Lili Wilkinson – Aussie Reviews

Love-shy by Lili Wilkinson

I found a story.

Before I joined the team, our school newspaper couldn’t really be called a newspaper. It wasn’t fit for wrapping fish, and not just because it wasn’t printed with organic inks on unbleached paper. The typical headline was generally something like SOCCER TEAM TRIUMPHS or YEAR ELEVEN ADVENTURES AT ULURU. Nobody was interested in serious journalism. Except for me.

Since I came along, I’d written an analysis of the contents of the chicken-and-corn-in-a-roll sold at the school canteen (trust me, you don’t want to know – suffice to say it didn’t come from a chicken), an investigation into literacy levels in Year Seven, an expose on the teachers who smoked outside the back door of the staff room, and a variety of penetrating interviews, unflinching reviews and frank profiles.

There’s no secrets or doubt about Penny Drummond’s plans for her future. She’s going to be an award-winning journalist. Famous and wealthy and looked up to by all. But for now all she has is the school paper. And she’s after the killer story to start her career. When she discovers that a student has been posting on a Love-shy forum, she knows she has THE story. With her superior investigative journalism skills, she knows she will soon discover who the boy is. Then she’ll help him overcome his dread condition, he will be eternally grateful and her article will be amazing. So she sets about her task with a single-mindedness she is sure is unparalleled in the history of journalism. Nothing is going to get in the way of this great deed, this great article. Penny is bright, brash and opinionated. But she’s not always right.

Penny Drummond lives with her dad in a Melbourne-city apartment now her mother has moved to Perth. Her Dad is gay, and her mother is still in shock. Penny can’t quite understand her mother’s fleeing and has more sympathy for her dad. She’s sure she’s in total control. Sure her questioning of others sometimes yields responses not as revealing as she hopes, but that’s the journalist’s lot isn’t it? If you want to help others (particularly one love-shy boy), you have to ask the hard questions, make the difficult choices. Penny’s classmates are generally tolerant of her foibles, but she’s becoming obsessed and her always exemplary work is suffering. ‘Love-shy’ is told in first person, and the reader easily empathises with Penny, long before she begins to develop any insights herself. ‘Love-shy’ is a wonderful mix of humour and cringe, of a teenager learning her place in her world, and realising that introspection can be a useful tool, particularly in helping others. Recommended for middle-secondary readers.

Love-shy, Lili Wilkinson
Allen & Unwin 2012
ISBN: 9781742376233

review by Claire Saxby, Children’s Author

www.clairesaxby.com

A Pocketful of Eyes, by Lili Wilkinson

Bee has a summer job working in the taxidermy department of the museum – and she loves it. That is until her supervisor, Gus, is found dead in the Red Rotunda. Gus has apparently committed suicide, but Bee is not convinced. Something is not right and she is going to use her sleuthing skills…

‘Most of you will already have heard that Gus, our Head Taxidermist, died last night,’ said Akiko Kobayashi, the museum Director, her knuckles white on the wooden lectern.
Bee sat next to Toby in the back row of the auditorium where the museum held public lectures and forums. The other staff members were dotted around the room, sitting in groups of two or three. Some were crying. Bee felt as if she couldn’t blink. The only other part of her body that had any feeling was the hand Toby was holding. Gus was dead?

Along the way she has the help of Toby, a handsome boy who was with her on the night Gus died, and who seems to be a font of knowledge when it comes to strange animal behaviours. As she tries to solve the mystery, Bee must also deal with her conflicting emotions about Toby, her slightly odd mother and her new boyfriend, and the fact that her best friend seems to have paired up with Bee’s boyfriend.

A Pocketful of Eyes is a funny, clever mystery book with a liberal does of romance and plenty of humour. Bee is intelligent and funny, but she also makes silly mistakes and has the self absorption typical of a teenager, and with which readers will relate. Wilkinson is a versatile author, and fans will love this dip into mystery writing .

A Pocketful of Eyes, by Lili Wilkinson
Allen & Unwin, 2011
ISBN 9781742376196

This book can be purchased in good bookstores, or online from Fishpond.

Angel Fish, by Lili Wilkinson

A boy has come to Machery.
I think he might be an angel.
When he speaks, even the birds stop singing to listen. When he speaks, his eyes shine with a light that I know cannot come from dirt and skin. When he speaks, my head whirls round and round with strange thoughts, and my heart goes patter patter patter.

Gabriel is delighted when he meets the charismatic Stephan, who tells him that they must journey to the Holy land to defeat the evil Saracen. Together they march across the country and over the Alps, collecting an army of thousands of children as they go. Their destination is Genoa, where Stephan will part the waters so they can travel across the ocean to the Holy Land.

But as Stephan changes, and the struggles of the journey burden Gabriel and the other children, Gabriel begins to question their journey. Is Stephan really a prophet? And can they defeat the Saracen?

Angel Fish is a breathtaking story based around the historical Children’s Crusade. As author Lili Wilkinson points out in her back of book note, this Crusade has not been well documented, and so what she presents is fictionalised, made very personal by creating a rich cast of characters, including Gabriel and Stephan, as well as the wild orphan Fox-Boy, the sad but loving Ines and the noble boy Eustache.

The resulting tale is breathtaking, poignant and beautiful.

Angel Fish, by Lili Wilkinson
black dog, 2009

This book can be purchased online from Fishpond. Buying through this link supports Aussiereviews.

Pink, by Lili Wilkinson

How could I explain to Chloe that I wanted rules and homework and standardised testing? I wanted to be challenged. I wanted to be around people who cared about maths and structure and results. Not so much the cadets, though. The truth was, I’d begged my parents to let me change to a private school. I wrote letters and sat a scholarship exam and when I got the acceptance form halfway through first term, I danced around my room like a lunatic.

