The First Move

The First Move written by Jenny Ireland (Penguin Books) PB RRP $19.99 ISBN 9780241591826

Reviewed by Sarah Tegerdine

The First Move is a refreshing new contemporary YA romance and debut novel for Jenny Ireland.

Set in urban Northern Ireland, it follows two protagonist’s, Juliet/Jules, a cynical romantic who lives with inflammatory arthritis and Ronan; new boy at school, good looking, smart, he is hiding a massive family secret that he is struggling to cope with.

We meet Juliet, her mood, downcast and in pain, feeling like a burden to everyone around her. She is consumed with insecurities as she now faces school needing crutches for the foreseeable.

Ronan is trying to start a fresh, attempting to put distressing events of the past behind him. However, being incredibly aloof, it makes him a natural point of interest and intrigue to everyone at his new school.

Juliet and Ronan both love chess and as a means of escapism they sign up to an online chess gaming app called ‘Chesslife’. Unknowingly they connect anonymously on the platform and eventually the relationship spills out into real world. Both Jules and Ronan have struggles they are grappling with and ideations to overcome making this a satisfying full circle journey to read.

The First Move is thoughtful and heartwarming with characters you will find yourself totally invested in. At its core, it’s essentially about being young, falling in love, expectations, friendships, grief, guilt, and an insight into living with chronic pain. It challenges the way the reader sees himself/herself and others, being accepting and deserving.

Recommended for a young adult audience including upper middle grade readers.

What We All Saw

What We All Saw by Mike Lucas (Penguin Random House Australia) PB RRP$19.99 ISBN 9781761045936

Reviewed by Kathleen Grace

One of the characters in this YA novel, Shell, is blind, which has roots in the Australian author’s own personal experience of vision impairment. That the book is chilling is evident in its first sentence: ‘Nineteen seventy-six was the year we covered up the death of a twelve-year-old boy, hiding his body from his family and the world forever.’

Sammy is the narrator. He and his friends Gray, Charlie, and Shell live in the south-west of England near an old quarry in Hags Drop into which witches were said to have been thrown. Witches only exist in stories. Everyone knows that. But what if the stories were real?

This is a suspenseful novel about coming of age, standing by your friends, and about the power of storytelling to change our perceptions. Prepare yourself for witches, curses, ghost stories and dark forests with dark secrets!

Shadows of Olive Trees

Shadows of Olive Trees, a YA novel by Suzanne Gervay

Chapter 1: 
She can't remember when she hadn't retreated behind the brick fence isolating the school in the red light district. It's an old church inner city school. Expensive. Only girls. Built before the prostitutes, drug dealers, homeless took possession.

Questions:

1.     It’s the second rise of feminism, and young women are navigating their rights. Do you regard it as important for young women of today to understand the journey so they can understand where they are today? 

2.     There are three girlfriends, Tessa, Athena and Jenny. Their relationships have the intensity of youth at this turbulent time in the 70s. What do you imagine their challenges are? Are they the same as today? What choices do they have to make as best friends?

3.     Is raising consciousness of feminism through story significant on International Women’s Day? 

4.     Spectrum SMH wrote that ‘This is a story of friendship and love, reminding me of Looking for Alibrandi.’ Shadows of Olive Trees crystalizes the conflict between old traditions and freedom for girls. Is that still happening today?

Print, ebook and Audio on AMAZON:

https://www.amazon.com.au/Shadows-Olive-Trees-Susanne-Gervay-ebook/dp/B07SXCTNCH

 

Google audio - http://surl.li/bhsly

 

https://sgervay.com/shadows-of-olive-trees/

 

 

You’d Be Home Now

You’d Be Home Now by Kathleen Glasgow (HarperCollins) RRP PB $19.99 ISBN 9781460761557

Reviewed by Kylie Buckley

Sixteen-year-old Emory (Emmy) Ward is part of a wealthy family who lives in a small town. They seem to have it all: a perfect life… on paper. The story begins with a tragic car accident, involving Emmy and her brother Joey, which leads to an unravelling of secrets, lies, and heartache. Joey goes to rehab and Emmy is left to deal with her own physical and emotional pain.

