Books
Don’t Breathe a Word (Random House Australia)
by Marianne Musgrove
ISBN: 9781741662962
‘I, Mackenzie Elizabeth Carew, do solemnly swear never to communicate anything about what happened tonight.’
That’s what I promised my sister Tahlia, and I’ve tried my best to keep that promise. It’s hard, though. Grandpa is acting so strangely since his accident. I’m sure Mrs B. suspects something, and Mahesh must think I’m weird for avoiding him. My best friend Annie is too busy hanging out with Regan and Tegan to notice. But someone will find out if we’re not super careful.
It’s lucky Tahlia has a plan . . .
The story begins
Prologue
Tahlia said we couldn’t tell anyone. Not ever. Not Annie, not Mahesh, not Mahesh’s mum, not the doctor, not my teacher. We couldn’t even tell Lydia.
‘Especially not Lydia,’ said Tahlia. ‘You can never breathe a word of it. You know what’s at stake.’ She grabbed me by the arm and hauled me into my bedroom. ‘Get your lucky doorknob.’
Lucy the Good (Random House Australia)
by Marianne Musgrove
illustrated by Cheryl Orsini
ISBN: 978 1 74166 295 5
Also available in audio from
Bolinda Books
Lucy van Loon knows she's a good girl. So why is she always sitting on the Time Out chair? After all, she had a very good reason for tipping Jacinta's unicorn pencils all over the floor. And she only had a shriek because her grumpy aunt called her a bad girl and a greedy liar, which was UTTERLY not true.
But what if Lucy is bad? Her aunt has brought something from Holland that Lucy wishes she'd never seen. Now she has to figure out how to avoid it, and fast. It's time to prove she really is Lucy the Good.
But how?
The story begins
Tantrum, wrote Lucy, sounding out the word in her head so she could spell it right:
t – a – n – tr – um.
I must not throw a temper tantrum in class.
Unless absolutely necessary, she added to herself. Like today. There had been a perfectly good reason why she had emptied Jacinta’s pencil case all over the floor.
The Worry Tree
by Marianne Musgrove, published by Random House Australia
ISBN: 978 1 74166 231 3
Also available in audio from Bolinda Books
"Just because something's not magic, doesn't mean it can't be magical ..."
What's it about?
Juliet's a worrywart, and no wonder! Her little sister, Oaf, follows her around taking notes and singing 'The Irritating Song' all day long. Her parents are always arguing about Dad's junk. Juliet's friends, Lindsay and Gemma, are competing to see which one of them is Juliet's best friend.
And then there's Hugh Allen ...
Juliet can't fit in any more worries!
But then she makes a remarkable discovery. Behind the peeling wallpaper in her new bedroom, Juliet uncovers an old painting of a very special tree -- a Worry Tree. So with the help of a duck called Delia and all the other Worry Tree animals, Juliet just might be able to solve some of life's big problems!
The story begins
Juliet Jennifer Jones opened the door, stepped out of the toilet and walked straight into her little sister.
'Eight minutes and forty-seven seconds,' said Ophelia, clicking her stopwatch. 'What were you doing in there?'
'Mum!' shrieked Juliet. 'Oaf's timing me in the toilet again!'
When there was no reply, Juliet stomped out of the room.
Ophelia, also known as 'Oaf', smiled quietly to herself, pulled out a yellow pad of paper and carefully wrote 8:47 in the left-hand column. Then she tucked the notepad back into her pocket and went off to find her sister.
You can read more of the book.