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24 Hours, Margaret Mahy. Collins
A classic, original, incorrigible Mahy, combining mystery, suspense and romance. Within 24 hours, Ellis breaks all the habits of a seventeen-year-old lifetime and enters a danger zone inhabited by people who never knew there were rules in the first place. This is a group of spoiled, little rich kids, whose games of tricks and consequences arise from such damaged lives that they have nothing left to lose. In his single day/night, Ellis lives a whole life of love and loss and adventure, dances with death and lives to tell the tale. (16+)
A Charm of Powerful Trouble, Joanne Horniman. Allen & Unwin 2002
A gentle introspective exploration of a young girl’s journey from childhood to maturity and of the tales/ties that bind women through generations of guilt and love. Sensuous and deeply evocative, the novel holds appeal for females sensitive to relationships between humans and the natural world and thoughtful about the paradoxical relationship between love and despair.
A Company of Fools, Deborah Ellis. Allen & Unwin 2003
This engaging narrative is related by a choir boy at the time of the Great Plague. Henri, an orphan, has been growing up fairly happily within the reassuring routines of the Abbey of St Luc. He’s shy, sickly and solitary until the street urchin, Micah blows into his life with winds of trouble and change. When the plague begins to devastate nearby villages and towns, the Abbey forms a ‘Company of Fools’ to bring some laughter into the climate of misery. Overall, it’s an interesting tale of greed, pride, desperation and resilience for those who enjoy historical settings, perhaps including fans of Catherine Jinx’s Pagan series. (11+)
A Different Sort of Real: The Diary of Charlotte McKenzie. Kerry Greenwood. Scholastic. 2001
A straightforward story of a young girl's involvement in the Influenza pandemic of 1918-19. The novel raises issues about the role of women in post-war Australia, the impact of the war on men who experienced trauma and challenges definitions of heroism and cowardice. (13+)
A Journey to Distant Mountains, Jill Dobson. UQP 2001
An engaging mystical, romance-adventure set in some dark past, this substantial YA novel starts the resilient Princess Atlanta who pursues her personal destiny in the midst of a world in chaos. Borrowing from a long saga tradition, the novel highlights a range of issues about freedom and power, love and forgiveness that are incredibly relevant today.
A Little Piece of Ground, Elizabeth Laird. MacMillan 2003
Elizabeth Laird always tackles the hard subject (Red Sky in the Morning) and her experience of living in the Middle East infuses this novel with authenticity. It is a story about Palestinian boys living under Israeli occupation. It is beyond the television drama we witness regularly. It places us there, no longer observers, but involved as we should be, wherever there is oppression and loss of a daily quality of life, for children who should be entitled to our care. This is not a story about boys looking for a piece of ground on which to play football, it is a story about living in constant fear and no-one being the winner - if only, as Hanan Ashrawi said: ‘we could claim the collective narrative, while respecting distinctive difference’.
A New Kind of Dreaming, Anthony Eaton. UQP 2001
A serious challenge to the vicious intensity of Holes, this hell-on-earth to which young offenders are exiled, is in the burning top end of Australia. The brutality of the local cop, the hold he has over the social worker, the dark secrets the town chooses to keep hidden, all combine to create a gripping murder mystery with no holds barred. It’s a fitting setting for Jamie’s journey (away from crime) into a more honest, trusting future.
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A Prayer for Blue Delaney, Kirsty Murray. Allen & Unwin 2005
This quartet of novels comprises an Irish saga that stretches from the 1850s to contemporary Australia. We’ve had Bridie’s Fire and Becoming Billy Dare and now A Prayer for Blue Delaney which is a moving, gripping adventure story set in the 1950s. This is a good yarn, well written with strong characterisation and a rich, detailed recognisable setting. Colm (the friend of Billy Dare) has been abandoned at (you guessed it) a Catholic orphanage when aged 5. The depiction of members of the religious orders involved echoes Ruth Starke’s Orphans of the Queen and resonates sadly with recently revealed personal experiences of cruelty and exploitation. Overall, however, it’s the kindly friendship of the battlers of the bush that live in our memories when we close the book. (15+)
A Promised Land, Alan Collins. UQP
Collins is a thorough and committed chronicler of recent and contemporary Jewish history. Jacob’s journey to personal and cultural identify covers a broad canvas from the orphanage in Bondi, through the death of his wife in a Kibbutz in 1948, to the life of his adopted son, Joshua. The latter is shown first in sunny Australia and then on his pilgrimage to retrieve his cultural heritage.
A Step from Heaven, An Na. A & U
This slim novel about one family’s massive personal and cultural journey is heart wrenching in its pathos and exquisite linguistic poise. Young Ju and her family leave Korea to live in America where they expect all their dreams to come true. Little Young Ju believes they are on their way to heaven. As they struggle in the new world, fractures appear in their family relationships and violence and division follow a sense of failure. The young narrator conveys sensitive insights into this condition and ultimately leaves a sense of realistic optimism for her future and that of her mother and brother. (15+)
Across the Nightingale Floor, Liam Hearn. Hodder 2002
It’s the season for the exotic and this epic work, the first in a fantasy series is set in ancient Japan in the mythical mountain kingdom of the Otori. Takeo possesses the supernatural talents of the tribe, shape changing, invisibility and preternatural, hearing and these skills take him into the midst of the battle of good against exceptional evil.
Adults Only, Morris Gleitzman. Penguin 2001
A charming and endearing comedy about a married couple who try to make a financial success of operating an ‘adults only’ island resort. The only small problem is that their hidden child makes a hilarious mess of things while ‘helping’ in the shadows. A successful Gleitzman book for younger readers 10-14.
Artemis Fowl - The Arctic Incident. Eoin Colfer. Penguin 2002
A thoroughly post modern, total hoot. Artemis heads to the arctic to save his father from his blackmailers and is forced to join his arch-enemy to outwit the goblins and their evil masters. Deserves to be in a Nintendo game.
Asking for Trouble, Mary K Pershall. Puffin 2001
Mel is coping with way too much in her nearly fifteenth year - her Mum has a chronic illness, her lovable young brother is seriously weird and her girlfriends are all making terrifying life decisions. So Mel distracts herself with bad-boy Luke, until she slowly realises she’s ‘asking for trouble’.
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Being Bindy, Alyssa Brugman. Allen & Unwin 2004
Written for a younger audience than Brugman’s previous novels, this one bears the hallmark of her perceptive characterisation, but the pace is somewhat slow and the use of capitalisation to render dialogue ‘contemporary’ irritates. In fact, I couldn’t quite take the ‘awfulness’ of Bindy’s circumstances seriously, even allowing for the self-dramatisation of the average pre-teen. Sure, there is school bitchiness and Bindy is struggling not only with her parents’ separation, but also her father’s potential re-marriage – to the mother of her erstwhile best friend – but her victimisation by her peers seems relatively minor and her sudden capacity to forgive strikes a distinctly unconvincing note. (11+)
Blackthorn, Whitethorn, Rachel Andersen. Hodder
Andersen writes historical novels in the ‘British style’ with a confident pen. It’s an intriguing walk down memory lane for Hannah to ‘meet’ Ada and Lily and learn what life was like in another century. Hannah’s own troubles fade into insignificance, as she comes to understand the pain and limitations of that life of poverty, abuse and disability. (13+)
Blackwater, Eve Bunting. Collins 2000
A young boy’s jealousy and bravado turn a summer day into a nightmare and leave him with a problem that just gets more and more out of control. Only his detested cousin Alex knows that Brodie actually caused the drowning of two teenagers despite him being hailed as town hero for trying to save them. When lying starts, it gets harder and harder to tell the truth. Salient lessons in how all our actions have consequences. (12+)
Blood Pressure, Alan Gibbons. Dolphin 2005
Initially, the extremely smug middle class protagonist, Aidan, gets on one’s nerves. He seems to have it so good, that one hopes he gets a reality check soon. Well, he does. Visiting ‘grotty’ Liverpool, ostensibly to farewell his much-loved, dying grandfather, Aidan discovers uncomfortable truths about his own past and its impact on his present life. His ‘real father’, for instance, is a ruthless gangster (not the polite, conservative man he’s assumed to be ‘dad’); said gangster father is in the middle of a very nasty turf war and being pursued to the death. After a nightmare journey with his father, Aidan comes to a grudging understanding of him and accepts his mother’s feelings and actions – in other words, he finally develops a little less egocentricity and more empathy. As a result, Aidan moves on to a very different future than the one that might have been predicted. A thriller that will engage many 15+ readers.
Bloodtide, Melvin Burgess. Penguin
A novel of extraordinary savagery that somehow sucks you in - in to its brutal world of gangwar, bloodlust and unbridled cruelty. Burgess has never pulled the punches, but this one is spinechilling in its gritty reality. It has a contemporary ring of truth, despite, or maybe because of it 'Montagues and Capulets' plot and post-holocaust setting. (16+)
Blue, Sue Mayfield. Hodder 2001
The blurb reads like your average ‘obsessive teenager girl becomes anorexic’ story. In fact, it’s a complex description of the subtle intricacies of calculated bullying and the devastating effects on the ‘victim’. The novel should be compulsory reading for adults who downplay the seriousness of malicious spiteful adolescent behaviour.
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Boy Overboard, Morris Gleitzman. Penguin 2002
Boat people, kids surviving, dreams on a journey to the ‘Promised Land’. Ok, but a bit superficial.
Brilliance of the Moon, (Tales of the Otori Book 3) Lian Hearn. Hodder 2004
While nothing has yet come up to the luminous quality of Book 1, Book 3 reclaims the power of a master storyteller. Perhaps it’s more gripping than Book 2 because there’s more action and tension; perhaps it’s because love having been hard won, there’s so much more to lose and we’re more attached to the star-crossed lovers? Otori Takeo, with his ill-fated bride Kaede Shirakawa, returns to revenge his adoptive father, reclaim the domain of the Maruyama and take his place as head of the kingdom. Inevitably, for peace, a heavy price must be paid in blood. Kaede is captured as a prize by the chilling Lord Fujiwara, Takeo survives trials almost beyond endurance, and, as the moon waxes and wanes, fortunes are made and lost and destinies fulfilled. While violence may appear necessary to thwart evil, Takeo begins to wonder whether revenge ever brings solace. The novel is another tour-de-force, massive in its coverage of time, place, culture and event (it contains a necessary five page cast list) and indeed, is ‘brilliant’. (16+)
Bringing Rueben Home, Glenda Millard. ABC Books 2004
Set in the future city of New Carradon, this novel engages the predictable but significant debate about individual freedoms versus the power of the state. Replete with memories of the ‘cessation’ (the state’s word for the compulsory demise of the elderly, ill or disabled), of his dearly loved wife Grace, Rueben is well over the pretence that this is a brave new world. His ally in challenging ‘the way things are done here’ is the young woman, Cinnebar, whom he has effectively raised. A science fiction that feels unnervingly close to our reality, the novel raises and deals with issues of injustice, untruth, genetic manipulation and what constitutes ‘a good life’. These issues however, never get in the way of the gripping plot and Millard has demonstrated a new breadth and depth to her repertoire.