Emmy is a good girl who has always done what is asked of her, but it has left her feeling insignificant. She yearns for love and wants to be noticed. When Joey returns from rehab, Emmy is given the task of carer for her brother to keep him out of trouble. Her unique bond and love for Joey are ever-present, but this responsibility is sometimes overwhelming for young Emmy. To add to her woes, memories from the night of the accident consume her thoughts, friendships at school cease, and she secretly gets involved with the popular boy next door, which only intensifies her insecurities and need for belonging.

You’d Be Home Now is a must-read young adult novel encapsulating a myriad of issues that teenagers face. Its themes include substance abuse, addiction, social media, first love, friendship, and family dynamics. Emmy’s story is both captivating and heartbreaking and will stay with you long after you’ve finished reading. You’d Be Home Now is highly recommended for an audience 14 years and older.

Girls in Boys’ Cars

 

Girls in Boys’ Cars by Felicity Castagna (Pan Macmillan Australia) PB RRP $18.999 ISBN 9781760982980

Reviewed by Kathleen Grace

The debut YA novel of this author, The Incredible Here and Now, won the Prime Minister’s Award for Literature, was named the IBBY Honour Book for Australia and was a finalist for the CBCA Book of the Year for older readers. With such accolades behind her and the fact her books have been published internationally, any reader would expect a great read. Unfortunately, Girls in Boys’ Cars didn’t do it for me. 

The first ten chapters of this YA novel introduce Rosa, a not-so-confident, cynical teenager, and her Fijian Indian best friend, Asheeka, in a meandering story as the two friends hang around together, dress up and watch boys. The book’s narrative only revs up in the eleventh chapter named for the book’s title where the two friends travel and have adventures together.

Here, with the setting western Sydney, Rosa and her Asheeka, tired of hiding who they are from their parents and of trying to get boys to see them as more than props in their lives, take off in Asheeka’s boyfriend’s over-modified Ford Falcon with the vague idea of embarking on a road trip. It is only when she is in Arnold’s stolen car that Rosa begins to come to life and becomes a more active and interesting character. The girls’ journey of self-discovery sees them literally go through (bush) fire and ends with a police charge that puts Rosa in a juvenile correction centre while Asheeka goes missing.

Interspersed with chapters about the road trip, are chapters set in juvie where Rosa meets with her therapist, Maree. Rosa says, ‘My life was a series of excerpts cut and pasted from all the books I read in some random order.’ This is a good description of the style of this novel which uses a conversational tone, flipping from topic to topic, relationship to relationship. Rose says, ‘Most stories don’t really go ahead in straight line.’ This self-conscious narrator frequently refers to writing the book with lines such as ‘so all right, I didn’t get to put too much sex in the last chapter, but I’m still trying to work out how to structure this novel.’

Overall, this novel feels uneven. It makes me want to read other books by Castagna, especially the award-winning ones, to see how they compare with this one.

100 Remarkable Feats of Xander Maze

100 Remarkable Feats of Xander Maze by Clayton Zane Comber (HarperCollins) PB RRP $19.99 ISBN: 9781460759455

Reviewed by Dannielle Viera

When 15-year-old Xander Maze’s terminally ill grandmother asks him to make a list – his favourite thing to do – of 100 Remarkable Feats and then complete each one, he honestly believes that this is the key to saving her life. ‘Nanna needs me to achieve all 100 Remarkable Feats so she can get better,’ he tells his mother.

But some of the tasks are near impossible for the neuro-diverse Xander, especially #9 (‘Ask Ally Collins out on a date’). Nevertheless, in opening himself up to new experiences that are outside his mental comfort zone, Xander begins to change his life for the better – his grandmother’s real reason for encouraging him to create the list in the first place.

Clayton Zane Comber’s stunning second book (after Shooting Stars, his 2011 debut novel) is a compelling exploration of memory, relationships, and metamorphosis. By framing the chapters in a variety of ways – from straight narrative text to lists, letters, play scripts and breakout boxes – Clayton invites the reader deep into Xander’s unusual mind and forges a strong sense of empathy for the struggling protagonist.

We feel every physical and emotional jolt on Xander’s transformational journey as he confronts and connects with a stellar cast of supporting characters. And when the inevitable happens – Nanna passes away – the troubled teen’s sadness is palpable. But heartbreak walks hand in hand with hope, and the reader is left with the distinct impression that the Remarkable Feats have done their job – and that Xander’s grandmother would have been proud of him (ticking off #98 on the list).

