted day it is again and pack lunches and be places on time and so on.
I’m getting some lovely reading in, but actually, I find this time of year is perfect for writing. Everyone is ‘busy’ (read: ‘busy’ eating random bits of cheese, chocolate and ham and floating about in pools), or they’ve set off on their beach holiday. It’s the perfect time to bunker down and write, write, write. I’m not going away until later in 2025, so am hard at work.
I’m closing in on the end of a huge, unwieldy adult manuscript and as most authors will tell you, writing the end is the best bit. We often have to make ourselves slow down and not rush the writing of the ending as we’re so keen to be done with the manuscript. Then we write THE END and realise we’re going to have to go back over said manuscript again hundreds of times. Still, at least I will have random bits of cheese, chocolate and leftover ham to sustain me as I write!
THREAD OF THE MONTH
Okay, so it wasn’t a thread, but I’m going to give a massive shout out to Bookmas. How good was our Twelve Days (okay, Thirteen Days because we can’t count) of Bookmas giveaway?
Every year I grumble about Bookmas like a big old Grinch, because it’s sooooo much work, but every year I love it to death. It’s so much fun reading everyone’s responses to the questions (which we try very hard to keep entertaining) and I love the really massive giveaway days where everyone gets super-excited about a truly incredible giveaway pack.
Long live Bookmas!
HELLO FROM ALLISON TAIT
Writing as A. L. Tait, Allison is the internationally published, bestselling author of three middle-grade series: The Mapmaker Chronicles, The Ateban Cipher and the Maven & Reeve Mysteries. She is an in-demand speaker, a writing teacher for kids and adults, and co-host of the YKNR podcast. Her latest novel THE FIRST SUMMER OF CALLIE McGEE is out now. More about Allison here.
My favourite days of the year are those liminal weeks between December 27 and about the 6th of the January – it’s the only time when my inbox is still, my phone doesn’t ping and I get to catch my breath.
The lead up to Christmas was chaotic with a structural edit on the go for a second middle-grade novel for 2025. I was quite determined to get it done so that I could enjoy my annual breathing space, and, challenging though it was, I got there. I cannot wait to share this book with you next year. Fingers crossed all goes smoothly from here and I’ll be able to tell you more about it soon.
I’m also enjoying the opportunity to give my vocal chords a rest as our podcast Summer Series rolls out. I do hope you’re listening in!
YKNR PODCAST TOP 10 FOR 2024
Our top 10 episodes for 2024 are a brilliant mix of author interviews, Quality Waffle and, of course, a Soapbox or two.
And our top 10 of all time:
JANUARY BOOKMAIL WINNER
Each month, we give away a prize pack consisting of some of the brilliant bookmail sent to us for the Your Kid’s Next Read podcast. One winner** is chosen from our full subscriber list by random draw and announced here!
There are SIX books in the JANUARY prize pack.
The JANUARY bookmail giveaway winner is … Lisa M, Qld.
Congrats! We’ll be in touch by email.
Want a chance to win next month? All you have to do is subscribe.
Here’s to 2025 – we’ve got a lot of exciting things coming up and we can’t wait to share them with you! And congratulations to Michelle, Leanne and Helen, winners of our December Erstwilder giveaway.
Allison T, Allison R and Megan
**Australian mailing addresses only. Prize consists of one copy of each book pictured, sent as a pack to the winner by Australia Post. Winner will be contacted by email and prize must be claimed within 14 days or a redraw will take place. You must be subscribed to the YKNR newsletter by midnight (AEDST) the night before publication each month to be eligible to win. No correspondence will be entered into.
Thank you for these book recommendation! Another wonderful collection for us to dive into!