Bud, Not Buddy, Christopher Paul Curtis. Delacorte Press 1999
Ten year old Bud, from Flint Michigan in 1936, runs away to find his dad, following the clues of an old Jazz poster about Herman E Calloway and the Dusky Devastators of the Depression. This is one of those heart-warming stories about a motherless boy, who, even in these tough times is determined not to be fatherless. It’s also a story about race and class and the Depression itself and about the music that makes it all bearable. Curtis has the lightest touch I know when dealing with race - it’s just there with no didacticism or breast-beating. (10+)
By the River, Steven Herrick. Allen & Unwin 2004
Herrick is such a natural poet. Who else could take a small town with its quarrels and sorrows and turn it into a lyrical love story? Who else could turn a phrase like: Our father’s mood has been left scattered over the yard, like grass seed, eaten by quiet birds…. Or his father, his wife dead, watches his sons sleeping and goes to: Listen all night to the miraculous sound of her presence. Harry the narrator, remembers his life as a fourteen year old in a small country town. He remembers Linda drowned in the flood, and, in another flood, realises that he has to leave or be ‘submerged’ pulled down by the ‘undercurrents’ of parochial life. Another true and tender message about learning to live with what has been and what might have been and moving on while respecting the past for what it has given. (14+)
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Cedar B.Hartley, Martine Murray. Allen & Unwin 2002
An absolutely delightful tale of a (relatively) happy, unselfconscious girl in transition from childhood. Cedar. B discovers that the world is both bigger and badder and also kinder, than she had ever imagined. The world the young people create in the story is one of action and event, community and care, risk and fulfilment; it gives us hope and we hope they succeed - big time!
Chanda’s Secret, Allan Stratton. Allen & Unwin 2004
The book is a moving expose of the enormity of the AIDS pandemic in South Africa and its effects on the lives of ordinary people. Chanda is 16, her mother is sick and people around her keep dying of a mysterious illness that seems to strike fear into the heart of the community. Chanda is determined to tear down the curtain of silence and secrecy and to reveal the truth so that people can openly find hope, help and comfort. The ‘novel’ is told in a plain tone of reportage and it rings true and tells an important story that the world should hear. (13+)
Circles of Stone, Pamela Rushby. Angus & Robertson 2003
This is an intriguing novel using time slip techniques to bring two girls, one a contemporary Australian, the other a Celtic girl from 2000 years ago, together. Lea and her friends are hiking in the predictably bitter highlands of Scotland, when the body of a young girl is discovered in the peat by a group of student archaeologists. Lea has already ‘met’ Ana when she accidentally travelled back to that time at a modern Beltane ceremony. The girls realised immediately that they both had unusual powers and tried to protect each other from the violence bred of superstition and fear. Unfortunately, while Lea ‘escapes’ through the time tunnel at the centre of the circle of stones, Ana is sacrificed by her own people to appease the gods. The technique of parallel stories in different text types might test some adolescent readers, but the plot is absorbing and the sinister backdrop of ‘Scots’ Stonehenge’ adds atmosphere and mystery. (14+)
Clair de Lune, Cassandra Golds. Puffin 2004
An esoteric little novel about a child who is kept, like a caged bird, at the top of a very tall, very narrow, very old building. Her mother, a renowned ballerina, appears to have ‘died of love’ and her grandmother is determined to protect Clair from the same fate, at any cost. There is a performing mouse, a mysterious monk and hidden passage ways for secret journeys – all very peculiar, but engaging and magical in a fairytale way. (9+)
Closed Stranger, Kate de Goldi. Penguin 2000
A sophisticated novel about love and lust and dependencies. Two mates are in an unequal power relationship where Westie calls the shots…until Max’s first love, Meredith is killed through Westie’s excesses and the worm turns to thoughts of vengeance. A powerful novel that deals with heartbreak, anger and growing up in a realistic and hard-hitting way. (15+)
Cry of the Karri, Errol Broome. Allen & Unwin
Aiden, a boy out camping with his mates, becomes lost and stumbles across the home of a family of another boy who disappeared two years ago. Finally, by discovering the fate of the missing son, Aiden is reunited with his own parents and resolves his own guilt at his sister’s death.
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Dark Wind Blowing, Jackie French. Angus & Robertson
A perfectly normal day for Mike, off to school having farewelled his doting Mum, until, at 11.40 am Lance drops a test tube that could contain a deadly virus, and nothing seems ‘ordinary’ again. The novel provides insights into why victims of bullying turn to terrorism, and how kids can show empathy, resilience and care in the face of danger.
Dogs, Bill Condon. Hodder 2000
Dogs is immensely powerful in its absolutely raw working class reality. Two boys and a greyhound they love and build their hopes on, two fathers with very different notions of masculinity; this is as much a story about fathers and sons as it is about the world of racing, doping and the events of the plot. The novel is unrelenting, unequivocal, tragic, depressing and ultimately un-put-down-able. (15+)
Do-Wrong Ron, Steven Herrick. Allen & Unwin 2003
Poor Ron, everything he touches turns to - at least - dung. But Ron’s heart’s in the right place and with Isabelle (who has all the get up and go), they get up and get the whole town humming, with happiness and fun and togetherness. (11+)
Dragonkeeper, Carole Wilkinson. Black Dog Books 2003
One of the new sub-genre of ‘exotic’ literature, Dragonkeeper combines the lure of Ancient China in the Han Dynasty and the magic of a talking, hurting, questing dragon. ‘The girl’ as she is known by her brutal master, reluctantly joins ‘the last dragon’, Danzi, on an epic journey across China carrying a precious ‘stone’ that must be protected. Ping, as the dragon names her, discovers such unexpected strength, wisdom and courage that, finally, she willingly accepts the onerous responsibility of being ‘dragon keeper’ for the rest of her days. (13+)
Eglantine, Catherine Jinks. Allen & Unwin 2002
A sweet, well-told story about the ghost of an early 20th century girl who dies of anorexia, leaving a romantic tale she longs to finish. Entertaining (mildly) reading for 10+.
Eva’s Angel, Garry Disher. Hodder 2003
Initially, I was disappointed, finding this novel an ‘ordinary’ boy/girl romance, in oh-so romantic Italy, with an overlay of artistic pretension; ‘not up to your usual insights and depth Garry’, I thought. Then, in comes the sinister Nye, artistic mentor, beloved of the glitterati, and probably a sadistic pervert and rapist. So, the story, in the end, is not ordinary, though it ends abruptly and its appeal may be limited to the bohemian set - if such a thing still exists.
Feather Boy, Nicky Singer. Collins 2002
‘The Elders Project’ the very name strikes gloom into the heart of any red-blooded adolescent. The project and the story are saved by the extraordinary lead character Catherine, tale teller and mediator between 7R and the helpless residents of the Mayfield Rest Home. Cynicism turns to curiosity and Robert Norbet becomes strongly engaged with Edith Sorrel’s quest to mend the past before she dies. The blending of fairy story and contemporary reality is masterful, as is the transformation of the ugly duckling into a shining Prince who shows the world what courage means and wins the heart of fair lady.
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Fergus McPhail, David McRobbie Penguin
McRobbie is a somewhat erratic writer, so I approached this novel with some misgivings. I was therefore pleasantly surprised to find a fast-paced, witty and highly entertaining work. Fergus and his family have moved yet again in another attempt to find a job for his dad, ‘Mr Hopeless’, and a home that suits his crazy family. It’s one of those ‘school/girls/I’m-no-good-at-sport’ fictions, but it’s fun and clever and offers appealing and relaxing reading for less enthusiastic boy-readers. (14+)
Fighting Ruben Wolfe, Marcus Zusak. Omnibus Books 2000
A tough, witty city-slicker story of two fighting brothers, their squabbles, disasters and ultimate loyalties. (12+)
Finding Grace, Alyssa Brugman A & U
Shortlisted for the CBCA Older Readers award, this is a totally delightful, original rite of passage novel for young adults. It features the extremely likable Rachel, who is moving from school to university and moving in to ‘mind’ Grace, a woman suffering brain damage as a result of a bizarre accident. The novel charts Rachel’s journey from distaste for Grace’s condition, through defending her from her grasping sisters to final affection, respect and hope. It is an impressive first novel with great promise for future works. (16+)
Fire Song, William Nicholson. Random House 2002
Third in The Wind on Fire trilogy. Tends, as series often do, to suffer from repetition of theme and over-familiarity of characters. It is bleak, challenging and occasionally preachy, but finally offers a conclusion of sorts though it lacks the satisfaction of a good wrap up.
Flash Jack, Maureen McCarthy. Penguin
A lightweight, entertaining depiction of a thirteen year old boy’s dream summer, encompassing a burglary, a wacky girl friend, angry messed-up brothers, trouble with the police and a (relatively) happy ending. (13+)
Fly Boy & The Invisible, Matt Zurbo. Penguin
A bizarre, surreal adventure starring two wide boys with a bond born of shared dreams. When Will disappears, Carlo just has to follow, even if it means taking on the evil, vicious, blue singlet brigade who work mysteriously beneath the earth. Slick, sassy, grimy, and thoroughly Zurbo, the novel is an intriguing walk on the edge of C21st reality. (16+)
Foggy, Allan Baillie. Puffin
A whimsical echo of a traditional, magical folk tale, with a good dash of humour. Meg and Russ succeed in their mission to find the mixed-up Wizard known as Foggy, but there’s a fair chance he’ll create more havoc than Little Bay Village can handle.