Incredibly intriguing from the first page until the last, 100 Remarkable Feats of Xander Maze is a YA book for the modern age. It reassures anxious adolescent readers that the world is waiting to embrace them, if only they have the courage to take the first step.

Tribal Lores

Tribal Lores by Archimede Fusillo (Walker Books Australia) PB RRP $19.99 ISBN 9781760651954

Reviewed by Dianne Bates

There are numerous tribes in this hefty 420-page YA novel, but the principal ones are an Italian and Australian family who are next door neighbours. 

Fusillo explores the dynamics of these families as they interact with one another. In one house is Frankie, the book’s narrator, the eldest son of Italian parents and brother of Stefano (about to start high school but unwilling to Anglicise his name). In the other house are the Marshalls – mum, dad, Lochie, sister  Catherine, and Lochie’s half-sister, the 17-year-old pregnant Em, and her layabout hippy partner Ray. There is also a long-dead sister, Amelia, who is still mourned by the family. Frankie, who is 16, says, ‘what I have at home is a tribe. We’re like related, but we’re not, sort of…’ Frankie and Lochie, too, have another tribe – their friends China, Go, and Spicks who they play – and fight – with.

This is basically a book about relationships, with interesting characters such as Frankie’s cousin, Gabbie, a wheelchair-bound lesbian, and Uncle Zio Peter, a gambler who is constantly borrowing money from his dad. There are secrets in Lochie’s family, too, such as his dad’s alcoholism. As Frankie tries to navigate relationships, he observes, ‘Every tribe has a certain level of chaos that (runs) through their lives.’ Thus, the book explores the notion of extended family linked by culture as well as by blood.

The book starts on Australia Day with Frankie’s family invited to the Marshall’s for a barbeque. Frankie’s mother takes a mass of Italian food including buffalo mozzarella arancini, prosciutto, and almond crispelli. Immediately, of course, the cultural differences are apparent.

Despite tensions simmering just below the surface for both boys and their families, Frankie and Lochie have a bond that connects their different worlds. Archimede Fusillo has written a raw and powerful coming of age novel and it is easy to appreciate his honest and raw approach to portraying family dynamics as well as the dynamics of the boys’ friendship group which has its problems.  

At times, the plot is slow-moving, especially the scenes between Frankie and Andrew (China) Wang. However, teenagers who enjoy a nostalgic coming of age story that explores culture and growing up, are sure to find much to like in this book.

 

Loveless

Loveless by Alice Oseman (Harper Collins) PB RRP $17.99

ISBN 9780008244125

Reviewed by Kylie Buckley

Loveless is a coming of age story, written in the first person by the female protagonist Georgia Warr. Georgia is a shy and introverted eighteen-year-old who has never been kissed. She enjoys the idea of finding love, but when it comes to romance, she considers herself the ‘master of theory’. 

Georgia believes she is defective and is missing out on many life experiences. The only thing she is secure about is the friendship she has with her two best friends, Pip and Jason. The narrative follows this ‘trio of high achieving nerds’ as they finish high school and move away to college together.

Life at college compounds Georgia’s existing insecurities as she develops new friendships, a potential relationship and continues to figure out who she is. She meets some equally complex characters who are also trying to ‘survive and thrive in a world that often doesn’t feel like it was made for [them].’

Loveless is a young adult novel rich in the diversity of love. Its themes also include friendship, sexual diversity, self-discovery, self-acceptance, and identity. This fiction novel is suitable for mature readers aged 15+ years.

The End of the World is Bigger Than Love

The End of the World is Bigger Than Love by Davina Bell, (Text), 2020, RRP $24.00 pb  ISBN: 9781922268822

Reviewed by Pauline Hosking

This intriguing YA novel combines unreliable narrators with magic realism. Davina Bell creates a world in which reality and fantasy join hands and dance together. It’s a challenging, yet satisfying, read.

The world has become a place of terror, public executions and climate disaster. Identical twin sisters, Summer and Winter, live in isolation on a remote island. Years ago their father brought them there. He was a scientist, responsible, among other things, for The Greying, an illnesss that ultimately kills.

