Diversity and inclusion

In this fun and metropolitan mystery story, Rita Wong stumbles upon Neon city after accidentally following what she believes to be a someone dressed as a dragon. There Rita meets Lester Thyme, the dragon she haplessly followed into the magical city of werewolves, goblins, dwarves, and all other species of magical creatures.

Aarti and Aunt live in a state of anxious self-sufficiency on Aunt’s Scottish island. Aunt apparently rescued orphaned Aarti, and took her to safety away from ‘a world full of bad, cruel things.’

Erin is a young girl who dares to dream. So when her favourite girl band Fusion announces that they’re holding a competition to find someone to be in their next music video, she is determined to prove to herself and others that she can win. Erin has more than one reason to do this. She has achondroplasia (the most common form of dwarfism), and so does her brother Joe. She wants to show him that this won’t get in the way of them achieving anything they want from life. But she has a lot of work to do if she’s going to win that prize.

Melinda Beck’s board book is bright, colourful and very inviting for younger readers. Simply and clearly, it introduces basic shapes such as a square, rectangle, triangle and circle and their properties (the triangle has three sides and is very pointy). It also gives the similarities and differences for the shapes (the rectangle and square have four sides and the circle has no sides). The illustrations make it a joy as the children see how shapes can be used to form pictures together.

When Ajay, a young Mumbai orphan, realises his dream of becoming a journalist - thanks to an abandoned printing press and the help of his friends in creating their own paper - he uncovers political corruption which threatens the city's slum dwellers.

European Dreams is the fourth book in the Declan Kirby:GAA Star series. Declan is thrilled to be going to Spain with his team Smithgreen. They will participate in the GAA World Games and play against teams from around the globe. However, the excitement quickly sours when Sam the coach is injured. When an emergency coach is recruited, Declan has to prove himself and keep his place on the team.

Poor Badger can’t decide if he’s black and white or white and black. To make matters worse, sitting on blueberries has turned his bottom blue. Determined to discover his true self, Badger asks his fellow black and white friends for help with his identity crisis.

Sometimes it’s hard to be quiet and sit still. Abigail is not having a good day in school. She wants to fidget and draw and play, and instead she just gets in trouble. When she sees all her friends trying different musical instruments, she feels overwhelmed and left out. That’s when her voice gets LOUD! But Miss Butler sees Abigail’s voice as a talent, not a problem, and by the end of the story, Abigail gets to shine.