Forbidden, Anthony Hill. Penguin 2002
A gentle, lyrical exploration of what it means to have your music, your sound, your culture, and your voice taken from you, and of a courageous boy who brings it back. (12+)
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Forest, Sonya Hartnett. Viking
Also listed for Older Readers this year, Forest is another idiosyncratic piece from the most versatile and original Australian novelist writing for young people. ‘The forest is earth and leaves, sun and shade, feather and blood and bone.’ The forest appears this way, because it is seen through the eyes of cats - feral cats with their ancient, hard won survival wisdom, and the dumped city cats, Kian the elder neutered Tom and his unwelcome kitten charges, Jem and Cally. Not all can survive in this arena of nature’s rage, but some must, to continue the line. In the midst of this brutal tale, there is courage, self-sacrifice and a bitter kind of knowing. 15+
Frankel Mouse, Odo Hirsch. Allen & Unwin 2000
Another imaginative feat from the pen of one of our most original writers. A group of mice hanging out in the London Underground might not be expected to hold strong appeal for Aussie kids, but Hirsch’s quirky sense of humour and endearing characterisation turn many readers on to the story. (10+)
Girl Underground, Morris Gleitzman. Penguin 2004
Gleitzman has never hidden his sympathies with the plight of refugees and his disdain for the politicians who seek to justify incarceration with what he believes are false arguments. Bridget is looking for a quiet life, trying to hide the existence of her criminal family as she attempts to fit in to her new posh school. However, Menzies, with his privileged upbringing, is determined to rescue two kids from their desert detention centre and to reunite them with their father. Naturally, Bridget and her eccentric family have to get involved. The story narrowly avoids stereotypes and its blatantly biased political views are open to challenge, but, with Gleitzman’s capacity for hilarity under dire circumstances, it’s a rollicking good read and raises issues worthy of thoughtful discussion. (10+)
Grass for his Pillow, Liam Hearn. Hodder 2003 (Volume 2)
Takeo, heir to the Otori Clan has been taken into the Tribe and for the sake of survival, he pledges them his life. But Takeo is a complex mix of Otori and Tribe and cannot, in the end, deny his spiritual nature and peaceful upbringing to become a hired assassin. Consequently, he takes a dangerous path to marry Kaede and reclaim their inheritance, knowing that such a choice will lead to dreadful wars and his eventual, predicted execution. The novel is so densely laden with the religion, culture and ritual of a mythical, medieval Japan, that it will challenge all but the most ‘literary’ of readers. Nonetheless, it is finely wrought.
Heartbeat, Sharon Creech. Bloomsbury 2004
A heart warming, Carnegie winning verse novel by this acclaimed American author captures an intense period of time in Annie’s life: her grandpa’s health is failing, her Mum’s having a baby and her best friend Max is facing a test that will dramatically affect his future. This is a beautiful, moving, lyrical and persuasive text about birth and death and choices and finding balance in life. (11+)
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Holes, Louis Sachar. Bloomsbury 1998
The most vivid, original text I’ve read in a long time. A smart, sassy, bitter-real expose of an America that does unconscionable things to its youth. The price of crime for these youths is incarceration in a desolate, sunbaked desert detention centre, where their daily punishment is to dig holes from daylight to dark and where the guards exercise their power by giving or denying water. Stanley and his mate, Zero, unable to take it for a second longer, escape and in the process of surviving in the harsh environment, they uncover the real, gold-lust reason for all this digging. A surreal novel with a tension that will keep readers page turning until the thrilling end. (15+)
Homeless Bird, Gloria Whelan. Harper Collins. 2000
The novel offers an insight into the harsh day-to-day life of an Indian girl, whose arranged marriage at 13 is an unmitigated disaster. Koby is one of the lucky ones, despite being abandoned on the streets of a strange town by her mother in law, she escapes prostitution. Through her courage and resilience, she finds refuge in a Widow's House where her intelligence and talents are valued and she can hope for a better future. The novel, while not criticising traditional ways, subtly challenges any system that systematically keeps women at the bottom of a very tall pecking order. (13+)
Horrendo’s Curse, Anna Fienberg. Allen & Unwin 2002
As the blurb says: ‘a rollicking adventure on the high seas’; not for the squeamish who can’t handle ugly behaviour, fierce fights and endless descriptions of abominable food. Great fun for the 10+.
How to Disappear Completely and Never Be Found, Sara Nickerson. Harper Collins 2002
A remarkable first novel told from the point of view of a fatherless 12-year-old girl. Margaret’s dad disappeared in a mysterious drowning accident four years ago and she exists in the silent, over-ordered world her distraught mother has created for her and her 7-year-old sister, Sophie. Finally, Margaret resolves to unravel the mystery of her strange family and, backed by her new friends, she follows the clues to the bitter end. But, the end, as is so often the way, is sweet as well as bitter and healing and re-connection glimmer as possibilities. (11+)
How to Make a Bird, Martine Murray. Allen & Unwin 2003
Murray is an impressive new talent on the Australian literary scene. Cedar B Hartley combined humour and pathos with charm, simplicity and insight and so does this new novel. Mannie is an unusual child with unusual wisdom, so, when she leaves home in her mother’s best long red dress to ride her bike to Melbourne, somehow, we trust her instincts. The journey has a slightly surreal quality reminiscent of Cormier’s I Am the Cheese, and yet Mannie’s experiences are very much grounded in the contemporary grit of St Kilda’s seedy pub scene. It is an intriguing novel written with an original wry tone; a novel about important matters such as losing and seeking and creating new futures. (13+)
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In the Poet’s Den, Julia Holland. UQP 2000
The cover may deter some males, but the content resonates for any reader who is ‘searching’; one who needs a new path to give purpose and meaning to their lives. The novel is about the manipulative force of cults in these aimless times, but it maintains a balance in perspective, giving credit where it’s due, yet acknowledging the vulnerability of youth and the likelihood of corruption of utopian vision. While it (inevitably?) depicts families as singularly hopeless at managing their young and facing realities, the novel also canvasses ideas about the rewards of working together for unselfish goals and about how disillusionment can bring maturity and enlightenment. (15+)
Jamil’s Shadow, Christine Harris. Puffin
A charming tale of a boy who clings to the loneliness and isolation arising from his grief for the death of his parents, and of the natural disaster that brings a village together and rebuilds a community. (9+)
Jinx, Margaret Wild A & U
This is Margaret’s first foray into the verse novel, but that familiar Wild tenderness for humankind shines on. Mothers, daughters, fathers, sons - all are portrayed with perceptive sympathy and a light, sure touch. (14+)
Journey to the River Sea, Eva Ibbotson. MacMillan 2001
An intriguingly different novel with an exotic Amazonian setting, bizarre characters and neatly constructed plot. Appealing in a rather old-fashioned, Miss Marple kind of way, complete with a governess with lethal hat pin.
Julia, My Sister, Bronwyn Blake. Lothian 2003
This is an intriguing, if not wholly successful novel about a young woman who has been deeply traumatised by the events surrounding her abduction during a bank robbery. She is frightfully scarred in the crash of the get-away-car, but it’s her mental and emotional scars that are the bigger challenge to heal. Julia/Kate escapes into a schizophrenic state to avoid confronting her damaged body, her diminished future and the real pain yet to come. Through the composition of a song cycle based on Eurydice and Odysseus, Julia finds the strength to turn her back on ‘the underworld’ and return to the light. The musical overlays lend poetics and some cohesion to the novel, but they also at times feel contrived and a little pretentious.
Kaitangata Twitch, Margaret Mahy. Allen & Unwin 2005
Mahy is renowned for her ‘domestic fantasy’ novels and this one weaves enchantment and reality in her time-honoured way. Told through the narration of Meredith, the family dreamer, the story revolves around the efforts of the initial residents of Kaitangata to protect the island from an unscrupulous developer. An engaging family story with a supernatural twist – or twitch – the novel opens for discussion with older primary students relevant environmental and lifestyle issues. (11+)
Keeper, Rosanne Hawke. Lothian 2000
The book is a cliché in a way - a boy who advertises for a dad to go in the fishing competition with him and along comes a lovable, but solitary and mysterious biker who turns out to have known his dad (in prison). However, the novel is saved by the quality of the characterisation, which largely avoids stereotyping, and by the sting in the serpent’s tail that pays off the persistent reader. (10+)
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Keys to the Kingdom, Garth Nix. Allen & Unwin 2003 - Volume 1: Mister Monday
A classic Nix mix of humour, improbable events and quest motif. Arthur Penhaligon (are we meant to read ‘Pendragon’?) becomes an unlikely hero when he is bequeathed ‘the lesser key’ because of his imminent death from asthma. Well, Arthur doesn’t die, and, with the power of the key improving his lung capacity, he’s able to take on ferocious opponents in the secondary realm, to liberate his own time from the sleeping plague. I loved it, and it’s worth a try with 14+ readers who have a soft spot for fantasy with fun.
Layla, Queen of Hearts, Glenda Millard. ABC Books 2006
A sequel to the delicate novel, The Naming of Tishkin Silk, this slim volume continues the story of the memorable Silk family and their friend, Layla. The characters are remarkable, not just for their charming, unworldly qualities, but for their generosity of spirit. The school is to hold a senior citizens’ day and Layla wishes she had someone special to take. Nell, Griffin’s empathetic mother, suggests uncertainly that Miss Amelie might be willing to assist. Her uncertainty arises because Miss Amelie, who mourns a long-lost love, does not always exist in the real world, and does not always remember things. Love and compassion win out and everyone’s life is enriched by a child believing in small miracles. (9+)
Leaving No Footprints, Elaine Forrestal. Puffin
The mysterious boy surfs every day in front of Henny’s family holiday house, but who is Kip, why his sadness and where does he go, leaving no footprints? An intriguing mix of smuggler tale, mystery and contemporary romance, this slight novel is excellent holiday reading for 13+
Lilly Quench and the Dragon of Mote Ely, Natalie Jane Prior. Hodder 2002
Another in the series of the dare-devil girl hero with a dragon friend; engaging for the age group of 9+.
Lily Quench and the Black Mountains, Natalie Jane Prior. Hodder
Another adventure for our intrepid girl hero, Lily Quench. Co-starring Lily’s friends Queen Dragon and Gordon, this particular challenge occurs amid freezing mountain terrain, where they face not only the perils of nature, but the determined avarice of the evil Count. Nonetheless it’s a gentle small novel with much to tell about friendship, perseverance, loyalty and courage.