Summer is the more hip, talkative sister with a well-developed sense of humour. Winter is quieter and kinder. The girls grow into teenagers, surviving in their own intense reality, eating through a stockpile of tinned food, reading and re-reading their mother’s favourite books. Fictional characters fulfil their need for friends. The words of characters in To Kill a Mocking Bird, The Outsiders and The Power of One are quoted and requoted.

Then a mysterious stranger, Edward, appears, disrupting the girls’ carefully constructed world. Summer only refers to him as ‘the bear’. Winter falls in love.

Alternating chapters written by Summer and Winter draw the reader into a fantastical world where nothing is as it seems. Their mother didn’t die when Winter was born. Edward hasn’t appeared by chance. The sisters are not living on an island.

Most unexpected of all is the hint that perhaps there is only one sister. Has Winter created a second self to help her cope with so many horrific life experiences? After the final page there’s a quote from Albert Camus: ‘In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer…’

The book is full of wonderfully-written dreamlike sequences: the talking whale is especially memorable. YA readers will delight in its complexity and intricate plotting.

Red Day

 Red Day by Sandy Fussell (Walker Books Australia) ISBN 9781760651884 PB RRP $17.99

Reviewed by Dianne Bates

Charlotte (Charlie), the main character of this book for young people, is super-sensitive and has a condition known as synaesthesia. It enables her to see colours in odd places, like letters or days of the week; she sees musical notes as water and sometimes she ‘hears’ colours. She says, ‘The sky was blood red the day my brother Eli died.’

Set in a modern-day small town –Cowra NSW -- among the remnants of a Japanese POW camp, the story starts when Charlie meets Japanese exchange student Kenichi (Ken), who is staying with her and her mother, an experience she is not looking forward to. When Charlie and Ken start to investigate Himura Shin, a former Japanese prisoner-of-war who gave Charlie’s great-grandmother a photo which hangs in the local information centre, Charlie’s senses intensify and she experiences flashbacks, nausea, and hears unfamiliar voices in her head pulling her back to the town's violent past. In fact, since Ken came to stay, anything to do with the POW camp or the photo her mother donated to the town, physically affects her.  Ken, too, wants to find the whereabouts of the remains of his great-grandfather. This leads to Charlie and Ken undertaking a break, enter and steal adventure.

This unusual historical mystery manages to combine heartfelt contemporary storytelling at its best, with vivid historical flashbacks of a period of Australia’s history. As time passes and Charlie and Ken work together to solve the problem, Charlie overcomes her resistance to having Ken in her life: she bonds with him and by the time Ken is ready to return to Japan, she has come to like and respect him. Highly recommended for YA readers.

As Fast as I Can

As Fast as I Can by Penny Tangey (UQP), ISBN 9780702262814 RRP $16.99

Reviewed by Claire Stuckey

Vivian is ten and she is focused on finding the best sport for her so she can compete at a future Olympic Games. Spurred on by her friend, the very competitive Olivia, she continues to valiantly attempt to master long jump, swimming and other events especially leading up to the school sports carnival.  However, a new girl at school leads her to question her own and Olivia’s arduous attention to diet, exercise and the need to win.

On a regular school cross country run Vivian finds her place, easily winning the school competition as she progresses to further and tougher competition. However, on return from winning a major race, Vivian life is changed completely with the news her mother has been diagnosed with Long QT, a hereditary heart condition. This news affects the whole family, but Vivian especially as she is also diagnosed shortly after now and is unable to compete in the sport she loves and excels in. Her dreams shattered, she sets about first fighting to compete, questioning the prognosis, then coming to terms with her future.

This is an enjoyable book about young people striving for goals. We glimpse in the beginning of the book that uncontrolled access to diet and training information could be for dangerous for young girls. Vivian is a well-drawn character who we meet struggling to find her place in the sports arena but also finding time to welcome the new girl Lisa who clearly brings balance with her preference for team sports. We share and understand Vivian’s trials and failures applauding her success at long distance running. Vivian uses her intellect to research Long QT as she is unwilling to accept her illness or the consequences. Ultimately, she understands her mother’s hospitalization and her uncle’s untimely death as the real outcomes of underestimating the disease. 

I would certainly recommend this title: I enjoyed the story and the way in which themes including friendship, sibling rivalry, body image and competition were presented.

Recommended for ages 10 to 14 years.

