Australia Adventure

Swept off to live in Sydney by his Australian bride, American writer Tony Horwitz longs to explore the exotic reaches of his adopted land. So one day, armed only with a backpack and fantasies of the open road, he hitchhikes off into the awesome emptiness of Australia's outback. What follows is a hilarious, hair-raising ride into the hot red center of a continent so desolate that civilization dwindles to a gas pump and a pub. While the outback's terrain is inhospitable, its scattered inhabitants are anything but.

Nanny Piggins, the world's most glamorous flying pig, runs away from the circus and goes to live with the Greens as their nanny. The Green children, Derrick, Samantha and Michael, fall in love with her instantly. Who could not fall in love with a Nanny whose only job qualifications are her astonishing ability to be fired out of a cannon and her amazing ability to make chocolate cake, sometimes both at the same time?

Dive deep into the mystical world of Aboriginal culture with Charles William Peck's landmark work, Australian Legends. As one of the earliest compilations, this book intricately narrates tales steeped in Dreamtime mythology, helping you explore the indigenous culture's understanding of the cosmos, morality, and the natural world. Peck's storytelling draws you into an ancestral past that resonates profoundly with modern listeners.

Shane Riley, ex-Australian Special Forces, is a retrieval specialist. People want something, and he finds it, no matter where it is. He works for rich power brokers, collectors, black market dealers, and anyone willing to pay the right price. He only has one rule: he does not retrieve people. He gets interrupted on an offshore dive, and the two men requesting his presence bring him to a rich politician in South Korea, who wants his help. His daughter’s been taken by a government entity in North Korea, and he wants Shane to get her back. Shane balks, citing his “one rule,” but this ...

Murderous ghosts, crazy cultists, and a sexy cop looking to lock him up … Darius Kane got more than he bargained for when he became the Gold Coast's first paranormal investigator. Hired to solve the murder of a local mechanic, Darius soon discovers the victim is just one in a series of suspicious deaths, but is there really a ghost at the heart of the case? The cops sure don’t think so, but whoever is behind it doesn’t like Darius poking around and if he’s not careful the so called ‘Casper Killer’ will add him to the list of victims. Joined by an eager journalist, a loyal beagle...

In the ancient South Pacific world of Oceania, Moana, a born navigator, sets sail in search of a fabled island. During her incredible journey, she teams up with her hero, the legendary demi-god Maui, to traverse the open ocean on an action-packed voyage. They encounter enormous sea creatures, breathtaking underworlds, and ancient folklore.

Brutally kidnapped and separated in childhood, Tommo and Hawk are reunited at the age of 15 in Hobart Town. Together, they escape their troubled pasts and set off on a journey into manhood. From whale hunting in the Pacific to the Maori wars of New Zealand, from the Rocks in Sydney to the miners' riots at the goldfields, Tommo and Hawk must learn each other's strengths and weaknesses in order to survive.

Dave and Katie Parker’s only son, Jeremy, is getting married in Australia. In spite of initial reservations, the Parkers discover that Denyse is perfect for Jeremy and that she’s the daughter they’ve always wanted. But she brings with her a colorful and largely dysfunctional Aussie family. Again Dave and Katie are fish out of water as they try to relate to a boisterous clan in a culture very different from their home in South Alabama.After the wedding, Denyse feels heartbroken that her younger brother, Trevor, did not attend. Details emerge that lead Denyse to believe her brother may ...

Answering the call of a damsel in distress might just be the death of Darius Kane, the Gold Coast’s only paranormal investigator. Melanie Marino is no ordinary client, she’s the trophy wife of the local criminal kingpin, a man who’s made it abundantly clear he has no issues dumping Darius’ body in the Broadwater. But will Marino make an exception when a vengeful witch starts burning down his ill-gotten empire? Darius’ stance on magic is well-known, it doesn’t exist. A fact which makes the spontaneous combustion of his office lobby an enigma he simply can’t ignore. With ...

When Mr Green announces his diabolical plan - he has decided to get married - his children (Derrick, Samantha and Michael) are horrified. Especially when they discover his real motive - he wants to get married so he can sack their beloved nanny, Nanny Piggins. Obviously their father has to be stopped, and Nanny Piggins is just the pig to do it. Because you should never ever cross a flying pig. And so, in the process of ruining Mr Green's matrimonial prospects, Nanny Piggins and the children have many exciting adventures.

