Tag Archives: Australian

358P: Originally Reluctant Woman Frees Prince

I have used several other places, and have had no luck with this one.

It is a high fantasy type of book that takes place entirely in the fantasy world. It definitely seems like the beginning of a series. I vaguely remember it being written by a female Australian author and I believe it was published in the mid-later 1990s or early 2000’s. It was a trade paperback that I checked out from the library. The cover was a simple cover, not a complicated/traditional fantasy one.

It starts with a young woman working in her family’s inn/tavern and then she gets swept up with a prince who later gets imprisoned and who she frees at the end. At the beginning, she has a bad opinion of him, but then she travels to some place where he is getting ready for battle I think and gets to know him better. I believe there is magic based on elemental powers. I remember that she has to work with elemental beings, and they start learning to work together. At the end she ends up going to the castle where the prince is imprisoned and she frees him.

340B: Younger Brother Acts Possessed, Acts Like An Alien, Returns To Normal

Looking for a YA horror book (?), possibly British or Australian, 2000s or earlier, about a girl whose younger brother starts acting strangely. It's split into three sections: in the first he is acting similar to a person possessed by a demon (and a priest is called to exorcise him). In the second section he calms down and starts to become obsessed with the stars, implying that he is an alien. In the third section he calms down a little more, and the novel ends with some sort of climax/sacrifice? after which he returns to normal. The cover had a very pale ghostly looking boy on it, and I think the title was a one-word, strange sounding (making starting with a?) name that the boy called himself (I think based off a constellation). I read this book in the early 2010s as a child and was very disturbed but fascinated with it.

300E: Sleep by day and live by night

The book I am looking for is a series. I grew up in Australia and while I cannot be sure, I think the author was Australian (possibly even female). The story is about three children or young teenagers. They live in the future where the world is too hot by day for anyone to be active, so they now sleep by day and live by night. The children have to go beyond their village or camp for some reason and they end up crossing vast land in search of something. I believe there were three books in the series, although it may have been more. I remember thinking it was interesting that everyone lived by night, with the light of the fire. The elders were respected. It was almost as though humans had to resort to the way of life before modern civilization. I think they have found a lost city on their adventure.

I have been trying for a really long time to find this book series. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

296K: Scary, grotesque and colourful

I am looking for a picture book/book for early reading I read in the early to mid 90s in Australia. It had this man looking for treasure or gold in a cave or mine. He brought his horse or donkey along I believe. When he found the treasure I believe a ghost/whole lot of spooks appeared? What I remember most were the pictures which were very scary and grotesque and if I remember correctly colourful.

296D: The Great Dane…

Looking to obtain/locate a copy of a children’s book which MAY have been titled “The Great Dane, the Koala, and the Guri Guri Bird.” Likely Australian in origin; child borrowed it from a library in Kentucky in the 1980’s; has watercolor illustrations.

 

292R: Betty Realizes her Dream to Become an Author (Solved)

The book I want to find is titled Betty. It may have a subtitle, but I can’t recall it. I read this several times from cover to cover before I was 12, and oddly can’t recall the name of the author, but it made a great impression on me. I had found in my grandmother’s home, and I never knew who, from among the family, was the original owner/reader. The volume went missing when I was at college.

I infer that Betty was set in Australia, because when the young woman who is the protagonist and title character goes to the big city to make her way, I recall it was “Sydney”. Betty was one of several siblings, and with her twin, Cyril, the next born after Dot (for Dorothy). She had a tempestuous relationship with one of the younger ones, Nancy, made more difficult since the loss of their mother and Dot’s job away from the home put Betty in the role of surrogate mother and homemaker. Betty judged herself very harshly for the unkempt condition of the house and children, who ran amuck while Betty spent long hours writing fiction. Their father was at with them in the home, and very loving but not about very much. At one point, one of the small children went missing for several hours before being found unhurt, and Betty so blamed herself that she conducted a midnight funeral ceremony to bury her writing materials “forever”. For a while, the children were regularly bathed and the house neatly maintained. Not long after, she dug up her writing materials and resumed her writing. By some luck, she was offered a writing job in Sydney, where she went to live in a flat and had an adventure.

My guess at to the era the book was written and published would be the 1930’s. There are just a few clues in the transportation and communication as described in the book, and the well-worn cloth-bound style, paper and fonts.

290T: The colours mix and all is well (Solved)

A book bought in late 70s Australia (possibly UK published) picture book about a kingdom in black & white & wizard. Under the direction from the king who decides to make it colourful,  first turns blue and everyone is miserable, then red and everyone is angry, then yellow everyone becomes ill. Eventually the magic goes crazy and the colours mix to give full pallet and all ends well.