young adult – Page 6 – Aussie Reviews

Slice, by Steven Herrick

My name is Darcy Franz Pele Walker.
Ignore the middle names.
I do.
My Dad is a football nut and he figured if he named me after his two favourite players, I’d turn out just like them. At the age of five, I’d stand in the backyard wearing baggy blue shorts and a Brazilian jersey watching the clouds, the trees, birds tilting overhead on the breeze.
Dad would shout, ‘Ready, Darcy?’ and roll the ball temptingly my way.
‘Just kick it with all you’ve got, son.’
I’d look at the coloured panels on the ball.
‘Just swing your foot, Darcy.’

Darcy is sixteen and in Year 11. He’s not sporty or tough. He can quote Shakespeare and he has a crush on Audrey which he’s not game to do anything about. He also has a habit of speaking without really thinking about the consequences. This gets him into trouble sometimes but also defines him. It helps him get to know Audrey, and to understand what’s going on with his nerdy friend Noah. It also helps him deal with football-loving, physical Braith and Tim. Slice is the story of Darcy’s Year 11, told in bites both juicy and delicious.

Told in prose, Slice is full of wonderful images, told in a few words, much like Herrick’s verse novels. It’s hilarious too. Darcy’s voice is very dry, very droll. His observations of others and awareness of himself are astute. He may be physically not up to the likes of Braith and Tim, but he has developed his own sense of self, his own defences. Scenes like the one where Dad does the ‘sex talk’ with Darcy are laugh-out loud funny because they are so familiar. This is a novel which celebrates those who understand their place in the world, even if those around them don’t. It’s a joy to read.
Recommended for mid-secondary readers.

Slice: Juicy Moments from My Impossible Life, Steven Herrick
Woolshed Press 2010
ISBN: 9781864719642

review by Claire Saxby, Children’s Author
www.clairesaxby.com

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

A Girl Like Me, by Penny Matthews

Bertha gives me a look of such blazing fury that I flinch.
‘How would you have any idea about what’s right or wrong?’ she spits.
‘You think you’re so much better than me, don’t you? I’m not like you, Emmie, and I never will be.’

Emmie wants to be a writer, even though her family and friends scoff at the idea. She feels it unfair that she must stay at home and help her mother instead of continuing her education like her brother. So she sets to work at writing her novel – a stormy romance set in Yorkshire, far from the South Australian hills where she lives.

When Bertha Schippan comes to work around Emmie’s home, Emmie doesn’t know what to make of her. The young German girl seems a bit wild, but she is also full of life, and funny. When Emmie realises Bertha has terrible secrets, she wonders if tragedies can happen close tohome, jsut as much as they can happen in far away Yorkshire.

based partially on true events, A Girl Like Me is a beautiful novel for teen readers. Part coming of age story, part mystery, and set early last century, the story is finely crafted, with a balance of action and character development that totally absorbs the reader.

Wonderful reading.

A Girl Like Me, by Penny Matthews
Penguin, 2010

This book can be purchased online from Fishpond. Buying through this link supports Aussiereviews. review by Claire Saxby, Children’s Author
www.clairesaxby.com

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

Thirteen Pearls, by Melaina Faranda

Out of the evening shadows two faces looked down at me. Both young men. Both good looking. One Eurasian face with olive skin and dark eyes. The other haloed by a wild mane of hair. He was trying not to laugh.
‘I’m fine,’ I said. I wanted to cry.

Edie Sparks has a dream. She wants to sail solo around the world. But first she needs to finish her boat and, for that, she needs money. So when her long lost uncle offers her a job babysitting his four year old son over the summer, she jumps at the chance.

Soon she is on a tiny island off the coast of Far North Queensland, battling a seemingly uncontrollable child and a sullen, controlling uncle. The only bright side of the island are the two workers – Kaito and Leon.

Thirteen Pearls , part of the Girlfriend Fiction series, is a pleasing blend of adventure, romance and personal development. Whilst Edie learns, through trial and error, to care for and control her young charge, she also learns a lot about herself. At the same time, the story is liberally sprinkled with humour, with Edie a wry first person narrator.

An absorbing read.

Thirteen Pearls (Girlfriend Fiction), by Melaina Faranda
Allen & Unwin, 2010

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

Return Ticket, by Warren Flynn

Sam, Shannon and Zak aren’t overly fond of history, but when a train trip as part of history camp goes strangely wrong, they find themselves having to live it.

Finding themselves in 1899, the three have to learn to adapt to life without cars, television, or even Coke. They need to find food, shelter and jobs to stay alive until they can figure out a way to get back to their own time.

Return Ticket is a time travel adventure which will appeal to young adult readers. Set in pre-Federation Australia, it also offers insight into the life, social structure and even politics of the time. The teen characters find themselves involved in the federation debate, caught up in racism and violence, and questioning their own places in both the society they are in and the one to which they belong.

Intriguing reading.

Return Ticket, by Warren Flynn
Fremantle Arts Centre Press, 2003

Gil's Quest, by Damian Morgan

The epic tale of Gilgamesh, dating from around 2000BC, is the earliest known secular epic. Dealing with themes of man and nature, life and death and friendship and combat, it has intrigued listeners and readers since it was first told.

