Showing results by narrator "Rebecca Macauley" in All Categories

Minding a luxurious house seemed like fun to the Teen Power gang at first. But now Nick is feeling more and more uncomfortable. Suddenly the house seems like a prison, or a tomb. Is it the sealed windows and doors? Or the aquarium fish swimming in endless circles? Or maybe it's just that a fortune in emeralds was stolen from the house, ruining its owner, and disappearing without a trace.

Why are Topsy and Turvy so different? One day they learn why.

The cake shop in the local mall, the Gingerbread House, gives Sunny the creeps. The rest of the Teen Power gang disagrees. It's good money, easy work, and there are delicious things to eat - free! It seems like a fairytale come true. But fairytales can often be scary as well.

It's Saturday morning. Auskick starts soon. But there's something wrong with Brendan's fish.

Eleven-year-old Bella has a terrible guilty secret: something she did three years ago, when her English relatives were visiting. Now, in the last week in December, they were returning to Australia and Bella fears the worst: that they are coming to confront her; that they suspected her all along.

In the second title in the popular Rascal the Dragon series, Rascal goes to the park to learn some tricks to frighten away the Big Bad Cat. But he is not getting the hang of them. "You must scare Big Bad Cat," says Ben. Rascal is such a small dragon, Can he do it?

Written 20 years ago, Puberty Blues is the best-selling account of growing up in the 1970s that took Australia by storm and spawned an eponymous cult movie. Puberty Blues is about "top chicks" and "surfie spunks" and the kids who don't quite make the cut: it recreates with fascinating honesty a world where only the gang and the surf count. It's a hilarious and horrifying account of the way many teenagers live, and some of them die.

"Out you go," says Dad. It is cold outside. How can a little dragon get in? Ben's dad won't let Rascal in until he learns how to beg. Rascal has other ideas, and Dad is not happy. Looks like Rascal is in trouble.

Mia's older sister has been to two parties at the fairy shop. Now it's Mia's turn!

Florence Saint Claire is a loner. Albert Flowers is a social butterfly. Good friends who think they know each other. But, somewhere between who they are and who people think they are, lies The Best Kind of Beautiful. Award-winning journalist and author Frances Whiting brings her renowned warmth and empathy to this witty and gentle story about bringing out the best in each other.

In 1470 the Wars of the Roses threatens to tear England apart. Overnight a man can find himself set against his brother or unable to trust the woman in his arms. For the beautiful and spirited ward of Warwick the Kingmaker, Margery, freedom is the only prize worth fighting for. Disgraced and banished to a nunnery after the philandering Edward IV seduced her, she is determined that no man will ever decide her fate again.

A remarkable story of four sisters, family secrets and discovering what's really important in life. How can four sisters build the futures they so desperately want when the past is reaching out to claim them? When the Patterson daughters return home to Meadow Brook to be with their father after their mother’s death, they bring with them a world of complication and trouble.

Here is a gripping, chilling, beautifully observed tale of what a teenage girl will do to keep her friends, by one of Australia's finest writers. Growing up during the 1980s in the safe complacency of the Australian suburbs, Plum Coyle should be happy. But on the cusp of her 14th birthday - and on the fringe of her peer group - she lives in terror of the disapproval of her cruel and fickle girlfriends and, most of all, she hates her awkward, changing body with a passion.

Becky only wants fairy bread at her party. But there is so much left over, and she won't throw it out.

Jenny finds a big, egg-shaped thing down by the creek. When she takes it home, it soon hatches, and out pops a cute - but very hungry - baby dinosaur!

It's December 1900, and Berylda Jones is heading home to Bathurst for Christmas. Tragically, 'home' is where she and her beloved sister Greta live in terror, under the control of their sadistic Uncle Alec. But Berylda has a plan, borne out of desperation, to free herself and Greta from Alec for good - if she can only find the courage to execute it.

Callisto May knows a lot about planets. She could name all the moons of Jupiter, or tell you the dimensions of the Great Red Spot, but she doesn't know much about love. She's so used to pleasing other people that she has lost track of how to be herself. And now there's no one close enough to help: her boyfriend is way out of reach; her mother is distracted by sad ladies; and her dad - well his motto is be prepared, which is exactly what Cally wasn't.

Rose wants to be alone. But instead, she's travels on a road trip of discovery with her mother. This is a warm, generous novel that stresses family dynamics - it is a rich portrait of a feisty young girl who faces up to love, loss, and life's big issues.

Deep in the bush, where the trees grow tall, Finn discovers an old deserted shack. Inside is shivery cold, with green fungus on the walls. When a dog growls and a gravelly voice snarls, Finn's hair stands up like bristles on a brush. An old man and his dog are glowing in the darkness. Jack Henry lived in the shack 100 years ago and was friends with all the wild creatures. When Finn is with the old ghost, he can feel what the birds are singing and what the animals are feeling. But now they are all in danger - someone is going to bulldoze the land and wreck their homes. How can one boy and a ghost and his dog save the bush?

Mimi laid the box on the bench and opened it carefully. Inside were rows and rows of coloured pastels that shimmered in the light. She rolled them under her fingertips and her imagination began to fill with amazing pictures. When Mimi is given a box of magical pastels, she discovers that she can draw the Garden of Empress Cassia - a drawing so beautiful and real that people are transported inside it. But the pastels are ancient, mysterious, and powerful, and in the wrong hands can be very dangerous....