Ghost Bird

Ghost Bird by Lisa Fuller (University of Queensland Press, 2019). PB RRP $19.95 ISBN 9780702260230

Reviewed by Julie Anne Thorndyke

What happens when your twin sister goes missing? Inevitably, a great deal of waiting and worrying. This is the situation for Stacey, whose mirror-image twin Laney disappears one night. Hardworking, studious and rule-abiding Stacey is placed in conflict with her mother, because Stacey had prior knowledge that risk-taking Laney was sneaking out of the house at night to meet her boyfriend Ty.

The conflict between mother and daughter contrasts with their need to comfort and help each other as both characters struggle to understand what has happened to Laney.

The realistic portrayal of worry and helplessness is bolstered by the scenes that depict the extended family and friends arriving at the family house to cook, eat, support and plan a search. The interconnectedness of the mob together with the long-term grudge held against another family is contrasted with the indifference of the white police and the lack of official help in looking for the missing girl.

Against the realism, the nightmares Stacey has about Laney, visitations by the ‘ghost bird’, wisdom from the crazy elderly woman from the enemy Miller clan, memories of her own Nan’s often repeated warnings and advice lead Stacey to believe that her sister is alive and show her the way to discover her location.

Intertwined with the story of the missing girl is the problem of precious stones being removed from the land. Bad things happen to those who possess the stolen rocks.

The story moves at a steady pace with helpers such as cousin Rhi, May and Dan Miller arriving to help Stacey overcome the obstacles in her quest to find her twin. Supernatural elements offer a touch of horror that will appeal to the YA audience.

The villains of the piece are the white landowners. Otherworldly beings pushed away by light and fire are part of the land and the handed down wisdom of indigenous elders shows how to deal with their approach. There are places best avoided, particularly after dark.

A New Kind of Everything

A New Kind of Everything by Richard Yaxley, (Omnibus Books), 2020, PB RRP $18.99 ISBN: 9781743834077

Reviewed by Pauline Hosking

Hey, son, you worked out yet what love is? This is a question Dinny’s father used to ask him. Now his father has died in an unlikely car accident.

14-year-old Dinny is a quiet, contained boy with a sensitive nature, struggling to keep “acting like a man”. His mother is battling her way through grief at her loss. His older brother reacts by leaving school and joining Return, a far-right gang that aims at bringing back the real Australia. In an attempt to find himself, Dinny forms a friendship with Krush who believes that taking risks is the only way to stop being boring.

The text is divided into three parts: The Requiem, which looks at the immediate aftermath of the death; If We Jumped, which deals with Dinny and  Krush; A New Kind of Everything which explains his father’s past. This section also involves redemption and yet another death for Dinny and his mother to cope with. The book ends with a rather strange time shift into the future when Dinny is an adult. 

Richard Yaxley is a brilliant, original, author. In 2018 he won the Prime Minister’s award for young adult literature. His writing is full of interesting uses of language. There are moments of intense action and quite a lot of violence, although some of the darker moments are hinted at rather than described in detail. The characters are three-dimensional and totally believable. Especially interesting are Dinny’s neighbours, Mr and Mrs Wen, who offer a poignant retelling of their migrant experience.

Yaxley has a wonderful ear and his dialogue throughout is authentic. Dinny’s first meeting with the criminal Jaxon Cannane, told almost entirely in dialogue, fills the reader with a horrible sense of fear for the future.

A New Kind of Everything is a gutsy, no-holds-barred YA novel, recommended for readers 14+. It will particularly resonate with boys.

Shadows of Olive Trees

Shadows of Olive Trees by Susanne Gervay PB RRP $24.99 ISBN

Reviewed by Dianne Bates

Originally published in 1996, this young adult novel has proved very popular, especially with teenage girls. Set in the mid-1970's in the inner suburb of Sydney, it focuses on the emerging women’s movements as well as on the passions of young women searching for adult identity.

Tessa Kassis, aged eighteen, lives with her Greek migrant parents and younger brother. Confined by the cultural restrictions of her parents, she is trying to live the life of an Australian teenager while keeping her parents’ love and maintaining some Greek traditions. She befriends Athena and Jenny, two young women who join her in searching for independence and identity.

The author Gervay is the daughter of Hungarian refugees who migrated to Australia hoping to rebuild their lives and to be accepted in their new country while trying to maintain their own culture, so she has experienced Tessa’s dilemmas. Like her book hero Tessa, she also developed a passion for women’s rights at a time of the emerging women’s movement.

