Books published by publisher Allen And Unwin

In illustrated diary format, the hilarious tale of a boy who is a stellar swimmer—not!Swimming is just like flying, son! I can't fly either, Dad. You'll love swimming, Marcus! Marcus is a math whiz who is not good at sports. But his dad, a self-help author, is convinced otherwise. Just when Marcus hopes his dad had finally run out of sports for him to try, he discovers a new one—in water. Let's get a few things straight: Marcus is not a fish. Marcus is not a turtle. Marcus is an ordinary boy. He will not love to swim!

Tashi is bold and clever, and tells the best stories ever!There's a Magnificent Magician with a greedy plan, a haunted house about to go up in flames, ruthless ruffians after a rare orchid, and a quest for the bravest person in the land to face the fire-breathing Red Whiskered Dragon. 'All children should meet Tashi. He can be their mentor on the road to reading, feeding their imaginations with fantastic stories...' Magpies

THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER1920s New York. A teen clairvoyant. An old evil. It has begun.Evie O'Neill has been exiled from her boring old home town and shipped off to the bustling streets of New York City - and she is pos-i-tute-ly thrilled! New York is the city of speak-easies, rent parties, shopping and movie palaces, and soon enough Evie is running with glamorous Ziegfeld girls and rakish pickpockets. The only catch is that Evie has to live with her Uncle Will, curator of the Museum of American Folklore, Superstition, and the Occult - also known as 'The Museum of the Creepy Crawlies'.When a rash of occult-based murders comes to light, Evie and her uncle are right in the thick of it. Even Evie's new pals - hoofers, numbers runners and activists, but all swell kids - are drawn into the investigation. And through it all, Evie has a secret: a mysterious power that could help catch the killer - if he doesn't catch her first.'A fascinating alternative 1926 where men aren't all they seem - and are possibly much more. Evie is sassy, feisty, and full of beans.Very Mary Shelley after a long night on the laudanum. Gripping - I could not stop.' - Kerry Greenwood'.It's Marjorie Morningstar meets Silence of the Lambs, and Bray dives into it with the brio of the era, alternating rat-a-rat flirting with cold-blooded killings.The book is big and wants to be the kind of thing you can lose yourself in. Does it succeed? It's jake, baby.' - Booklist'The Diviners feels like the next big thing. Its powerful twists and supernatural storyline never leave the back of your mind. It's a brilliant, bizarre concept of the supernatural world blending in with New York's 1920s. A murder mystery that makes a killer of a story.' - Kate, teen reviewer

Following their adventures in the Border Sea, Arthur and Leaf head for home. But only Leaf gets through the Front Door. Arthur is blocked because someone or something has assumed his identity and is taking over his life. Before Arthur can take action, he is drafted by Sir Thursday and forced to join the Glorious Army of the Architect. The Army has its headquarters in the Great Maze, a defensive area of the House. Half of the Maze has already been dissolved by Nothing, and hordes of Nithlings emerge regularly to attack the rest. If the Nithling invasion can overcome the Army and the Great Maze, the House will be lost and the whole universe destroyed.While Leaf tries to banish Arthur's doppelganger on Earth, Arthur must survive his basic training, avoid getting posted to the Front and work out how he can free Part Four of the Will and gain the Fourth Key from Sir Thursday.

At the height of World War II in the Pacific, two secret organisations existed in Australia to break Japan's military codes. They were peopled by brilliant and idiosyncratic cryptographers, including some with achievements in mathematics and the Classics and others who had lived or grown up in Japan. These men patiently and carefully unravelled the codes in Japanese signals, ultimately playing a crucial role in the battles of Midway and the Coral Sea, as well as Macarthur's push into the Philippines. An intercept station in the Queensland bush brought about the end of Admiral Yamamoto.But this is more than a story of codes. It is an extraordinary exploration of a unique group of men and their intense personal rivalries and loathing, of white-anting and taking credit for others' achievements. It is also the story of a fierce inter-national and inter-service political battle for control of war-changing intelligence between a group of cryptographers based at the Monterey apartment block in Melbourne's Albert Park and General MacArthur's counter group that eventually established its headquarters in suburban Brisbane. What happened between these two groups would have consequences for intelligence services in the years to follow.Code Breakers brings this surprising and very secret world and the men who operated in it to rich life for the first time.

