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HUMOUR
Does My Goldfish Know Who I Am?
Edited by Gemma Elwin Harris
Allen & Unwin/Faber, A$24.99
If you have a little person in your life who's forever asking questions, this is a good resource. The book covers a range of queries asked by children, followed by succinct answers from experts. For example, Sir David Attenborough provides a great response to ''Will monkeys ever turn into men?''



 MEMOIR
My Story - Elizabeth Smart
Elizabeth Smart, with Chris Stewart
Pan Macmillan, A$29.99
We've all read media coverage of how 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart was abducted at knifepoint from her bedroom in Salt Lake City in 2002 and kept prisoner by her captor, Brian David Mitchell, and his wife until her rescue nine months later. Here (with a bit of ghost-written help) is her own perspective of the traumatic events. It's sobering reading.


Photo: John MANGAN
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FILM CRITICISM
Hatchet Job
Mark Kermode
Pan Macmillan, A$29.99
Anyone interested in cinema should read this book, in which Mark Kermode - a UK film critic, famous for his acerbic reviews - surveys the movie scene. The book does more than just revisit some of his and colleagues' more vitriolic summaries, such as Sex and the City (consumerist pornography) and Eat, Pray, Love, Vomit. Among other sprays, it surveys the impact of online culture and asks whether amateur bloggers can undermine professional critics.

 THE BOOK THAT CHANGED ME: JUDY NUNN
Snugglepot and Cuddlepie
May Gibbs
To address this subject, one surely needs to go back to the beginning, to an experience that left an indelible impression. Snugglepot and Cuddlepie did that to me. I was around kindergarten age, and the image of the big bad Banksia Man holding Snugglepot upside down by his ankles and dangling him over an open grave gave me nightmares for ages. I can still remember that picture.

Judy Nunn is one of Australia's most popular and successful authors. Her 12th novel, Elianne, is set on a grand sugar-cane plantation in Queensland.