Read each of the six books on the shortlist for the 'Older Readers' category for the CBCA Book of the Year Awards to go into the draw for a great prize in Book Week.
Follow the links at the end of each review to go to Goodreads for more great book reviews.
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| Because of You Pip Harry |
Tiny is homeless. Nola has everything she could ask for. They meet when Nola is forced into volunteer work for the writers' group at the homeless shelter where Tiny is staying, and at first it seems impossible that two people who are so different could ever be friends. But despite her initial prejudice, Nola quickly learns that there isn't much separating her from the people who live on the streets. Ant Tiny begins to see that falling down doesn't mean you never get back up. Because of You is a story about homelessness, prejudice and the power of words to provide a little hope.
At it heart is the friendship between Tiny and Nola, and how this relationship changes both girls at the core. Pip Harry doesn't shy away from some heavy topics - Tiny's story is heartbreaking and the details about life on the streets of Sydney is horrifying - but Because of Yo is ultimately a hopeful story about human resilience and the life-changing power of discovering your best friend. YA readers aged 14 and up who loved John Larkin's The Shadow Girl and Cath Crowley's Words in Deep Blue should be diving for this powerful coming-of-age story.
Any - not the confident A-Lister she appears to be.
Kate - brainy border taking risks to pursue the music she loves.
Clem - disenchanted swim-star losing her heart to the wrong boy.
All are targeted by PSST, a toxic website that deals in gossip and lies. St Hilda's antidote to the cyber-bullying? The Year 10 Wellness program.
Nice try - but sometimes all it takes is three girls.
The latest winner of the Ampersand Prize is a genre-smashing kidnapping drama about Tamara, who's faced with an impossible choice when she falls for her captors.
Yet this is no ordinary kidnapping. Tamara has been living on a freighter in deep space, and her kidnappers are terrifying Crowpeople - the only aliens humanity has never encountered. No-one has ever survived a Crowpeople attack, until now - and Tamara must use everything she has just to stay alive.
But survival always comes at a price, and there's no handbook for this hostage crisis. As Tamara comes to know the Crowpople's way of life, and the threats they face from humanity's exploration into deep space, she realises she has an impossible choice to make. Should she stay as the only human among the crows, knowing she'll never see her family again.... or inevitable betray her new community if she wants to escape?
This ground-breaking thriller is the latest YA novel to win the Ampersand Price, a stand-out entry with a blindingly original voice: raw, strange and deeply sympathetic. With its vivid and immersive world-building, this electrifying debut is The Knife of Never Letting Go meets Homeland, for the next generation of sci-fi readers.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33296199-in-the-dark-spaces?ac=1&from_search=true
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| Mallee Boys Charlie Archibold |
'Sometimes I feel like I'm neither one thing nor another. I live in the Mallee but I don't like the desert. I live on a farm but I get hay fever and I'm scared of goats. I like school buy my best mates don't.'
Sandy Douglas knows that life at fifteen is hard, but it's even harder when your mother died a year ago and nothing's gone right since. Sandy's brother Red, on the other hand, is eighteen now and working the farm. He's amped up on rage and always looking for a fight. And then there's their dad Tom. He does his best, but - really - he doesn't have a clue.
As Sandy and Red deal with girls, dirt biking, footy and friendship, both boys have to work our who they want to be, without their mum around. The Mallee, where they live, may seem like the middle of nowhere, but it turns out this is going to be one hell of a year.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36449423-mallee-boys?ac=1&from_search=true
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| Ballad for a Mad Girl Vicki Wakefield |
she's not afraid of anything-except losing. As part of the long-running feud between two local schools in Swanston, Grace accepts a challenge to walk the pipe.
That night she experiences something she can't explain. The funny girl isn't laughing anymore. She's haunted by voices and visions-but nobody believes a girl who cries wolf.
As she's drawn deeper into a twenty-year-old mystery surrounding missing girl Hannah Hols, the thin veil between this world and the next begins to slip. She can no longer tell what's real or imagined-all she knows is the ghosts of Swanston, including her own mother, are restless. It seems one of them has granted her n extraordinary gift at a terrible price.
Everything about her is changing - her body, her thoughts, even her actions seem to belong to a stranger. Grace is losing herself, and her friends don't understand. Is she moving closer to the truth? Or is she heading for madness?
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33281816-ballad-for-a-mad-girl?ac=1&from_search=true
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| The Secret Science of Magic Melissa Keil |
Joshua spends his time honing magic tricks and planning how to win Sophia's heart. But when your best trick is making schoolwork disappear, how do you possible romance a genius?
In life and love, timing is everything.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28052476-the-secret-science-of-magic?ac=1&from_search=true