Lirael, Garth Nix. A & U
From the same dark world of Garth’s award-winning Sabriel, this high fantasy novel hovers above cliché held by a thread of youthful humour and self-parody. The characters and some of the dialogue are unfortunately reminiscent of a British Boarding School of the 19th Century, with much ‘pluckiness by jolly good chaps who aren’t all that comfy with girls’, but the book does introduce issues of contemporary political relevance. (14+)
Little Wing, Joanne Horniman. Allen & Unwin 2006
Little Wing is the sequel to Mahalia, which was an Honour Book in the 2002 CBCA Awards. Mahalia is the name of the baby born to Emily and Matt while they were still at school. The novel of the same name was Matt’s story; Little Wing describes Emily’s journey to find herself while living with her godmother in the Blue Mountains. There, fortuitously, she meets Martin, a teacher who is an at-home dad with his delightful four year old, Pete. Through the easy relationship with Martin and Pete (although the wife and mother Cat, is less than thrilled by the friendship), ‘Emmy’, as Pete calls her, moves through the deeply depressive phase arising from the birth, her mother’s uptight non-acceptance of the situation and her fears that she might not love the baby enough; might even hurt her. The unstated condition appears to be a kind of post-natal depression, including periods of self harm, but Emily is loved and understood in the novel, not pathologised. The characters are the novel’s greatest strength. They are delicately captured with respect and affection and subtly reveal their thoughts and feelings. This is a very fine novel that should receive accolades as its predecessor did. (15+)
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Long Walk to Lavender Street, Belinda Hollyer. Hodder 2002
Part of the ‘survivors’ series of fictionalised narratives about young people caught up in real-life conflicts. Through the eyes of the young protagonist, we learn the hardships of being of mixed race in Cape Town, South Africa in 1966. The brutal cruelty to individuals and the overall inequity of the politics of superiority and oppression come through with chilling accuracy.
Looking for X, Deborah Ellis. Allen & Unwin 2003 edition
First published in 2000, this is one of Ellis’s more compact, coherent and imaginative works. Kyber (her chosen name because she intends to become an explorer) has a complicated life: with Kyber’s help, her mum is just coping with autistic twins in a small flat; money is very scarce and getting through a day in school after a very disturbed night is a challenge. Being wrongly accused of school vandalism is the last straw and Kyber risks a journey alone to the city to try to prove her innocence and the true existence of her friend ‘X’. The strength of the main character and the family ties of love and loyalty despite the odds are heartening and convincing. The novel makes a refreshing change from Ellis’s focus on foreign cultural contexts to face social realities closer to home. (10+)
Love that Dog, Sharon Creech. Bloomsbury 2001
A short verse novel about ‘a boy and his dog’, but also about a boy finding a way to communicate. If all the boys were like this and all the teachers were like this one, the world would be a more sensitive caring place. Delightfully original. (10+)
Lucas, Kevin Brooks. Chicken Feed Press 2003
This is a very controlled narrative that builds the sense of small-town-spite turning to violence in a totally convincing way. Given people’s apparent willingness to believe the worst of their fellows and to grasp desperately for personal pleasure, vicious self interest and accompanying serious harm are inevitable. The teen characters remain somewhat mysterious, their motivations not always explained, though their actions are plausible. The adults are, sadly, largely venal or inadequate. Overall, it’s a gripping piece of prose that enlightens as it shocks. (14+)
Mahalia, Joanne Horniman. A & U. 2001
A slow-moving, detailed account of a young man's struggle to bring up his baby daughter alone. Through the eyes of 17 year old Matt, we see Mahalia teething, walking, talking and making friends. We experience his devotion and loving care, but also his frustration as he battles loneliness, depression and poverty. Finally, it is a moving, absorbing tale about young people growing up, growing apart and moving on, and the grief that accompanies these changes. (16+)
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Making Laws for Clouds, Nick Earls. Penguin 2002
A convincing narrative of growing up in a small town; boy meets girl, folks find out and you spend the rest of summer persuading everyone you have more on your mind than sex. True and touching. (15+)
Malka, Mirjam Pressler. MacMillan 2002
There’s a flood of stories at present around the persecution of the Jews (The Girl in the Red Coat, Hanna’s Suitcase) however, this one seems more complete as a novel than most. All of the books with this theme seem to suffer poetically, in translation. Malka is separated from her mother and sister in the flight from the Nazis. She survives somehow, but scratching for an existence takes its toll on a child, she will never be the carefree innocent she was entitled to be; she will never be free of the horrors she witnessed on her hasty road to a rushed maturity.
Midnight for Charlie Bone, Jenny Nimmo. Random House 2002
I guess it should come as little surprise that Nimmo, renowned for her control of the fantasy genre, can create a set of characters and plot to challenge Harry Potter. Good old Charlie Bone, a pretty ordinary chap, starts hearing voices - ho hum, not very new - but these voices emanate from any picture he happens to cast eyes on. This means, sadly, that he must attend the dastardly Bloor’s Academy (not a patch on Hogwarth’s). Once there, but naturally, Charlie and his friends, new and old, Olivia and Benjamin (not to mention Runner Bean, Sleuth hound extraordinaire and his glass-fracturing Uncle Paton) unravel the tangled plot of magic and child abductions. A mix of Snickett and Rowling with the emphasis on humour. (13+)
Mimus, Lilli Thal. Allen & Unwin 2005
An extraordinary medieval adventure starring prince Florin (a bit of a twerp who is easily conned into his enemy’s lair) and Mimus, the wily Court Jester. Treachery, cruelty and suspense abounds in this gothic farce and the delight is we never know who to trust, right to the end. An epic to absorb lovers of weird fantasy. (14+)
Mudlark, Michael Stephens. Angus and Robertson 2000
Jim gets his much-awarded chance to take home the class pet, a rescued mudlark. Mudlark escapes and Jim’s journey to find him echoes his own journey from denial, to acceptance of his mother’s dying; from Jim’s status as outsider, to acceptance of his difference. (12+)
Mum, Me and 19C, David McRobbie, Allen & Unwin 2002.
A bit heavy-handed in the time travel trek back through history, as Cara and her Mum are transported to an historical village over a century ago, experiencing the ghastliness of nineteenth century plumbing and the limited lives of women.
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My Sister’s Keeper, Jodi Picoult. Allen & Unwin 2005
Jodi Picoult has become one of the most popular ‘cross-over’ authors having avid fans among adolescents, young adults and the general adult market. This is an engrossing story of Anna who has almost ‘been bred’ as a compatible blood and bone supply for her older sister Kate who is dying of leukaemia. The story is told from multiple points of view so that we experience the perspectives of parents, siblings, workmates and friends. The moral dilemmas arising from scientific advances are powerfully canvassed, but the heart is engaged at least as much as the mind and simplistic judgements on serious ethical decisions are avoided. (14+)
Nathan Nuttboard Hits the Beach, Anthony Eaton. UQP 2002
They don’t come much sillier than the Nuttboard family - or much funnier either. The olds are naturally embarrassing, the young, just embarrassed being there. Friendships (and even loveships) are struck, bullies disempowered and it’s not a bad summer after all.
Night Vision, Rory Barnes, ABC Books 2006
A mixture of ‘intergenerational friendship’ and ‘war retrospective’ the story is told by Kosta, a boy who is good at making a mess of things. He’s on a good behaviour bond, he’s annoying the heck out of his girlfriend and he’s having someone else’s dreams. When he starts to read to Jack as a part-time job, he uncovers not only the experiences of a young man caught up in the Great Depression and World War 11, but clues to his own mysterious dreams and insights into the present day world. It’s a novel about possessiveness, betrayal, forgiveness and mateship, ideas that transcend time and place. (13+)
Nights in the Sun, Colin Bowles. Penguin 2003
A typically ‘clean’ telling of a tale by Bowles. Set in Broome in 1926, a tale of racism and exploitation, of violence and horrible death, but also of crossing the boundaries and connecting across cultures. I’d love the chance to share the novel to kids in Broome today, because in essence not much has changed; maybe exchange Aboriginal people today for the Japanese diver and you have the same sad saga of exploitation and hopelessness. Told with balance, humour and commendable lack of preaching - as Bowles always does. (13+)
Nirvana’s Children, Ranulfo. UQP 2002
A cult novel in the manner of Zusak - black, funny, slick and very readable, especially for less literary young adults.
No Name Bird, Josef Vondra. Penguin 2000
And so does this story from an East Timor on the brink of a war still in recent memory. A story about a boy and his uncle and their game, but scrawny cock fighting bird with no name; a metaphor for a place and time. While aspects of the plot line challenge belief and the prose - at least in translation - is not particularly stylish, this slight novel is engaging and its content important. (10+)
Nostradamus, John Larkin. Hodder 2001
Fun from beginning to end; pacy, witty and nearly convincing. Ian heads to Cambridge when his Mum and Dad have midlife crises, to stay with the very olds, or so he thinks. Several elderly confusions later and we’re in stitches. Even the rather obvious denouement is a chuckle. (13+)
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Nukkin Ya, Phillip Gwynne. Penguin 2000
Theoretically a novel about race and impediments to young love - a Romeo and Juliet saga set in small town Australia (the Baz Luhrmann of the outback) - this is also another novel very much about fathers and sons, boys’ relationships with peers and boys learning the kind of man they want to become. Gwynne does this stuff well, with a sure ear for dialogue and a helpful dose of humour to lighten the lesson. It’s not as seamless as Deadly Unna, in which every move seemed destined and every phrase sparklingly apposite, but I guess a sequel is inevitable, and so is the next one. (15+)
Of a Boy, Sonya Hartnett. Viking 2002
I have always admired Hartnett’s very original voice and the risks she takes narratologically usually pay off. Of a Boy, however, while poignant and suspenseful, is too slow-moving and introspective to maintain the engagement of most readers. The ending is predictable enough to disappoint, while still chilling to the bone.
Once, Morris Gleitzman. Penguin 2005
An entirely original product from a pen most used to ‘entertaining’. The novel derives from Gleitzman’s serious reflections on Hitler’s determined ‘resolution of the Jewish question’ and the subsequent terrible experiences of Jewish children in the period 1939-45. In particular, the author uses the historical reality of a Polish Jewish doctor who devoted his life to bringing some comfort to Jewish orphans. The narrative devices of the repetition of ‘Once’ to introduce each harrowing episode and the apparent ingenuousness of the young narrator, work brilliantly to draw us into the distressing, but engrossing story. (12+)
Only the Heart, Caswell & Chien. UQP 1997
The novel has been around a while, but it’s an honest appraisal of the complexities of making a life in a new country. It provides insight into the gains and losses of the Vietnamese Boat People, who made it and stayed and the novel acts as a fitting precursor to The Full Story.
Otto and the Flying Twins, Charlotte Haptie. Hodder 2002
In the manner of Nicholson’s Wind on Fire series, this is an inventive, often amusing, always telling tale for those 12+ who want to move on from Harry Potter.
