“What happened to her? I dare to ask. “Really?” Mu eyes the floor as if the answer is contained in the grains and knots of the floorboards. “No one knows for sure,” she says after a while. “Set off to school one day and was never seen again.” She pushes herself clumsily to her feet, …
Young Adult
Portraits of Celina, by Sue Whiting
Young Adult
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May 062013
Light Horse Boy, by Dianne Wolfer
Picture Books, Young Adult
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Apr 252013
Now I understand why the landing on April 25th is being called heroic. We’ve landed in hell. Bob didn’t make it. He was hit as we struggled ashore. I keep going over that moment. Writing a letter to his wife was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. Harder even than going over the side of …
Hammering Iron by L.S. Lawrence
Young Adult
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Apr 242013
Paramon and his brother and widowed-mother, are poor but of noble lineage. Paramon has been apprenticed to the storeman and his brother is shield-carrier to the Lord. That may have been the plan, but fate would have it otherwise. An unfortunate accident sets Paramon on a journey he could not have imagined. But he is a canny and resourceful young man. With a little luck, a quick mind and a sense of caution, he travels his destined road almost safely. But this is the Bronze-age and safe is a relative term. Along his journey, he makes a discovery that may just cost him his life.
The Mimosa Tree, by Antonella Preto
Young Adult
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Apr 212013
‘I’m not miserable,” I say but she is already turning away from me, sliding her handbag up her arm until it gets jammed tight around her flesh. Mum looks like she is about to cry about my pathetic life. ‘I’m fine, Mum,’ I say nodding encouragingly towards the door, and then because she looks so …
Mar 202013
And that’s when it hits me like a thunderbolt. The REAL reason people make mistakes in romance is that they imagine they’re in one kind of story but actually they’re in another! Ruby believes that real life romances, like romantic stories, fall into two categories – the Jane Austen-esque romantic comedy, or the Jayne Eyre …
Catch the Zolt, by Phillip Gwynne
Young Adult
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Mar 092013
As the van got closer, my brain started whirring, making that noise that a hard disk makes when you dump a load of data on it.What to do next?Suddenly, a swoosh sounds, and then blackness. Just like when I’d had my appendix out a few years ago and had been ‘put to sleep’ by the …
Divine Clementine by Hayley S Kirk
Young Adult
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Mar 042013
The smell of the incense fills my lungs; the spicy floral aroma drifts from hymn books and throughout the pews. I close my eyes because they are stinging. I don’t want them to sting anymore. I close my eyes because I am afraid if I open them, they will cry me a river and stain this holy place forever. My heart is stained. My ears are open. Sounds flood in – sounds of pages turning, of silver clasps clicking on special-occasion purses, of sniffles and sobs, of sadness …
Brave Heart, by Brett & Hayley S. Kirk
Young Adult
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Mar 042013
First of all, let me start out by saying that this book isn’t just about me. I know that’s probably not what you’re expecting, and some of you might even be thinking that I’ve had one too many knocks on the head during my AFL career, but I truly mean it. This book is written for you and about you.
You might think of me as a confident, strong leader who can communicate well and someone who has lived his ultimate dream. But I have not always been the person you kow today. My evolution as a person, of which I am proud, has been the result of a culmination of life experiences, events, failures, connections, mistakes, lessons, love and heartbreak – it is an ongoing process.
The Girl From Snowy River, by Jackie French
Young Adult
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Feb 222013
I may not have lost my legs, she thought, but I’ve lost those I love forever. The war had savaged Mum, and Mrs Mack, and every woman in the valley. The war was over but the pain was still there, for her and the families left behind, not just for the men who had been …
Dark Star, by Lara Morgan
Young Adult
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Feb 222013
“Holy…” She dimply heard Hanto swearing, then he was on his knees beside her, his face centimetres from her own. “What the hell did you do? Goddamn stupid zero.”But Rosie couldn’t reply. Her jaw was locked tight by the effect of the blast. He ripped off the shoulder of her shirt and sprayed something cool …