In Gil’s Quest the story of Gilgamesh is retold in a gripping format suitable for younger readers. Told in the first person voice of Gil himself, the story follows his quest for everlasting life, which pits him against Enki the Shag and takes him to the end of the world to seek the survivor of the Great Flood.

Gil’s Quest will appeal to young readers (aged 10 to 14) with an interest in fantasy, history or just gripping narrative. With an excellent blend of mythical writing style and accessibility to contemporray readers, this is a powerful read.

Gil’s Quest, by Damian Morgan
Koala Books, 2003

The Tiger Project, by Susanna Van Essen

When Bella sees the baby Thylacine floating in a jar of preserving fluid, something clutches at her. She is moved more than she can explain. For weeks, the thylacine haunts her dreams, becoming a symbol of the frustrations of her own life.

Bella is in a wheelchair, disabled since birth. She wonders about her absentee father – who left when she was born – and whether she has inherited his genes. She is also involved in the struggles of her friends – Sylvia who has fallen in love with another girl, Claire, the class brain, and Adrian, the class clown. She also forges an unlikely friendship with a neighbour, elderly Olivia Peeves.

All of the strands of this story cause Bella to question how much genes influence an individual’s make up. As she works with her three friends on a project studying the thylacine, she gains a new perspective on life and love.

The Tiger Project is a humorous and insightful young adult novel, which explores complex issues in a simple way. Great reading.

The Tiger Project, by Susanna Van Essen
Pan MacMillan, 2003

Invisible Girl Stories, by Glyn Parry

Having the run of the school at night should be fun, but Kelly isn’t so sure. School isn’t the same as it used to be. There are no students here – only herself, her friend Sally and the head girl. And, late at night another visitor -an angry boy called Jeremy.

Kelly’s story Songs for the Dead is the first in this anthology of ghostly tales by West Australian author Glyn Parry. Other stories feature big brothers who continue to bully the living even after death, midnight rides on ghost trains and flights that seem to be bugged.

These stories, blending the magical and the macabre will appeal to young readers and leave them thinking.

Invisible Girl Stories, by Glyn Parry
Fremantle Arts Centre Press, May 2003

Secrets of the Tingle Forest, by Louise Schofield

On the anniversary of her father’s death, Sharni returns to the place they both loved – the tingle forest. She wants to visit their secret place, to feel her father around her. But Sharni didn’t tell anyone where she was going, and, with night approaching, she is lost. She will have to spend the night in the forest.

Alone in the dark, Sharni discovers another secret that the forest holds, and vows never to tell. SOmetimes, though, promises are hard to keep. What if telling the secret could save someone’s life, or at least give them their life back?

Secrets in the Tingle Forest is a gentle, uplifting children’s story with a delightful blend of adventure and personal growth. Twelve year old Sharni works through her own problems and also reaches out to others. She is helped by a wise and understanding, a similarly canny woman who was her father’s girlfriend, and the mysterious man in the forest.

A lovely offering.

Secrets in the Tingle Forest, by Louise Schofield
Fremantle Aarts Centre Press, 2003

Forbidden Love, by Georgia Mantis-Kapralos

Athena Zamerkopolous is caught between two worlds. Her parents want her to follow Greek tradition and prepare her herself for the life role of wife and mother. She must not date, or even mix with her female friends outside of school hours. Athena wants to live like other girls her age – dating, having fun, and eventually marrying for love.

Life gets a whole lot more complicated when Athena falls in love with the most popular guy in Fremont High – Scott Sanders. Although she knows her parents will never approve, Athena can not resist Scott, and the two have a secret relationship. When her father finds out, he reveals a secret of his own. He has arranged a marriage with the son of his Greek friend, a man who Athena has never met. Now she must make the hardest decision of her life – marry this stranger and lose Scott, or face losing her family.

Forbidden Love is a tale of teenage love and of cultures clashing. It is a familiar situation in the multicultural setting of Australia as cultures merge or clash on a regular basis. It is unfortunate that the story is impeded by the need, in many places, of an editor’s touch. As a self-published book, the enthusiasm and warmth of the writer shine through, but the need for tighter prose is distracting.

A nice story.

Forbidden Love, by Georgia Mantis-Kapralos
Self Published, 2001

One Night, by Margaret Wild

Three boys – Bram, Al and Gabe – are drawn together by their common lack of wholeness. Bram plans incredible parties which take place in various houses – wherever there is a parentless house for the weekend. The parties are wild and amazing, planned to precision. Bram even takes preparty photographs to make sure the house is returned to the state in which it was found.

One night, Helen comes to one of the parties. She is not the sort of girl Gabe likes – her face is deformed. But she sees through him and sees the void where his heart should be. She is drawn to him and they connect.

Helen’s life is changed irrevokably by that meeting, but Gabe’s continues on as before. Until one night the secret world he shares with his two friends tumbles down.

One Night is an incredible novel in verse by Margaret Wild. The free verse style lends a bare-bones feel – fluff and fill have been excluded, leaving the raw emotion of youth for the reader to access and experience.

This is Wild’s second verse novel. The first Jinx was shorlisted for a swag of awards. One Night is sure to meet similar acclaim.

One Night, by Margaret Wild
Allen & Unwin, 2003