Painted Love Letters, Catherine Bateson. UQP
A poignant account of a dying father and the family accommodating to his imminent loss. Bateson writes from the heart with a sincerity and clarity that moves readers and leaves them wiser. She employs the verse form to maximum advantage, distilling the essence of event and encapsulating feelings with a perfect choice of image. (15+)
Parvana, Deborah Ellis. A & U 2002
This poignant novel that is unashamedly didactic docu-fiction, records the everyday life of women in Afghanistan under Taliban rule. Told through Parvana's pre-pubescent eyes, it offers insights to young Australians about how fortunate they are to have choices in how to live their lives. (13+)
Pincus Corbett’s Strange Adventure, Odo Hirsch. Allen & Unwin 2002
The man’s a genius. It’s like when Mull of Kintyre was declared an ancient folk song! In Pincus, Hirsch has recreated the tales of Pinocchio, Faust, Hans Andersen and the Three Musketeers in an age-old, folkloric tradition. Pincus, the tailor is a grey, ageing, nondescript figure, who is transformed by a mysterious stranger in the middle of the night, into a colourful, magical being. As such, (inevitably) he is called upon to rescue the Prime Minister from his secret melancholic silence. With secrets revealed, life resumed, the nation saved, Pincus returns to his old self Éor does he? Another mix of comedy and intrigue for adventurous readers. A subtle touch of satire and quite engaging. (10+)
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Rain May and Captain Daniel, Catherine Bateson. UQP 2002
What is it with C.B? She always makes me cry. Her telling is as simple and clear and true as that of Newbery winner, Patricia McLoughlin. Rain moved to the country when her parents separated and there (thank heavens), the angst ends. The adults and the kids are perfectly capable of behaving badly, but also of being loving, selfless and resourceful. It’s a little serendipitous at the end, but heartening. (11+)
Red Heart, Victor Kelleher. Viking
Victor has never held back from describing in vivid detail, the rapacious cruelty that is likely to characterise a post holocaust world where the urge to survive has primordial primacy. Red Heart is unrelenting in its exposition of the brutality of the ‘new world order’ being established up the great Darling River. This is ‘Jack’s Place’ and evil is given full reign, until his nephew arrives. In true Kelleher fashion, Nat is to demonstrate through suffering and endurance, that trust and integrity are the only foundations for a viable future. (16+)
Replay, Sharon Creech. Bloomsbury 2002
Creech amplifies the voice of the least empowered child, while using few words; I guess she thinks in verse. Leo is in the school play, but as the ‘old crone’, it’s hardly the heroic lead. But then, Leo discovers that his papa used to tap dance when he was happy as a child, and he begins to realise how the person now is connected to ‘the person then’. From there on, family magic is possible…if you just believe. (10+)
Riding the Bus with My Sister, Rachel Simon. Hodder Headline 2003
Billed as a ‘true life story’, the book charts the novelist’s amazing experiences as she reluctantly ‘rides the bus’ with her sister Beth for a year. Beth is intellectually impaired and doggedly attached to her routines. Rachel’s relationship with Beth has never been easy. Sometimes embarrassed, often exasperated, she finds Beth’s fads and inflexibilities maddening and unmanageable. However, ‘going along for the ride’, Rachel develops a new respect for the way in which Beth’s uncomplicated affection warms people around her and for the unlikely heroes she meets on the buses. Rachel undertakes her own journey back into her family’s past and starts to heal unconscious wounds; she learns at last, to live in the moment. (15+)
Roger Bacon Reporting, Stephen Measday. Hodder
Another fun adventure for our intrepid reporter, Roger Bacon, the talking pig. This time Roger is in search of the scoop of the century, the last Thylacine. (9+)
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Rowan of the Bukshah, Emily Rodda. Scholastic 2003
As engrossing as one might expect, but deeper and more learned then previous titles. Extending younger readers as Rowan grows to manhood and responsibility. Wisdom, as ever, is hard won and not through ‘runes and spells’ but through facing one’s worst fears, nearly losing that which is most precious, and triumphing through the loyalty of good friends. (10+)
Ruby Holler, Sharon Creech. A & U. 2002
This Caldwellian backwoods saga comes out of a naive America that has probably never existed. Dallas and Florida are the twin terrors of Boxton Creek Home for wayward orphans. They can't 'be placed', since every time they go to a set of prospective parents, they rebel against the cruelty and exploitation they encounter. Fortunately, Sairy and Tiller Morey are not your usual elderly couple, and Ruby Holler is not your usual location. When these four eccentric characters collide, adventures are inevitable, but, thanks to the extra-ordinary perceptive love of the Moreys, the young toughs begin to crack and trust becomes a possibility. Full of laughter and whimsy, Ruby Holler yet maintains a voice for truth.
Runestone, Anna Ciddor. Viking (Book 1)
A strongly-imagined work which takes the changeling motif and blends it with a tale of magical powers, powerful runes and adventure. Two children are exchanged at birth, leaving Thora the non-magical girl with the spell workers and Oddo, the skilled magician, with a prosaic farming family that frowns on this magic nonsense. Soundly written and engaging. (10+)
Runner, Robert Newton. Penguin 2005
Set in Richmond, Melbourne in 1919, this historical novel charts the path of Charlie, a natural runner who moves from running the bitter streets of his neighbourhood to keep warm, to ‘running errands’ for the gangster Squizzy Taylor, to running for his life. Charlie lives with his mum and sickly baby brother Jack, like others in their street, in grinding poverty. Being a righteous lad, Charlie is a bit dubious about getting involved with crime, but when Mr Peacock predates on his mother and Squizzy ‘helps them out’, Charlie feels trapped. Alice, the baker’s daughter and Charlie’s new love gives him a ‘moral way out’ by suggesting that he ‘do some good’ with the money hard-earned from Squizzy. The prose style has Dickensian undertones and while sentimentality triumphs, it’s a readable, heart-warming Aussie saga. (15+)
Sabrina Fludde, Pauline Fisk. Bloomsbury 2001
Fisk does magical fantasy with a contemporary twist very well. In this novel, a little girl, having floated down the Severn, is befriended by Bentley, the sax playing son of a loving and totally impractical family. Abren, as she becomes known, is prepared to stay, as long as ‘no questions are asked’. But, life (even in a magical space and time) isn’t like that and Abren finds there is evil and danger in both worlds – new and old. Rescued once more, this time by Phaze aged 11, Abren is taken to the island, where she meets Old Sabrina, queen of the river and she begins to piece together her strange story. A moving, convincing and engrossing novel in the British tradition of high fantasy. (14+)
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Saving Abbie, Allan Baillie. Penguin 2000
A gentle and unusual novel for lovers of nature, animals and the environmentally conscious. Ian takes Abbie, his ‘pet orang-utan’ back to the jungles of Borneo to set her free. In the process, he discovers a vicious animal-smuggling racket, he experiences the dangers and devastation of out-of-control forest burn offs and comes to realise the immensity of the greed, arrogance and cruelty of humans. Some of the dialogue is stilted, but the story will engage young people who care about these matters affecting our planet. (12+)
Saving Christmas, Gillian Bouras. UQP Storybridge 2000
Two Greek-Australian kids take on the evil Kallikantzaroi spirits that have accompanied their Yiayia from Greece for Christmas. These mischievous beasties cause un-merry havoc to all and sundry until the family gang up on them. Written with a light and humourful touch, it’s an entertaining and gently multicultural story. (10+)
Saving Francesca, Melina Marchetta. Penguin 2003
I thought at first didn’t like this book. I thought at first, it was yet another teen-boy-girl-school thing with nothing special. But, it is. Marchetta is special, and damn it, she’s done the unmentionable and cracked a stunning second novel after Looking for Alibrandi. It’s funny, sad, touching, moving, and true and flows flawlessly with wit and dialogue and character veracity - and a touch of Marxist-feminist cultural studies thrown in. How can anyone’s nervous breakdown be this intriguing?
Saving Saddler Street, Ruth Starke. Lothian 2002
Another heart-warming saga about family and culture and the central role a school can play in helping new arrivals to become comfortable, contributing new Australians. When Saddler Street is threatened with closure in rationalist times, that same culturally diverse community reaches back into its history to try to save the place that helped them create home.
Secret Scribbled Notebooks, Joanne Horniman. Allen & Unwin 2004
I thought I was over diary-style novels ever since Adrian Mole – or was it Penny Pollard? Anyway, even John Marsden can’t render it a complex form and its superficial simplicity soon tires. Horniman, however, uses the diaries more as device than form and what we really have is an intimate first person narrative in the red notebook with ‘side stories’ held like dreamscapes in the yellow and blue ones. Kate is 17; doing final exams, dreaming of escape to the big city and wondering what it would be like to fall in love. Her sister Sophie knows all about love. She has just given birth to Anastasia, who, being her own little person, soon becomes ‘Hettie’. They live with Lil in a run down guest house, having been abandoned by their shadowy parents many years ago. From Horniman’s writing in Mahalia, we have come to expect to be submerged in the milky, sleepy, obsessive world of a parent and new baby; from A Charm of Powerful Trouble, we have come to expect a meditation on the forces between sisters and those between lovers. This is another sensuous, evocative novel based on reflections about growing up and the circles of connection that bind us for life. (15+)
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Shalott, Felicity Pulmon. Random House
Felicity Pulmon is fascinated by the human frailties and intrigues that lie beneath the Arthurian legend. In an imaginative tour-de-force, she takes five teenagers back to that time through a virtual reality program, and explores the meaning of the characters, events and motivations for modern young people.
Slaves of the Mastery. William Nicholson. Random House 2001
This is a worthy sequel to The Wind Singer, rich in character and adventure, though all the main philosophical positions have already been outlined.
