Reading for Curious Kids.

Are you curious about the world? Do you have questions that need answers?

Click the image above to read articles from The Conversation for curious kids.

Read the Shortlist

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.

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.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33296118-because-of-you?ac=1&from_search=true

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.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35492492-take-three-girls?ac=1&from_search=true

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

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

Ballad for a Mad Girl
Vicki Wakefield

Everyone knows seventeen-year-old Grace Foley is a bit mad. She's a prankster and a risk-taker, and
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

The Secret Science of Magic
Melissa Keil

Sophia is smart, like genius-calculator-brain smart. But there are some things no amount of genius can prepare you for, and the messiness of real life is one of them. When everything she knows is falling apart, how can she crack the puzzle of what to do with her life?

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

SpineOut Magazine

Read book reviews by our Year 9 & 10 students in the current issue of SpineOut Magazine. Also find out about Woolly Mammoths and read Author interviews.

SpineOut is available to read online by going to the library tab on the intranet and selecting online resources https://sites.google.com/syd.catholic.edu.au/stursulaslibrary/online-resources

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindewald

Take a look at the official trailer for the new Fantastic Beasts movie due for release later this year.

A Wrinkle in Time

This classic book has been made into a movie that is in theatres now.

The book is available from the library.

Nevermoor by Jessica Towsend

Nevermoor wins independent booksellers book of the year!

Read this wonderful new series that follows the adventures of Morrigan Crow, a cursed child who is put up for selection for the Wundrous Society.

Available from the library.

Chinese Cinderella

Read this review of Chinese Cinderella from Isabella Lucia-Khoury from Year 7.


Chinese Cinderella is a heartfelt autobiography written by Adeline Yen Mah.

Chinese Cinderella is set in China, back when Adeline Yen Mah was a young girl. The book is about how Adeline Yen Mah was an unwanted child and how she was 'bad luck', as her mother died giving birth to her. Her life doesn't get any easier when her father remarries. Adeline and her siblings are constantly rejected by their stepmother as her stepbrother and stepsister are spoiled. Adeline is a very smart child and does very well in school but what she really yearns for is the love from her family. Chinese Cinderella is a beautiful book which gives the reader mixed emotions. When reading this book I couldn't put it down. I highly recommend this book to everyone.

Chinese Cinderella is available from the school library along with other books from the series which will allow you to continue the story. Click here for more information and the location of the books.