Gillian Rubinstein: 7 books

Before The Hunger Games—even before Battle Royale—there was the Galax-Arena, where children are pitted against each other for the benefit of a shadowy audience that feeds on their fear. A Children's Book Council of Australia Honour Book for Older Readers, Galax-Arena is a dark, uncompromising...

Foxspell is a fable of shape-shifters and animal spirits, of teenage gangs and schoolyard friends and finding your place in the world—or worlds—all concentrated in a dense, vivid corner of the half-wild Adelaide hills. A Children's Book Council of Australia Book of the Year for Older Readers,...

A challenging, mesmerising young adult novel that brings role-playing dice games, the nuclear nightmare, a phantom graffiti artist and a curious alien anthropologist together in a remote beachside town. A Children's Book Council of Australia Book of the Year for Older Readers, Beyond the Labyrinth...

‘On the screen the spaceman continued to zap the space demons, twisting, turning and firing, but the chair where he had sat was empty, and the joystick did not move...’ Andrew has never seen a computer game like Space Demons before—a mysterious experiment, captivating in every way, blurring...

‘He knew in his heart that the dog belonged to someone else, but at the same time he felt quite strongly that the dog ought to be his...’ When Kel decides to borrow the magnificent bull terrier Brut for the weekend, he has no idea where that choice will lead him and his family—as well...

‘All around him stars were appearing. Struggling and swaying, he pulled himself through the sky and sank down, panting and exhausted, in the first stage of the Skymaze.’ An enthralling new computer game arrives from the creator of Space Demons. Andrew can’t resist it, and neither can...

‘Its general meaning is nerve, or the nervous system. But originally it meant the channel of the gods, the divine pathway... It was to be the name of the new game.’ Andrew and his friends find themselves in Japan, the source of Space Demons and Skymaze, the computer games that have shaped...