Sleep Rough Tonight, Ian Bone. Penguin 2004
I have liked Ian Bone’s work. That Dolphin Thing was a gently poised emotional experience and The Song of an Innocent Bystander was enthralling. This novel, however, reads a lot like ‘middle period Southall’ - full of teen angst and tedious self-pity. So, Alex’s parents have separated; so, his mum wants to get on with her life; so he’s a bit lonesome and embroiled in an identity crisis. But his dad seems an OK guy, a bit tired, but trying to live by solid values and Marta, Alex’s friend, while staunchly religious, IS prepared to go out on a very skinny moral limb for him. So, why does Alex bait the seniors till he gets dunked in the school toilets, and why does he follow a loser like ‘The Jockey’ into the big city to ‘sleep rough’, thieve, bash and lose his innocence? Obviously, this is all about Alex proving how tough he is through a predictable mix of physical trials and emotional games. I found this among the less interesting rites-of-passage boy-book things. (14+)
Starry Night, Martin Waddell. Walker
Another rite of passage, this time set in Ireland. Kathleen is the last to know what’s going on in her family - indeed, what’s been going on for some time. In the process of unravelling family secrets, Kathleen begins to question her own political and social assumptions. While all her ‘starry’ dreams turn to dust, she does find a new maturity, balance and perspective from which to face her future. (15+)
Vigil, Nadia Wheatley. Penguin
This is a sophisticated, poetic, multi-layered narrative, which, in Wheatley’s skilful way, moves between the tragic events in Nathan’s past and his present ‘ghostly’ return to the old town. Here, he hovers on the fringes, haunted by an unreasonable sense of responsibility for the death of his two friends, until he learns from someone who knows loss only too well, that it is possible to say goodbye and move on. (16+)
Starry Nights, Judith Clarke. A & U 2001
Judith Clarke is a talented contemporary writer who has the capacity and the wisdom to reveal the complexities inside apparently ordinary Australian families through the convincing gaze of a teenage girl. Since they moved from the bay to Hillcrest House, their lives have been a mess - Mum is sick and uncommunicative, Vida is furiously seeking a magical solution and Clem is part of a haunting. It's up to Jess to reconnect her family with reality and to help them draw the strength to move on. No one does grieving and acceptance better than Clarke. (14+)
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Starseeker, Tim Bowler. Oxford 2003
An extraordinary story of a boy who’s fallen in with the wrong crowd and who is required to commit burglary or else the gang will get him. In his unwilling break-and-entry, Luke discovers a blind child and realises she’s been abducted. His attempt to put things right is nearly, literally, ‘the death of him’, but the saving of his life is also a liberation and a chance to move on past his father’s death. A rich, enthralling, lyrical novel with a beautiful, undercurrent of music that might, unfortunately, put many teen readers off. (14+)
Surrender, Sonya Hartnett. Viking 2005
Hartnett is one of the most poetic and complex of Australia’s writers and this novel meets both criteria. We’re seduced by her aptly chosen phrase at the same time as we are appalled by the human capacity for evil and cruelty that she canvases. Not, of course, that she reveals events in a transparent or linear way. We stagger between the story as told by Finnigan, a wild boy who appears to control poor, troubled Anwell, and Anwell’s story as told by his alter ego, Gabriel. Who controls who, becomes one of the story’s mysteries – Finnigan may light the fires, but who instructs him to do so? The crisis that inevitably emerges from this post-modern chaos actually centres on the dog, Surrender, and Evangeline, Anwell’s first and only love. Such a crisis can only end in violence, blood and pain and it does. A powerful and disturbing novel by a fine writer. (15+)
Teacher’s Pet, Morris Gleitzman. Puffin 2003
A typical, hilarious Glietzman with a serious message running as an undercurrent beneath the humour. Poor Ginger, not only highly allergic to the family’s many cats, but the one in her satchel turns escapologist and causes mayhem at school - the very school at which, to her sorrow, her parents teach. Having parents teach at your own school means you don’t get the same kindness and support as other students, in case you’re seen as ‘the teacher’s pet’.
Terra Farma, Gillian Rubinstein. Penguin
The sequel to Galaxa-Arena and not quite as successfully integrated. This novel has Joella, Peter and Liane on the run from the all-knowing Project Genesis Five. The realisation of the desert setting is strong, as is Peter’s journey through an equally arid, urban environment.
That Dolphin Thing, Ian Bone. Puffin
An unusual exploration of the tumultuous feelings of a teenage boy whose mother is undergoing treatment for cancer. The unexpected friendship between Mac, the library-hiding recluse and Killer Kusinski, the school outcast brings strength to both to see them through their separate pain. Lifted by remarkably light, and ironically witty prose. (14+)
The Amber Spyglass, Philip Pullman. Scholastic
The third book in the Dark Materials trilogy and therefore a tour-de-force as Pullman tries to bring all his complex characters, creatures, and interwoven threads of plot together to resolve the great final battle between good and evil. Will is the bearer of the knife, but Lyra must awaken if they’re to harness the powers of the worlds of the dead and the living, of humans and the heavens. An overladen journey with a curious mix of magic, quantum physics, religion, myth, philosophy and religion.
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The Angel of Barbican High, Michelle A Taylor. UQP 2001
The verse novel is increasingly in evidence for adolescent readers and this one performs its task well. Jez is in year 11, with love and a bright future in her gaze, when tragedy strikes and for a time she loses her place in the world. Her family patiently support her through her grief and loss of her beloved Nick, but it takes Tommy - a persistent friend -and long talks with her ‘angel’ to move beyond her sense of guilt: ‘My tears roll like boulders, like spreading light, such heaviness, such relief’ - it’s an unpretentious style, but effective.
The Book of Dead Days, Marcus Sedgwick. Dolphin 2003
Sedgwick, as we’ll remember from The Dark Horse, writes in a compelling, melodramatic style and this novel has many of the hall marks of high Gothic, including evil magical machinations, greedy pacts with the devil and young and vulnerable protagonists at the mercy of dark forces. In this, we have as well, an intriguing mixture of primitive science and sorcery, two engaging young heroes who display all the qualities of loyalty and persistence lacking in their elders and an atmospheric chase beneath a decaying, corrupt and violent city. ‘Boy’, a child with no past, is servant to Valerian, a magician who is on a desperate search for a book that will save him from facing his hour of reckoning. By best fortune, Boy meets the quick witted girl Willow, and, together they unravel the quarrel between Valerian and Keppler that is at the heart of the mystery. The endless chase and caricature characterisation wear thin, but if one can suspend disbelief and enter the genre, the novel is entertaining. (13+)
The Cave, Susanne Gervay, A & R 2002
Another rite of passage novel, this time for those young males who would like to challenge an ethos that suggests that brute strength and winning at any price are the only true demonstrations of manhood. Taut, gripping and very believable, especially in relation to macho-talk and the pressures it creates. (14+)
The Colour of Sunshine, David Metzenthen. Penguin 2000
Davey’s sister Petra was killed in an accident on a wet road in town in a car driven by Noah Hassen; ‘it’s always wet here’, says dad, ‘that’s no bloody excuse’. Now, even the house is full of pain and bleeding and everyone’s lives have stopped. Then, a new family comes to town, opens a pet shop and stays long enough to let in a glimmer of sunshine. Davey, having learned it can happen, refuses to return to grey, destructive grief, and, with his older brother, helps find a way forward. A very solid book by a writer who just gets better and better. (12+)
The Dark Horse, Marcus Sedgwick. Orion 2002
Another Guardian short list novel, but this time completely different. Billed as ‘the young Alan Garner’ Sedgwick certainly weaves a classic tale of mystery, magic and the darkness of survival in primitive times. Set in a distant time and place, the ‘storm people’ live by the rituals of the old ways until a ragged, howling child comes into their midst. ‘Mouse’ the foundling, is destined to bring to life a terrifying legend and to face the storm and ultimately to choose between courage and loyalty and betrayal and slavery.
The Darkness, Anthony Eaton. UQP 2000
‘An impressive debut novel’ as the blurb says. This is a novel about fear - fear of the unknown, of the too well known and of that which has moved from memory to mythology. The Darknessis reputed to be a time when man is no match for nature, but surviving amidst its rage can, on the other hand, be a coming of age, liberation and a means of connecting across generations and of dealing with the past. (14+)
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The Fated Sky, Henrietta Branford
A sad old Viking tale of the fate that once awaited a young woman left alone after the death of her parents. An old, old, folkloric saga, heavy with the inevitability of cruelty and revenge, yet offering lessons for modern young women about strength and honour, survival and love. (14+)
The Fire Eaters, David Almond. Hodder 2003
Almond, winner of both the Carnegie & Whitbread awards, is a unique storyteller with incredible empathy for the ways children see the world and how deeply they feel about its happenings. Bobby Burns (sic) is going through frightening changes - his new school is a cold and cruel place, his Dad is mysteriously ill, the world is on the brink of nuclear war (1962) and McNulty, the psychologically scarred fire-eater has come to the tiny town of Keely Bay. At the same time, Bobby has firm friends, a community that gathers when needed and miracles do happen. Almond is not a writer for every Australian reader; he’s too ‘English’ and a little nostalgic, but, as ever, he’s got fine control of his pen.
The Firebird, Sophie Masson. Hodder
Sophie Masson does romantic fantasy so well, and this one, set in old Russia, has its full quota of magic, shape-shifters and mysterious tricksters. The Tsar, obsessed with the legendary firebird, sends his sons on a quest to capture it. Naturally, only Ivan, the pure of heart, has any hope of winning the prize - or the maiden. (14+)
The Five Lost Aunts of Harriet Bean, Alexander McCall Smith. Bloomsbury 2006
The first in a mini-series starring the indomitable Harriet Bean and her unusual aunties; it’s from the author of the best-selling No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency novels. Harriet, who is an exceptionally resourceful young person, appears to live with her extremely vague and mildly crabby dad. She assumes this is all the family she has until her father mentions, in a desultory fashion, that he has five sisters, so she has five aunts…somewhere. Naturally, Harriet goes detecting, following small clues until she has located all of the missing aunties. And a very strange lot they are: there’s Aunt Veronica who is prodigiously strong; Aunt Harmonica who is understudy to opera singers (because she can throw her voice); bossy Aunt Majolica; and the terrible twins, Japonica and Thessalonika, who run a detective agency, because (of course) they can read minds. Once assembled, the family can pose to complete the picture left unfinished many years ago. This little novel is written with unpretentious, but un-condescending prose and provides a page-turning chapter book for readers of 9+ to enjoy.
The Flight of the Emu, Rachel Anderson. Hodder 2001
A typically insightful, moving story of life as one of society’s rejects. Never quite getting it right, up against it from the start, surviving almost out of cussedness!
