Giveaways

Marvellous Miss May, Queen of the Circus

Author: Stephanie Owen Reeder

Publisher: NLA Publishing

Three copies to give away

In 1901, aged just seven, tiny contortionist May Zinga was given away to Wirth Brothers Circus by her desperate mother. Imagine Miss May’s horror when the first thing the Wirths did was cut off all her long hair. Poor May had lost both her family and her crowning glory! But this feisty, talented and determined little girl did not give up. Despite many setbacks, including a horrific accident, she kept fighting to fulfil her dream of becoming the best bareback rider in the world, performing the same dangerous acrobatic feats as male riders – only better!

This fourth title in Stephanie Owen Reeder’s award-winning Heritage Heroes series retells the remarkable true story of equestrienne May Wirth, while providing historical insights into life in an Australian circus at the beginning of the twentieth century.

At the Beach I See

Author: Kamsani Bin Salleh

Publisher: Magabala Books

Three copies to give away

This delightful book for early childhood will mesmerise young children and older readers. The black linework and colourful wash backgrounds work beautifully with the lyrical text. Together they introduce extraordinary creatures and birds that we can discover and observe around our Australian coastline. ‘Dancing jellyfish’, ‘scuttling crabs’, ‘scattered shells’, ‘drifting seaweed’ and ‘waving coral’ evoke the wonder of our beaches and the treasures to be found.

Incredible Floridas

Author: Stephen Orr

Publisher: Wakefield Press

Three copies to give away

As Hitler’s war looms, famous Australian artist Roland Griffin returns home from London with his family to live a simple life of shared plums and low cut lawns in the suburbs.

In the yard: a daughter, and a son, Hal, growing up with a preoccupied father who is always out in his shed stretching canvases and painting outback pubs. An isolated man obsessed with other people and places. Everything is a picture, a symbol. Even Hal, the boy in the boat, drifting through a strange world of Incredible Floridas.

As the years pass, Roland learns that Hal is unable to control his own thoughts, impulses, behaviour. The boy becomes the destroyer of family. The neighbourhood is enlisted to help Hal find a way forward. Incredible Floridas describes Hal’s attempts at adulthood, love, religion, and the hardest thing of all: gaining his father’s approval.