From a master storyteller, here is a warm and funny, yet heartfelt, novel for younger readers. 11-year-old Ruth is stuck with a family who just don't understand her. It takes a magical encounter with the sharp-nosed and even-sharper-tongued Rodney the Rat to help her see what's really important. They felt the oncoming trains way before they saw or heard anything. The bridge would shudder a little and then there would be a clanking that built to a roar. Ruth and Mary Ellen would hold hands and shut their eyes. Ruth adored her Aunt Mary-Ellen. Mary-Ellen travelled to exotic places, wore stylish clothes and read interesting books. And Ruth felt as though she was the only one who really understood. But now Aunt Mary-Ellen is gone and Ruth is desperate to escape from her annoying family and so-called friends. Just when she thinks there's no way out, help arrives from a very unexpected quarter. But just how helpful is it to get exactly what you wish for? A moving, warm and funny story about family, friends and coming back home.

There is no getting away from the past ... A breathtaking novel from Maureen McCarthy, spanning generations, that will be devoured by young women, their sisters, friends, mothers and grandmothers.I woke up with a feeling about today,' Stella says dreamily. 'Something truly amazing is going to happen.' 'To us or to the world?' I say. 'To you.' 'To me?' I laugh. 'Nothing ever happens to me, Stella.' 'But today it will.' 'Will it be good?' She looks thoughtful and then frowns. 'I ... I don't know.'Peach is nineteen and pretty happy with the way things are. She has her university work, two wildly different best friends, her sister, Stella, to look after and a broken heart to mend. But when she takes a summer job at a cafe in the old convent, her idea of who she is takes a sharp turn into the past.Where once there were nuns, young girls and women who had fallen on hard times, Peach discovers secrets from three generations of her family. As their stories are revealed, Peach...

With echoes of such classic wish-gone-wrong books as Freaky Friday, Half Magic, and Coraline, this terrific novel has the potential to become a middle-grade staple.Eleven-year-old Ruth Craze is pretty sure she's stuck in the wrong life. With an absentminded inventor for a father and a flighty artist for a mother, it's always reliable Ruth who ends up doing the dishes, paying the bills, and finding lost socks. Her brothers are no help (they're too busy teasing her), and her friends have just decided she's not cool enough to be a part of their group anymore. So when Rodney the Rat—a slightly sinister stuffed animal that was a gift from her favorite aunt—suggests a way out, Ruth is ready to risk everything. Three wishes. Three chances to create her perfect life. A million ways to get it wrong.Praise for When You Wish Upon a Rat"Winning, original moments."—Kirkus Reviews"An engaging look at friendship and...

A compulsively readable story which has achieved classic status. Three very different girls from the same country town share an inner-city house during their first year out of school.Sometimes your life changes and you don't know why. A kind of shift happens. I remember thinking, well, that's over: eighteen years, three months and fifteen days. From now on it will be different...'Carmel, Jude and Katerina come from the same country town, but they couldn't be more different. Carmel is a talented musician, but awkward and painfully shy. Jude is a passionate idealist still coming to terms with the death of her revolutionary father. And Katerina, well, let's just say she's not called Queen Kat for nothing. So when they all move into the same inner-city house in their first university year, sparks are ready to fly.But this year is a time to re-invent themselves, a time to square up to the world. Time to get a life.Queen Kat, Carmel and St Jude Get a Life is about...

Don'tcha just hate the way you get caught up in stuff without really wanting to? You make a wrong move, and before you know it you're in some weird scene that isn't you but ... how do you get out of it? Maybe you lied, maybe you stole, maybe you betrayed your closest friend. It happens. Yeah. Then it goes a bit further, and suddenly you're one of those jerks you hate because ... you can't be trusted.Rose is all packed up. She's got a van full of petrol and a stack of CDs. She's got a surfboard in the back and a secret that won't go away. But that's okay. She also has enough attitude to light up the night sky.Then her mother decides to come along ... and Rose's road trip takes an unplanned U-turn, straight to the heart of last summer.Reviews:'No one explores that time of possibilities between school and university or work as honestly as Maureen mcCarthy.' Gleebooks summer reading catalogue, distributed in Sydney Morning Herald 20/11/06'a...