In book five of her enthralling adventures, Nanny Piggins discovers some startling truths about the ruthless Ringmaster, provides counselling to a Molavadinian princess with pre-wedding jitters, inadvertently wins a Nobel Prize while impersonating her sister and catches up with her favourite 4-tonne friend, Esmeralda the forgetful elephant.

With a runaway lion loose in the neighbourhood, Derrick, Samantha and Michael feel scared. Nanny Piggins feels like a slice of cake. And Boris feels like that lion looks strangely familiar. In this third action-packed book of adventures, Nanny Piggins tames a lion and a lion tamer. She revolutionises the sport of ski jumping, introduces hot-pink leotards to the local Neighbourhood Watch, demonstrates trapeze skills on a moving bus, plays badminton with a wok and teaches Shakespeare a thing or two about how to write a play.

A thriving monarchy had ruled over Hawaii for generations. Taro fields and fish ponds had long sustained native Hawaiians but sugar plantations had been gradually subsuming them. This fractured, vulnerable Hawaii was the country that Queen Lili‘uokalani, or Lili‘u, inherited when she came to power at the end of the nineteenth century.

Inspired by Disney Animation Studios' latest film, Moana, this middle grade novel features characters and adventures based on the rich culture of Oceania. It includes original content in the form of mini folktales interspersed throughout the story of the film.

It's Christmas time in the outback and the Sunhaven teens are determined to have a quiet time after their past adventures - no plans, no excitement, no life-threatening thrills, just the usual Christmas-time activities. The peace is broken by the brewing storms, and as hot days end with lightning in the distance they know the floods are on their way. There are personal storms, too, as Dane struggles with depression while his family and friends try to help, and Amy is desperate to discover if her father is still alive. When the record rains arrive, their part of the outback becomes an inland...

Don’t believe in magic? Boy are you in for a shock. Convicted of a double homicide, the famous Wizard of Aus proves no cell can hold him, but his seemingly impossible prison break is more than a bid for freedom – he’s got his sights set on vengeance – against the whole city. Darius Kane thinks it’s a job for the police and he’s got his own work cut out trying to track down a secret underworld character more elusive than smoke. Known only as the Djinn, Darius must stop her if he wants to keep living. However, when the wizard proves he can kill and vanish before the police can ...

One month into our stay, we'd managed to dispatch most of our charges. We executed the chickens. One of the cats disappeared, clearly disgusted with our urban ways. And Lucky [the cow] was escaping almost daily. It seemed we didn't have much of a talent for farming. And we still had eleven months to go." Antonia Murphy, you might say, is an unlikely farmer. Born and bred in San Francisco, she spent much of her life as a liberal urban cliché, and her interactions with the animal kingdom rarely extended past dinner.

Darius Kane is Australia’s only paranormal investigator. The police don’t like him, the local crime kingpin wants to kill him, and there’s definitely something sinister watching him from the shadows. The Gold Coast has its share of weird and unexplained, just like everywhere else, but when a local swim coach goes missing, Darius finds his attention drawn to the waves … or, more accurately, what might be lurking beneath them. He’s still sweeping up the mess left behind by the gang of sacrifice-happy cultists, and needs to get the police off his back, but with a stack of bills and ...

On May 13, 1945, 24 American servicemen and WACs boarded a transport plane for a sightseeing trip over “Shangri-La,” a beautiful and mysterious valley deep within the jungle-covered mountains of Dutch New Guinea. Unlike the peaceful Tibetan monks of James Hilton’s best-selling novel Lost Horizon, this Shangri-La was home to spear-carrying tribesmen, warriors rumored to be cannibals. But the pleasure tour became an unforgettable battle for survival when the plane crashed. Miraculously, three passengers pulled through.

Two weeks into the System Apocalypse, and the transformations are just beginning. Mutated insects, carnivorous toads, and angry drop bears were not on the school curriculum, but when the apocalypse hits, you roll with it. Parenting a teenager has prepared Kira for the worst; she just didn’t expect that to include the end of the world. A menacing conglomerate of alien hunters is breathing down their necks, and new threats lurk just over the hills. Kira and the rest of the Australian survivors of Brisbane must level up, bolster defenses, and prepare for an incoming invasion.