While Tessa has a dutiful respect for the cultural festivals and religious customs of her family, she faces a dilemma in wanting to live an Australian life. This dilemma causes drama, for example when she disagrees with her controlling but loving father who insists she has a chaperone such as on a university geography excursion. And, too, he insists on finding a Greek husband for her, but she rejects this as she has fallen in love with her professor, David.

There are numerous issues which Gervay tackles, not just cultural conflict, but also the importance of female friendships and sexual issues. Against a background of family traditions and restrictions, she explores Tessa’s growing awareness of her sensuality and her enjoyment of learning.

Shadows of Olive Trees is ideal for adaptation to film as it would educate and entertain a new generation of readers. It is a story of women's empowerment that has relevance today for women and men.

Rebel by Dawn Meredith

Dawn Meredith’s YA fantasy novel, Rebel, Book 1 of the Flight series is out! Pre-orders are now available from the publisher, www.shootingstar.pub

Rebel was begun 11 years ago and almost published twice before. Now it’s finally being born into the world! 

A young rebel is called upon to lead... with a broken wing and absolutely no idea what he is doing. A wounded flying hero struggling to accept his destiny, a shy girl of dark, mysterious secrets unaware of the power within her and a lonely youth out to prove himself worthy of his warrior father. A race with dragon DNA suffers under malevolent overlords, dreaming of a hero to set them free. But what they get is a handsome young joker more interested in breaking the rules than breaking free his people.

Dawn Meredith website

Dawn Meredith Amazon Profile
Dawn Meredith published books for kids

The Man in the Water

The Man in the Water by David Burton (UQP) PB RRP $19.95 ISBN 9780702262524 Reviewed by Dianne Bates When sixteen-year-old Shaun finds a body floating in the lake of a quiet mining town in outback Queensland, he immediately reports it to the police. But when he returns to the site with the constable, the body is gone. This is the beginning of this novel for readers aged ten years and older which is a gripping mystery from popular #LoveOzYA author David Burton. While the adults brush off the death, Shaun and his mate Will are forced to open their own investigation. Their adventures take them all around town in their race to find justice for the Man on the Lake. The protagonist, Shaun, is just an average kid who dreams big: he wants to solve the crime (as well as wanting others to believe he found the body that’s gone missing), make his mum proud and capture the attentions of Megan who’s stolen his heart. Most of all, Shaun dreams about being a hero despite self-doubt which is reminiscent of the uncertainty of youth. When he finally gets some answers, Shaun discovers that life is not always so black and white. The novel deals with the themes of friendship, isolation and the struggle of living in a small mining town. There are also themes of suicide, grief & depression, but these are handled delicately and, in an age-appropriate way. This novel, with numerous amusing scenes and spot-on dialogue, is likely to be appreciated by YA readers who like crime solving.

En Pointe

En Pointe by Chloe Bayliss (Pantera Press) PB RRP $24.99 ISBN 9781925700756

Reviewed by Nean McKenzie

En Pointe is written by Chloe Bayliss, who many may know as an actor on Channel 9 drama series Doctor Doctor. It is a story of her life so far, from her childhood and teenage years as a serious ballet dancer, to her even more serious medical problems, then out the other side. Written for a young adult audience, this first-person account paints a picture of dreams dashed but also of the support of family and friends. Most importantly, the book is about a girl who never gives up.

The introduction outlines what the book will be about, so there are no surprises. It starts in the world of competitive, all-encompassing ballet, where Chloe trains for hours each day with one aim: to become a professional ballerina. She is aware that she is missing out on normal teenage things like kissing boys or going to parties. But it is all worth it when she is offered a place at the Washington Ballet school. It seems her dream has been realised.

The next part of the book, which is the majority, is about Chloe’s descent into illness and subsequent hospitalisation, with a disease that no one knows how to treat. Her kidneys are failing, and she is confined to a bed. She has fits, then seems to be getting better, only to get worse again. The description of the permanent tube inserted into her chest is particularly visceral. These grim details are balanced out with personal stories of what it is like to be a teenager in these circumstances such as the guy she likes who visits her in hospital and family dynamics.

