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Books

Surprise shortlist picks in children's book awards

Maxine Beneba Clarke (pictured) with illustrator Van T Rudd received two nods for The Patchwork Bike.

Two self-published books - including a unique album of typographical art in which every image is made with letters that spell its very name - have cracked the shortlist for information books in the Children's Book Council of Australia Book of the Year Awards.

'Gone Girl' of Australian crime fiction gets award nod

First-time success: Jane Harper's <i>The Dry</i> has exceeded all expectations.

Jane Harper's initial hopes for The Dry, a page-turning murder-mystery set in drought-stricken rural Australia, were modest enough. Firstly, it was to finish the manuscript she had started, then it was to get published and onto book shelves.

Firsts, fiction, and fr-omances

"One of the reasons I like young adult fiction so much is that it explores so many firsts": author Gabrielle Tozer.

Tozer's novels cover first jobs, new loves, big decisions, the agony of indecision and uncertainty, peer pressure - and lots of kissing.