Penguin Books Australia

Photographs in the Mud is a beautifully illustrated and moving story of events on the Kokoda Track during the Second World War from the point of view of two soldiers – one Australian, the other Japanese. It tells a compassionate...

On 21 June 2011 a lonely emperor penguin stepped onto Peka Peka beach and into the hearts of the world. He had swum further from his home in Antarctica than any emperor penguin ever recorded.

What did he think of the strange place he had come to? What did he think of the people he met? Why did he eat all that sand and get so sick? And how did he feel when it was finally time to go home?

By the time...

With the first cup of tea you are a stranger.
With the second . . .   a friend.

One day, not so very many years ago, a small peasant boy was chosen to study ballet at the Beijing Dance Academy. His mother urged him to take this chance of a lifetime.

Anderson and his men came in under the stern of HMS Shannon , jammed her rudder and scrambled up her ropes.

But the captain had been looking out for them. He had orders to capture Anderson if he came within range, and to take him to Hobart for trial. At pistol point, the captain called on Anderson to surrender.

This is the true story of two twenty-year-old Australians who travelled for fourteen months on recumbent bicycles from Russia, across Siberia and Mongolia, to Beijing. It is as much a story about perseverance, passion and belief as it is about the people and remarkable landscapes of Siberia and Mongolia.

'What are they saying?' Isaac asked Taiata.
'They are calling us tupua . . . goblins and demons.'
'And what else?'
'They say they will come back and kill us all.'

When young Isaac Manley sailed on the Endeavour from England in 1768, no one on board knew if a mysterious southern continent existed in the vast Pacific Ocean. It would be a voyage full of uncertainties and terrors.

His world was the Australian countryside early last century: rough-riders, bushmen, farmers and tellers of tall stories – a world held precious by the young Alan Marshall.

Perceived by crime experts everywhere as one of the most bizarre homicides they had encountered, Perfect Victim recounts two stories: Rachel's mother Elizabeth Southall...

Then, the dark shape of a man standing on a hill. A shout from the shore. A single shot rang out and a bullet hissed overhead.

The Gallipoli campaign had begun

Anzac soldiers fought on Turkish soil nearly a century ago. So why do we...

In July 1942, thirteen-year-old Anne Frank and her family, fleeing the occupation, went into hiding in an Amsterdam warehouse. Over the next two years Anne vividly describes in her diary the frustrations of living in such close quarters, and her thoughts, feelings and longings as she grows up.   Her diary ends abruptly when, in August 1944, they were all betrayed.

Written in a lively yet sympathetic style, Anne Frank's Story follows Anne Frank from her birth in Germany through to her happy childhood in Amsterdam, the two years she and her family spent in hiding...

On 28 June 1915, young James Martin sailed from Melbourne aboard the troopship Berrima – bound, ultimately, for Gallipoli. He was just fourteen years old.

Soldier Boy is Jim's extraordinary true story, the story of a young and enthusiastic school boy who became Australia's youngest known Anzac.

Four months after leaving his home country he would be numbered among the dead, just one of so many...

Once a boyhood dream, now a people's hope The weight of history hangs on Joe's shoulders

On the eve of World War II, African American boxer Joe Louis fought German Max Schmeling in a bout that had more at stake then just the world heavyweight title; for much of America their fight came to represent the country's war with Germany.