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The Full Story, Caswell & Chien. UQP 2002
An intense story of growing up in multi-cultural Australia; of the difficulties of forging an identity in the context of some cultural loss. A story of love, artistry, courage, focus and growing understanding. The father is a particularly moving portrait and the son’s final acceptance brings a form of integration and a kind of peace. (16+)
The Ghost Behind the Wall, Melvin Burgess. Andersen Press 2000
Burgess is the winner of both the Carnegie and Guardian Awards. This is an unusual foray into a fantasy for younger readers from a writer better known for his harsh social realism (Junk, The Baby and Fly Pie). David, the short boy who had to learn to act tough, turns into a wimp when he can’t shake a destructive child ghost out of his life. Finally, he realises he can only do so by unravelling an old man’s past and reconnecting him to it. (10+)
The Girl from the Sea, James Aldridge. Penguin
Aldridge is an original storyteller. He brings together an extraordinary cast of characters - Beau, crippled and almost blind, eccentric Aunt Mimi, and Lelee, the wild daughter of a smuggler - and sets them all ‘adrift’ in the Mediterranean. A Provencal adventure about the competition for lost gold mixed with a rite of passage novel and culinary notebook. It would appeal to able older readers. (15+)
The Happiness of Kati, Jane Vejjajiva. Allen & Unwin 2006
This is an exquisite novelette that captures with a gentle touch, the rhythms of Kati’s life by the canal and her sadness at being separated from her mother. Grandpa and Kati are especially close and it is from him that she gains much wisdom and acceptance about how things have to be. However, there remains a mystery that can only be solved by Kati going on an unforgettable journey – not just to a bungalow by the sea and an apartment in the big city – but a journey to her past and to decisions that will affect her future. Underpinned by ritual and philosophy, the book gives insight into another culture and a moving depiction of one child’s experience. (10+)
The Heroic Lives of Al Capsela, Judith Clarke. UQP 2000
Al and Louis survive, just, a year fraught with embarrassing oldies and their messy lives. Their coolest act of all is to take a sophisticated holiday, solo, at the glamorous Kooka Kabins, board shorts on, boards under arms, in search of girls. Hardly a major literary work and let down by some clichés, the novel is, overall plain, ordinary, Aussie fun with wide appeal. (13+)
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The House of the Scorpion, Nancy Farmer. 2000
A thoroughly contemporary novel from an original writer (A Girl Named Disaster). Science fiction as ever, raises philosophical issues of absolute relevance to decisions faced by 21st century society. Matt is alone and while he enjoys the good life while El Patron lives, he realises that, as a clone, at best he’s a repository for ‘replacement bits’, and seen as an outcast, not quite human. In his struggle to create ‘a self’ Matt comes to understand the power relations that dominate this ‘Brave New World’. (13+)
The Ice Boy, Patricia Elliott. Hodder 2002
A surreal exploration of loss and of a recovery that comes through making connections and taking action against evil. An interesting, introspective novel with a touch of magic.
The Kite Rider, Geraldine McCaughran. Oxford
A totally innovative novel of great imaginative power from the pen of a consummate story teller. Gou Haoyou watches his father die in a cruel ritual testing of the winds atop the cargo boat for which he crewed. In his turn he becomes a ‘kite rider’, but infinitely more famous as he travels the length and breadth of ancient China. McCaughran creates an exotic atmosphere wherein accurate detail and invention blend flawlessly. (14+)
The Lady with Iron Bones, Jan Mark. Walker
A sweetly ‘English’ story with its hint of urban fantasy and mists wreathing the metal statue in the decaying garden. A story of friendship between two very different young girls and lady of the house who helps them to realise that the danger of wishes, is they can come true. (10+)
The Messenger, Markus Zusak. Pan 2002
One of the most brilliant novels I’ve ever read. Typically Zusak - spare, punchy, dangerous and riveting. Ed Kennedy is a self -made, family-induced full time loser and part time cab driver, until he is selected as The Messenger, chosen to journey through strangers’ lives, helping, and hurting to help, as necessary, until he reaches his own, personal, painful end point and claims his destiny through challenging his past.
The Naming of Tishkin Silk, Glenda Millard. ABC Books 2003
An ethereal little novel about a sensitive boy who carries a terrible secret in his heart. Then, he meets an equally other-worldly flower child in Layla, confides his secret and they find a way for a family to move on from the loss of a child. And part of that new beginning involves accepting the past and naming the child so that she and not the secret can be held close to the heart. (11+)
The Other Side of Truth, Beverley Naidoo. Penguin
Her novel offers a brief glimpse into the troubled political world of Nigeria, where shots ring out at dawn and the lives of two young children are changed forever. Sade and her little brother are smuggled into England, where they wait fearfully for news of their outspokenjournalist father. In the process, they too learn how the media can be used as a voice for disempowered people. (13+)
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The Rag & Bone Shop, Robert Cormier. Penguin 2002
Cormier’s last novel demonstrates the power of his totally chilling imagination and his understanding of the very dark side of human nature. Did Jason kill young Alicia Bartlett - one of the few people who gave him any time? Is he likely to admit guilt, simply because, as a damaged child, he believes himself capable of greatest evil? Or, if evil is in the eye of the beholder, is it contagious, leading you on to commit the very act for which you’ve been forced to confess? A very solid thriller.
The Ropemaker, Peter Dickinson. MacMillan 2002
Dickinson has been the worthy recipient of many significant awards, including the Carnegie Medal. This is his most recent foray into serious fantasy and he brings to the task his rich imaginative gaze, his deep understanding of human nature and the excellence of his literary craftsmanship. The Ropemaker is spell-binding. Its plot lines do indeed twine and intertwine, every strand essential and brilliantly interconnected to construct for us great philosophical debates and tensions, as the best fantasy always does. Two young people and two old, embarked on a treacherous journey to reclaim the magic that had kept the valley safe for so many long years. Even if they succeed, it’s a quest that will need to be repeated over generations, as folks forget how greed, violence and power ultimately corrupt and recommitment to a truer, kinder way is required. (13+)
The Same Stuff as Stars, Katherine Paterson. OUP 2002
Another exquisitely crafted original story from this acclaimed writer. Angel is old before her time, worn down by the responsibility of caring not only for her cantankerous little brother, but also her bitter, curmudgeonly old Great Grandma. Her mum has dumped them all and run off with yet another loser, her dad’s on the run from gaol and her beloved, damaged, star-gazing uncle is dying. Only Paterson could hold this tale of woe together and come out with her familiar ‘sagacity, humour and hope’.
The Secret Life of Bees, Sue Monk Kidd. Hodder Headline 2002
In the tradition of To Kill a Mockingbird, but refreshingly original, this novel traces the racial tensions that result in Rosaleen, the black nursemaid of Lily being arrested and beaten. Fugitives from justice, Rosaleen and Lily follow the trail left by Lily’s mother ten years before and find sanctuary, as she had, with three eccentric, beekeeping sisters. Sad, funny and intriguing, the story has an authentic southern voice and deepens our understanding about the world and human behaviour. It manages not to polarise races or issues, choosing instead to focus on forgiveness, love and growth. (15+)
The Seeing Stone, Kevin Crossley Holland. Orion 2000
And now, for something completely different. Yet another version of the tale of King Arthur, but this, at least, is by an Arthurian master, and it shows. The book is a regular medieval pageant with all its sights, sounds and smells and replete with the tribulations of religion, poverty and war. Told through the eyes of a young boy, another Arthur, the tensions between entrenched superstition and the pull of the age of reason, the medieval acceptance of oppressive hierarchies and yet the attractions of the noble ideal are vividly brought to life. (12+)
The Shell House, Linda Newbery. David Fickling Books 2002
A sophisticated novel short-listed for the Whitbread Award. The Shell House explores love, sexuality and spirituality across two generations. Photographing the semi ruined Graveney Hall, Greg becomes enmeshed in the mystery disappearance of Graveney’s last heir and embroiled in his own search for a way to live as a young contemporary male being true to himself.
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The Simple Gift, Steven Herrick. UQP 2000
Yet another short-listed CBCA book. Steven Herrick has a sure touch with the verse novel and his work is a means of liberating readers from a strictly prosaic existence. Touching, humane, earthy and respectful, it affirms the need we all have for warmth, company and empathy and offers a way to find these through making connections despite the risks. (14+)
The Whale’s Child, Gillian Rubenstein. Hodder 2002
An original concept of a boy who is poor, struggling to make the swimming team and who discovers mysterious connections to sea-fairing mammals which bring him success. But is it worth it?
The White Ship, Jackie French. Angus & Robertson 2002
Jackie French has woven a clever blend of historical fantasy, folklore and lessons for living, to engage the wistful reader in this dream-like tale. Michel and the other characters are forced to flee their families and home in search of a place free from religious persecution. Gradually, only Michel realises that the white ship will sail on forever, with none of its company ageing, in search of the Captain’s own dream.
The Whole Business with Kiffo and the Pitbull, Barry Jonsberg. Allen & Unwin 2004
Hysterically funny while being deeply moving and insightful, Kiffo… charts new territory in ‘the school story’. It features two unlikely, but devoted friends – Calma, who is ‘a bit of a nerd’, trying not to stand out despite prodigious skill with the English language; and Jaryd Kiffling (alias Kiffo) who has been written off by parents and educators alike, because of his ‘unfortunate background’ and apparent inarticulateness. Until, of course, a new teacher – ‘the Pitbull’ – takes them full on. Deeply suspicious about the Pitbull’s night life, Kiffo and Calma appoint themselves Public Protection Agency Number 1. A tense, but hilarious adventure ensues resulting in an apparently plausible explanation for these ‘nefarious activities’; but is it quite convincing? As the CBCA judges noted: a story of true friendship with a crime mystery thrown in.’ (12+)
The Wind on Fire Trilogy. William Nicholson. Random House 2000
The first The Wind Singer, was stunning with its insights into power and political control of a population. It canvassed all that we have learned about rebellion, courage and the struggle for liberation.
The Winter Door, Isobelle Carmody. Penguin 2003
The second of the Gateway Trilogy. A very successful sequel in which magic, and travel shape changing and feats of high courage seem almost normal. Rage struggles to make a life in her own world, faced with unaccountable hatred at school and an unfathomable uncle whom she fears will go away; her mother has lain ill in hospital for several years following a car accident. So, Rage dream travels to the Valley and realises she must go beyond the Winter Door to save both worlds.