Ava and her girlfriend Chloe wear black and hang out with artists and intellectuals. Chloe is firmly anti-establishment and Ava is too. Or is she? Hidden in her wardrobe, Ava has a shiny bag containing a pink cashmere jumper. If Chloe discovered her guilty secret she’d laugh herself silly or spurn Ava forever. So Ava pretends that her girly side doesn’t exist – and switches school, pretending to Chloe that she doesn’t want to go.

At her new school, Ava finds herself accepted by a group of shinily perfect Pastels, and decides to try out for the school musical. But when she finds herself consigned to the ranks of the stage crew, a group of misfits, she finds it increasingly hard to balance her growing friendship with the other stage crew, with that with Pastels, and, of course, her relationship with Chloe. With fibs and cover ups, she is digging herself into a big hole – and everything comes unstuck on the opening night of the musical.

Pink is a funny, issues-driven, pink-clad story about self-identity, honesty and friendship. Ava’s first-person narration takes the reader inside the dilemmas of a teen reaching for a sense of self, and while she faces some serious issues, she is also laugh out loud funny, self-deprecating and honest (with the reader, if not always with her friends).

The pink cover suggest the book might be girly and light – but, while it might be funny, it is an important book, dealing with sexual identity, a topic which is under represented in YA fiction. This is a book for all teens.

Pink, by Lili Wilkinson
Allen & Unwin, 2009

This book can be purchased online at Fishpond. Buying through this link supports Aussiereviews.

The (not quite) Perfect Boyfriend, by Lili Wilkinson

‘I did meet a Boy. I met him at the library.’ I say. ‘He has wavy brown hair, and he’s English. He’s gone back to England.’

When Midge returns to school after the holidays, her friend Tahni gives her a hard time about still not having a boyfriend, so Midge does what any crazy sixteen year old would do – and makes one up. Soon her imaginary boyfriend has a name, a background, even a Myspace page. But when Ben turns up at school one day, Midge wonders if she could really have conjured up her imaginary boyfriend. Her small lie is becoming a huge one, and the real life Ben seems to be playing along.

There’s another new boy at school, too. Nothing like Ben, he tucks in his shirt, draws pictures of dragons in his text books, and doesn’t fit in at all, but Midge has bene paired with him for a major assignment. As her lies spiral out of control, Midge wonders if George might be her only friend – or does he have secrets of his own, too?

The (not quite) Perfect Boyfriend is a gritty, yet not depressing, read for teenage girls, with Midge facing issues of peer pressure, first relationships, friendship and family breakup. Whilst there is some romance involved, this is not simply a romance book, with the issues being explored far more important than the romantic element. Midge is a first person narrator who admits her flaws, and shares her experiences honestly, even though sometimes the reader can guess at things which are not apparent to Midge.

Part of the Girlfriend Fiction series, The (not quite) Perfect Boyfriend is an absorbing read.

The (not quite) Perfect Boyfriend, by Lili Wilkinson
Allen & Unwin, 2008

This book can be purchased online from Fishpond. Buying through this link supports Aussiereviews.

Short, edited by Lili Wilkinson

I’m not sure I can blog this. So I’m writing it down on paper, the old-fashioned way.
I don’t want people to know, I guess. Not Jaz and everyone at school, not the teachers. They started it. Setting an assignment: If you Were Living 100 Years Ago, Who Would You Be? Not even Nana’s that old.
So I’m stuck, and it’s the week before the assignment’s due.
(excerpt from A Ghost Ate My Homework by Lucy Sussex)

Lili Wilkinson has edited this anthology of short works for young people, the proceeds of which will go to the Big Brothers Big Sisters organisation. There are short stories and poems and more from some of Australia and New Zealand’s best known writers and illustrators for children eg Michael Gerard Bauer, Julia Lawrinson and Terry Denton. Short also features contributions from young people. There are two-sentence stories about amazing sporting success (Michael Pryor), short poems like ‘If’ speculating light-heartedly on the meaning of life (Jill McDougall), short graphic stories (Connor O’Brien’s ‘Pickle Man’) and illustrations from Richard Morden and others.

Short is a smaller-than-average format book which will fit well into pockets, bags and lunchboxes. It includes light snacks, treats and more meaty offerings – temptation for all tastebuds. Readers can dip into it, or read it comfortably from cover to cover. Young writers have the opportunity to sample the work of many creators. Short could be used as a taster, offering as it does the opportunity to sample a wide range of subject and stylistic choices. Realistic, fanciful, humorous, ghostly, ridiculous – it’s all here. In short (pardon the pun) there is something for readers of all ages. Recommended for upper primary- to mid-secondary, although it may well also be enjoyed by readers outside this age range.

Short, edited by Lili
Wilkinson Black Dog Books 2008
ISBN: 9780742030340

Joan of Arc, by Lili Wilkinson

Joan of Arc left home when she was 15, following instructions from voices she heard. At 16 she left the French army to victory. At 19 she was burned at the stake, accused of being a witch. Five hundred years after her death, she was declared a Saint. Was she really a witch, or was she a Saint, or even an angel, as some have claimed? How could a sixteen year old girls lead an army to victory?

In Joan of Arc author Lili Wilkinson explores the life of this amazing young woman, trying to separate myth from reality. Wilkinson draws on a variety of sources to put together a chronological account of John of Arc’s life and also uses direct quotes from historical sources, and fictionalised accounts of some of the key events.

This is an inspirational read, about the extraordinary life of a young lady not much older than the target reader. It would make an excellent school library or classroom resource, but it will also appeal for private reading.

Joan of Arc, by Lili Wilkinson
Black Dog Books, 2006