Milo’s Monster is the sixth title in Tom Percival’s bestselling ‘Big Bright Feelings’ series and sees Milo joining Ruby, Ravi, Meesha, Tilda and Norman in helping children understand those big emotions that can be difficult to understand and control.

Millo loves living next to his best friend Jay, they do and share everything together. When new girl Suzi moves into the house across the road things change and suddenly Jay isn’t always around to play with. Milo hates being left out and soon the green-eyed monster of jealousy is an unwanted best friend and its miserable mutterings are filling Milo’s mind with bad thoughts. Can Milo find a way to free himself from the monster and repair his friendship with Jay…

Halloween is fast approaching and that means a new batch of frighteningly good books are set to hit the shelves. First to arrive at my door is a quirky picture book from Sofie Laguna and Marc McBride.

Alby and his family are new on Pleasant Street and life is pretty good…the house is perfect, the garden is awesome - there’s even a pool - and their rather unusual pet, Delia, is slowly being trained. It would be even better if Alby had some friends. Could his favourite night of the year, Halloween, be the opportunity to bond with the neighbourhood kids or will dad and his obsession with tricks spoil everything…

As I walked along my street yesterday, I passed several piles of household items waiting for collection by the council. There was everything from tables and chairs to bikes and toys, cabinets and draws to kitchen appliances and garden tools. Definitely lots of things that could be repurposed and up-cycled.

Every room in Ella’s house was full of useless things…the kitchen, the living room, the bathroom, the bedroom, the attic, even the shed, all completely crammed full. A good clean-up, chuck-stuff-out day is the perfect idea to get the house decluttered again. As they drive to the rubbish tip with their trailer full of useless things, something strange happens. For what Ella and dad see as useless, others see a purpose, and soon everyone is hunting through the trash for a little piece of treasure…

Little Witchling lives alone high up in the misty mountains with only a knobbly broom, a leaky cauldron and a not-so-pointed hat for company. A friend would be just the thing to fill the lonely void in her heart and her spell book has the perfect recipe for a friendship-making wish. But for Little Witchling to get her wish, another girl must give up her most prized possession. Is Little Witchling’s dream of friendship over or is there a way for her and Lilly to make the dream come true together…

A twitch, an itch, some forgotten manners and a giant sneeze are the recipe for chaos in a brilliantly bonkers, sneeze-tastic adventure.

Everyone knows the importance of being polite; to remember your thank-you and please, cough in your hand and cover your nose when you sneeze. When Sid forgets these basic rules and lets out an enormous ‘ACHOO’, something extraordinary happens. Sid has sneezed his way into adventure. With each sneeze bringing more chaos will Sid remember his manners before things get truly out of hand…

Readers of this brilliant, laugh-out-loud, side-splitting series will be all too familiar with many of the problems of an elephant. For those who don’t know…elephants cannot be taken on buses, should never be called in an emergency, cannot drive diggers and should never be taken on holiday. But can an elephant drive a racing car?

Elephant has a dream…to become a Grand Prix driving sensation. But elephants and racing cars don’t quite go together and before he gets to the start his super-fast car is in bits. He’s not the only one that wants to try his animal prowess in the world of human sports. How will wombat, stork monkey and puma fare as they try diving, gymnastics, weightlifting and running…

The freedom and endless possibilities of childhood are captured perfectly in Olivia Hope’s debut picture book.

‘Wake up early, don’t be shy. This bright world can make you FLY…’

Embrace the joys of nature, make noise with elephants, play with chimpanzees, dance with fireflies, flutter with butterflies, soar with birds, run with wolves and wish on stars…the possibilities are endless in this stunning read from Olivia Hope with the illustrations of prolific artist Daniel Egnéus.

Keen to learn some facts about the nature that is hanging out in your backyard? Then Australian Backyard Buddies is the mini-book on mini-beasts that you most definitely need. It is sure to leave young children nuts about nature, buzzing about bees, mad about moths, loopy about ladybugs, potty about pet rocks, fanatical about frogs and bonkers about blue-tongued lizards.

There are all kinds of fabulous mini-beasts and bugs that call the backyard their home. Hungry termites hunt for their next meal, colourful butterflies show-off during the daytime, cheeky blue-tongued lizards poke their tongues out, dancing bees collect pollen, and pet rocks…well, pet rocks enjoy face-painting, dressing up and hanging out on desks in office blocks. What will you find right outside your door…

Sometimes help comes in the most surprising forms and it was the power of knitting needles that would come to the rescue after a disaster at sea threatened the livelihood of little penguins.

Nestled in the sand dunes on a beautiful island is a cosy burrow that is home to two little penguins, Flipper and Finnegan. Early in the morning they hunt for fish and play together in the clear blue ocean waters. At sunset, they, along with all of their friends, return to their homes - much to the delight of the crowd of people that gather to watch the ‘penguin parade’. Life is good. Then one day the ocean was darker than usual, something was blocking out the light. Going up for air, Flipper finds herself covered in something sticky and when she looks around for Finnegan, he is gone…

The wonders of the natural world never cease to amaze me. Following swiftly in the footsteps of Built by Animals and Invented by Animals, Powered by Plants showcases a magnificent assortment of vegetation whose impressive array of attributes inspire innovations in human technology.

Plants are awesome and many of them have genuine superpowers that humans could only dream of. With their variety of shapes, their incredible structures and their ability to interact with other living things, plants are the problem-solvers, disease-curers, clean-energy-producers and material-makers that the world needs. Plants have always known that they are plant-astic and now humans are studying, copying and taking inspiration leading to incredible and important innovations in science, technology, design and engineering…