Old Barn Books

The final part of a series which started with 'A Different Dog', followed by 'A Different Boy', published by Old Barn Books in August 2018. 'A Different Land' continues to explore themes of family and

What's that knocking sound coming from the wardrobe? Every night, it makes Dora and her toy friends afraid to go to bed and every morning they are grumpy through lack of sleep. Eventually, they summon

Honour Book, Australian Children’s Book Council Book of the Year 2023. The Raven’s Song alternates between the stories of Phoenix, who lives in a near-future world impacted by climate change and a devastating pandemic; and Shelby, one hundred years in the future in a post-pandemic, post-pollution, post-city world where each community is exactly three hundred and fifty people sustainably subsisting on seven hundred hectares. The story of a world that is beginning to fall apart, and a chance to see it all put back together, The Raven’s Song is a vision of hope for the future, seen through the eyes of the young people who will fight for it.

Skip's an outsider. He's never fitted in. So he takes to the streets.Life there may be hard, but it's better than the one he's left behind, especially when he teams up with homeless veteran Billy. Then come the bombs which bring little Max and Tia, the sad teenage dancer with a tiny baby, into Skip and Billy's world. Scavenging for food, living on love and imagination - how long can Skip's fragile new family hold out as war grips the city? A moving tale of hope and survival, set in a bleak, war-torn world.

Madeline Finn does not like to read.Not books. Not magazines. Not eventhe menu on the ice cream van.Fortunately, Madeline meets Bonnie,a library dog. Reading aloud toBonnie isn't so bad. When Madeline

A thrilling, multi award-winning, teen ghost story, from an indigenous Australian author, drawing on ancient mythology and folk wisdom. Stacey and Laney are twins and mirror images of each other but a

A family mix-up means Louie has to tag along with his engineer father and his team as they head for a routine job in the farthest flung and most neglected province of the Federation. A massive earthquake, with ensuing tsunami, devastates the entire isolated coastal region, laying bare the other-worldly manner in which the silent and strange Endlanders deal with life, death and the hinterlands of memory and loss. Their curious and unsettling ways raise ghosts for Louie, who has recently lost his own brother.This modern fable - part ghost-story, part coming-of-age novel and part astute social and family observation - explores the ways in which grief can affect not only individuals, but communities at large.

What turns citizens into refugees and then immigrants? In this powerful middle-grade debut, Sami and his family embark on a harrowing journey to save themselves from the Syrian civil war.Sami loves his life in Damascus, Syria. He hangs out with his best friend playing video games; he's trying out for the football team; he adores his family and gets annoyed by them in equal measure. But his comfortable life gets sidetracked abruptly after a bombing in a nearby shopping mall. Knowing that the violence will only get worse, Sami's parents decide they must flee their home for the safety of the UK.Boy, Everywherechronicles their harrowing journey and struggle to settle in a new land. Forced to sell all their belongings and leave their friends and beloved grandmother behind, Sami and his family travel across the Middle East to Turkey, where they end up in a smuggler's den. From there, they cross the treacherous waters of the Mediterranean and manage to fly to England, only to be separated and

Charlie is an anxious dachshund who worries that something terrible might happen if he doesn't keep to his daily rituals. After he is called upon to help rescue a friend and in the rush muddles everyt

A non-fiction picture book. How do animals sleep? Some alone, some in packs, some upside-down, some in the daytime...Kate Prendergast takes a close look at the sleeping habits of a wide range of anima

In the dark days of war, a group of soldiers far from home come across an orphaned bear cub. They adopt him and hide him in their tents, feeding him with their rations - until he is too big to ignore!

In the dark days of war, a group of soldiers far from home come across an orphaned bear cub. They adopt him and hide him in their tents, feeding him with their rations - until he is too big to ignore!

'That ugly red fungus killed all the wheat for flour, killed all the oat, and sugar cane for sugar and golden syrup, along with all the grass for cows and butter. Killed just about every ingredient th

Charlie is an anxious dachshund who worries that something terrible might happen if he doesn't keep to his daily rituals. After he is called upon to help rescue a friend and in the rush forgets his ri

'The ship was a towering fortress looming over the pier. Anton stared enviously at the emigrants lining up in front of the wide gangplank. Heading off on a voyage to a land of peace and plenty. Leavin

Set in a future Australia in a time when there are no bees and children are employed to scramble through the fruit trees with feather wands, much like the pear farmers of Hanyuan in China are forced t

What's that knocking sound coming from the wardrobe? Every night, it makes Dora and her toy friends afraid to go to bed and every morning they are grumpy through lack of sleep. Eventually, they summon

The child narrator of A Different Dog can't speak - we assume it is from a disability or a reaction to a trauma in his past. He is teased by the other kids and is a loner. On a cold winter's day, when

From Apple to Zip, via Mailbox and Village, this beautiful pop-up book offers a fresh take on the alphabet. Spot the connections between the letters sharing a pop - a Letter in a Mailbox, a Pillow on

We are all in this world together – I,you, we. A glorious, heartfelt picturebook about being there for oneanother from award-winningcreators Glenda Millard and StephenMichael King.A mother and baby, a

How can tomorrow ever be as good as yesterday? Boy doesn't think it can be and puts all his scientific knowledge to use, trying to work out how to go faster than the speed of light and make time go ba

'Bleak was the day and the wind whipped down, when I and my sisters walked to town...' So begins the story of three sisters and their wild and magical encounter with a whale, stranded on a beach. With