Meet Fizz - the daring dog detective!Fizz wants to be a police dog. He's brave, clever and super-fast, but Fizz doesn't look like a police dog. His family are show dogs and companion dogs, not working dogs. Fizz longs for adventure, and he's determined to try out at the Sunnyvale City Police Station. There, he is the smallest, fluffiest dog in the line-up, and he meets fierce Amadeus, who definitely wants to be top dog.

A special hardcover edition of a beloved beach book, featuring a pull-out frieze to pin up Filled with fun rhymes and make-believe stories, this wonderfully illustrated children's tale offers an imaginative view of a beach that includes swimming, surfing, and splashing. Imagine a perfect beach where you can swim, surf, splash through the waves, make sandcastles, hunt for treasures, explore rock-pools, muck about in boats, fish from the jetty, and build a bonfire under the stars. Imagine a beach where adventure begins. From sand castles and rock pools to boats and fish, the realistic scenes evoke images of a summer day along the waterfront where anything can happen.

The human spine is not well suited for our way of life and as a result back pain is pandemic—there is hardly anyone who has not been bothered by it at some time. Advanced as we are in other areas of science, with fixing backs we are little further ahead. This book breaks new ground, and is written for sufferers and practitioners alike. In layman's language it charts a new, easy-to-understand model for the way the human spine breaks down, starting off with commonplace and totally reversible conditions (which 90% of us have), and progressing to the more difficult ones. The Back Sufferers' Bible describes clearly how each stage of back pain manifests, and sets out a logical course of treatment programs. It explains when you need medication and when you need to rest in bed. It explains all the exercises—how to do them and the common pitfalls with each one. It gives you all the information you need to play an active part in your own treatment. For practitioners, there is a new section of comprehensive source material and further reading.

'I love history because it is story, but the very best thing about this story is that it is not finished. All of us are making history every moment of our lives.' Nadia WheatleyAustralians All encompasses the history of our continent from the Ice Age to the Apology, from the arrival of the First Fleet to the Mabo Judgement. Brief accounts of the lives of real young Australians open up this chronological narrative. Some of the subjects of the eighty mini-biographies have become nationally or even internationally famous. Others were legends in their own families and communities. Meticulously researched, beautifully written and highly readable, Australians All helps us understand who we are, and how we belong to the land we all share. It also shows us who we might be.'In Australian histories there is a particular group whose tales and presence and concerns are rarely narrated. These are the children and adolescents. They are depicted as mute sufferers of the decisions of elders (as were the children of the Depression), helpless victims of policy (the Stolen Generations) and the children of the Second World War (of whom I was one). They appear in most writing of history as mere passive accessories to what adults do. But their stories are our stories too, and their stories are our history, and Nadia Wheatley, that great writer, tells that wide-ranging story in a way so imaginative and colourful that it would attract any young person, and make young readers feel that many of their personal struggles have been faced before, by children of the past and present. Nadia has performed an essential service to history and the young.' - Thomas Keneally

Do you remember the water buffalo at the end of our street?Or the deep-sea diver we found near the underpass?Do you know why dogs bark in the middle of the night?Shaun Tan, creator of The Arrival, The Lost Thing and The Red Tree, reveals the quiet mysteries of everyday life: homemade pets, dangerous weddings, stranded sea mammals, tiny exchange students and secret rooms filled with darkness and delight.

Everybody loves Rex. He is the most dazzling cat on Serengeti Street...The schoolkids who pass by are always impressed by his moves.until one day, an interloper threatens to take all the attention away...'You will not find a more charming, sympathetic or beautifully drawn examination of complete feline (and completely human) self-obsession.' SHAUN TAN