The Wish List, Eoin Colfer. Viking 2003
Colfer is the author of the witty and cleverly crafted Artemis Fowl novels. This one reflects those same qualities of working skilfully with the unexpected and never taking anything too seriously. Meg Finn, who is a good girl really, gets embroiled in a bungled burglary of an old man’s flat, and, with her partner in crime, dies. Heaven and Hell vie for her soul and the only way she can go up, not down, is to return to earth ethereally to help the old man fulfil his life’s wishes before he too, drops off this mortal coil. Colfer manages to be both funny and deep and he’s certainly one of the most original, entertaining writers for older teens around. (14+)
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The Worst Year of My Life, Katherine Goode. Lothian 2000
An entertaining escape into someone else’s disaster-filled life, the novel is an Aussie mix of Bar Mitzvah, Italian teachers, mildly insane mothers and infuriating brothers. (10+)
The Year it all Happened, Catherine Bateson. UQP
This clear, lyrical, lucid verse novel delicately unveils a year in the life of four emerging young adults. It is a year of love and sex and risk and connections, and opens new ways of reinventing families and futures. (16+)
Thursday’s Child, Sonya Hartnett. Penguin 2000
Another extraordinary literary and imaginative feat from a novelist with no ordinary appeal. Tin, the strange child who, having sunk beneath the surface one watery day, chooses to hide forever from the grinding poverty, powerlessness and conflict of family existence first beneath the floor of the house and then in a labyrinth of tunnels beneath the wider landscape. While Hartnett’s appeal is far from universal, she deserves applause for her unflinching depiction of the human struggle and for her unique literary voice. (15+)
Tiff and the Trout, David Metzenthen. Puffin 2004
Tiff is in her last year of primary school, loving her life up in the tiny mountain town of Tilgong, enjoying the reassuring familiarity of school and long-held friendships. Unfortunately, her mother longs for the freedom and sunshine of the coast and Tiff has awful intimations of major change. Her father is living down the mountain with her 9-year-old brother Nathan, and Lane the try-hard butch local has moved in with Mum, so the comfortable patterns of family life are already fractured. A dangerous encounter with the wild waters of the Warrigal and Mum’s offer of a job in Surfers bring things to a head and decisions have to be made. As the seasons change and ‘Old Bob’ the giant trout is caught and released, Tiff gains the maturity and perspective to realise that change is not only inevitable, but it offers excitement and fun as well as challenge. Metzenthen’s approach to emotional matters is, as ever, subtle and balanced and this is a very readable, reflective novel that would help any child confronting shifts in family life to feel more positive and informed. (12+)
Tom Jones Saves the World, Steven Herrick. UQP 2002
Quirky, racy, witty - Herrick ‘verse’ for teens.
Tomorrow, The Dark, Ken Catran. Lothian 2002
Extremely well-written. A post holocaust novel with the familiar features of desperate, barely-surviving humans fending off the evil ‘Dry things’ that come at sunset, young men in makeshift armour, warrior bands, near anarchy. Catran produces an extremely competent variation of the horror genre, tense and gripping, but with the added bonus of foregrounding the ethics of violence and its effects on humans over time.
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Touch Me, James Moloney. UQP 2000
A beautifully balanced work with depth, poignancy and contemporaneity.
Twilight Ghost, Magdalen Nabb. Collins 2000
A well written English style ghost tale about a mysterious figure that appears in the attic window. Going back in time provides many lessons for Carrie and ultimately the Twilight Ghost helps her to sort out her today troubles and becomes a much nicer person. (11+)
Two Way Cut, Garry Disher. Hodder 2004
This is a slightly surreal novel in the manner of Mulholland Drive. Leah, an ex-cop, is on the run from ex-colleagues who are out to get her because she ‘dobbed’ after a drunken party that ended in sexual assault. Tess, it would appear, is also on the run from boarding school and from some pretty angry drug barons that she’s cheated. A mixture of thriller, detective fiction and teen adventure, the novel is fast-paced, entertaining and contemporary. (16+)
Volcano Boy, Libby Hathorn. Lothian 2001
An amazing tour-de-force of literary energy. A prose-poem of growing up.
Walking Home With Marie Claire, Kirsty Murray. Allen & Unwin 2002
The novel moves from a schoolgirl ‘girlfriend’ story, to a walk on the wild side. Pauline is an ordinary girl, with an ordinary family, in an ordinary town. But when she signs a pact in blood to be loyal forever to Marie Claire Tierney, the new ‘P.J.’ enters a strange adventure in her life, which nearly ends in big tears. (13+)
Walking Naked, Alyssa Brugman. Allen & Unwin 2002
Sharply accurate observation of teenage girls and their very sophisticated techniques for excluding, marginalising and ridiculing any who fail to conform to the ‘group criteria’ for acceptance. A powerful exposé of the subtext beneath many kids’ lives and illumination of the motivation that drives their sometimes desperate actions. (15+)
Warehouse, Keith Gray. Red Fox 2002
Short listed for the Guardian Fiction Award. A strangely unconvincing saga of life as one of society’s young outcasts, marginalised by the mainstream, fleeing abuse and yet at the mercy of fellow ferals. The warehouse, known to the sub-culture that lives there as ‘Crap Palace’ is run by Len, a kindly reformed addict who takes kids in as a safety net of last resort. The characterisation fails to jell, the speech idioms sound forced and I get the feeling Keith Gray wrote this a safe distance from reality, but the plot’s fast-paced, violent and potentially engaging. (15+)
Wasted, Colin Bowles Penguin
With echoes of the Adrian Mole, ‘self-obsessed- teenage -boy’ syndrome, the novel begins in a light, entertaining way. However, as the story gets going, the hard edge of reality rescues it from anything like escapism and places the book more in the ‘mandated read’ category of strong, honest, non-didactic adolescent fiction. (15+)
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When I was a Soldier, Valerie Zenatti. Bloomsbury 2002
A biographical-style novel with a theme that is pertinent to current events in the Middle East, this is the story of one young woman, Valerie, who joins the Israeli army. Finishing exams, breaking up with a boyfriend, leaving home… these are familiar growing up phases in the lives of most young women. Taking up national service, wearing a uniform, bearing arms, living in barracks and following orders, are much less familiar to western readers. The straightforward personal voice of the telling makes it very readable and the quandaries Valerie faces are worthy of discussion. (15+)
When You Wake To Find Me Gone, Maureen McCarthy. Penguin 2000
A cleverly-woven tapestry of stories of people whose lives are inexorably intertwined. Kit has it made: she’s young, free, living it up in the city with her friends, falling in love with her drama tutor, getting a little drunk at parties, until her ‘sister’ is seriously injured. Kit reluctantly heads home and finds that her parentage and her past are far more complicated than she knew. Following the trail to Ireland, Kit realises that life is full of complex moral decisions and we live with the consequences.
While I Live, John Marsden. MacMillan 2003
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the way to gender equity and a compassionate world is NOT through ‘giving a boy a hankie and a girl a gun’. We became used to a high level of violence in the Tomorrow series, and this, the first of the new chronicles starring the same adolescent characters, depicts the full potential viciousness of human beings. Ellie and Gavin return to the family homestead to discover that her parents and a family friend have been brutally murdered - we assume by the armies from across the border. The rest of the novel pivots on whether Ellie should join ‘The Liberation’, become a ‘terrorist’ and seek revenge, or focus on caring for Gavin, making the farm viable and getting on with a productive life. The most interesting aspect of the book, finally, is Ellie’s daily struggle to retain her independence and balance the competing demands of her life. (14+)
Whistle Man, Brian Ridden. Lothian 2000
A strangely charming retelling of the Ned Kelly story from the point of view of the young orphan, Garrett Clancy. It’s a story of heroism, loyalty and betrayal that sends echoes down to this day around ‘the Irish Question’. This may go some way to explaining why Australia’s two national heroes are a stuffed horse and an outlaw. An excellent novel for exploring issues of justice and the law on the eve of Federation. (14+)
Wildlight, David Metzenthen. Penguin 2002
This 'Journey' saga in the tradition of Steinbeck et al features Dirk, the 'wild child', made savage by his struggle to survive in an unforgiving human and natural environment. On his journey, to his own surprise, Dirk learns how to love and be loved and how to accept his origins and to make his own choices without being destroyed by the greed, fear and cynicism that surrounds him. Metzenthen is an increasingly skilled writer and his original concept for the novel rivals Hartnett, while his breathtaking descriptive prose would give Winton a run for his money. (16+)
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Willow Tree and Olive, Irini Savvides. Hodder
A classic tale of potential tragedy which deals with a young woman's search for self, with the difficulty of straddling two cultures and the trauma of coming to terms with awakened memories of an abusive incident in her childhood. The focus on friendships between women and the strength and solidarity these can give is heartening and instructive. The vivid evocation of Greek custom and heritage adds layers of significance, while the narrative techniques construct meaning in complex and interesting ways. (15+)
Wolf Brother, Michelle Paver. Orion Great Britain 2004
A fascinating tale set in a Nordic wilderness about 6000 years ago. Roving clans occupy their allocated parts of the land – the Whale by the sea, the Deer in the forest. Torak is a child born of the union between Wolf and Red Deer. No longer a child, but not yet a man, he is left alone when his father is ravaged by bear possessed by demons. Having lived as an outcast, he knows nothing of clan ways and is not welcomed when captured by the Raven clan. He is, however, recognised both because of old grudges and because he fits the image of ‘The Listener’ who must follow the prophesy and save the forest and all who live there. The first in the Chronicles of Ancient Darkness series, the novel is rich in ancient magic, superstition and ritual with a strong thread of malice and suspense. Paver evokes the frozen landscape exquisitely and takes us willingly into this primitive world and Torak’s desperate quest. A book for ‘literary readers’ of 14+.
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Wolfchild, Rosanne Hawke. Lothian 2003
An historical fantasy with the cadences of Cornish folk tales, the novel is set in the lost land of Lyonnese in 1099. Raw has become an outcast from his tribe because he broke the law as a serf and poached his master’s game – a misdemeanour for which his father paid with his life. Raw has to stay hidden for a year and a day, but he has been drawn from his solitude by Morwenna. She is of marrying age, but dreads being wed to the callous miller’s son who watches her, Raw and the wolf jealousy and with intent to harm. Finally, a massive natural calamity strikes the village and all must flee to higher ground and people must choose between friendship and the ancient ways. The story is beautifully crafted, true to its setting, history and narrative tone but unlikely to appeal to readers seeking contemporary realism or colloquial dialogue. (14+)
Wolfspell, Anna Ciddor, Allen & Unwin
An ancient Viking-influenced tale with modern forebodings. Oddo (who can do spells) and Thora (who can’t but lives with spell makers) set off (again) to save their home and village from the ravages of taxes, tax men and corrupt individuals. A strongly imagined secondary world on a par with Rodda’s Rowan series, with the same strong values of courage, loyalty and friendship, but with the overlay of the Nordic tradition. (11+)
Wringer, Jerry Spinelli. Collins 1997
In Waymer, when you turn 10, you get to go out and wring the necks of injured pigeons - whether you want to or not; it’s the initiation from childhood to manhood. Yet, it may take more courage to refuse, and this is the decision Palmer has to make when he befriends Nipper the pigeon. This 1998 Newbery Honour Book by a highly skilled novelist brings a fresh international voice to Australian readers, while demonstrating that some issues and challenges are universal. (10+)
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