The last part of the book describes Chloe’s recovery and her determination to get back to dancing and real life. A section of photos shows Chloe from her first ballet lesson aged three, through her various ballet roles, pictures of her in hospital, then finally at the Logie Awards with the Doctor Doctor cast. Chloe says in the book media release, that she was unsure whether to reveal her story, as it may affect the way people see her as an actor. However, she says she wanted to tell her story to help someone also going through a tough time. This is a book that could do just that.

Letters to Leonard; The Truth Changes

Letters to Leonard; The Truth Changes, a YA novel by Dee White, was recently republished in Australia and released for the first time in the US and UK almost 10 years exactly from its debut in Australia). There have been some changes to the manuscript’s ending.

When Matt Hudson turns fifteen, he receives a birthday card from the mother he thought was dead. Why has his father lied to him for the last ten years? Matt doesn’t know who or what to believe. He sets out to find his mother, and the reasons behind her abandonment soon become clear.

Assigned a letter-writing project at school, Matt writes to his idol – Leonardo da Vinci. This simple act helps him work through his feelings of betrayal and understand how neglected mental illness can tear a family apart.

Dee White is the author of more than 20 books for children and young adults across all genres. She will do just about anything (including ride a camel, jump out of a plane and walk through a Paris sewer) to explore a story.

For more information, go to www.mazopublishers.com

Gap year nanny series: Shakespeare now!

Gap year nanny series: Shakespeare now! by Goldie Alexander (Five Senses Education)  PB RRP $34.95  ISBN 9781760322601

Reviewed by Claire Stuckey

Merri Attwater is in her gap year. She lives in Melbourne looking for work to earn money not only for herself but her struggling family.  She finds a job as a nanny with the Macbeth family who live in Glamis, an enormous walled mansion with two other staff. The three children, Merri's new charges, are scheduled to have activities throughout the day by a mother determined that they have every advantage and skill. 

Pushed with odd jobs in the few breaks between activities, Merri quickly discovers Mrs Macbeth's real personality. She also meets Mr Macbeth on his brief home stays between international travel and important business meetings for a large company started by Duncan. Merri is awestruck at the handsome and kind Stuart Macbeth forcing her to question her one long and close relationship with her girlfriend Mica.

After settling in to the Macbeth household, Merri feels confident to end her gay relationship, join a sporting team and establish new friendship away from her difficult home life and the Macbeths. Over the months she becomes a listener, someone Stuart can debrief with while Mrs Macbeth increases her efforts to increase their wealth and prestige. Stuart has been persuaded to listen to the internet Gurus by his wife.  The negative influence of the gurus further corrupts his principles. Once he has outed Duncan as CEO, Stuart Macbeth struggles with the politics and personal pressures on the team that once made the business successful. Greed, power and paranoia slowly take their toll mentally and physically on both Stuart and Laura Macbeth which finally leads to the marriage breakdown.   

In contrast, Merri finds confidence in her role as nanny establishing positive friendships with the children and her new social group, even updating her appearance.

With the business failing and colleagues arrested, Stuart is despondent and facing court. Laura's ultimate breakdown is tempered by Merri's quick thinking. Mrs Macbeth finds a new man and Merri is asked to stay, but with a new love interest and a focus on the future, Merri looks forward to university and a positive future.

This story is adapted from the play Macbeth, a Shakespearean tragedy. Gap Year has contemporary characters who exhibit the same positive and negative human characteristics as defined in the original version.  In building the modern narrative, Goldie Alexander has brought to life characters that we can understand and respond to. Merri is a likeable, young woman and we empathise with her problems, youthful traits and enthusiasm. We feel the confusion when she falls for Stuart Macbeth and the unfairness at her treatment by Laura Macbeth. Her blossoming as an adult contrasts with the downfall of the couple tainted by their greed and corruption.  It is the juxtaposition that makes this a great readable story.

Will current English students want to read this to enhance or explain the original text? I don't know: many are time-poor and additional reading is not popular.  But as a reader, I was happy to go on the journey with Merri and although I knew the ending, I was happy for the characters to take me there.

My only negative comment was the Wikipedia summary at the rear of the book.  A more educational source would have been preferable. I note that other adaptations in the series conclude with teachers’ notes.

Follow After Me

Follow After Me by Allison Marlow Paterson (Big Sky Publishing) PB RRP $17.50 ISBN: 9781925675580

Reviewed by Nikki M Heath

What happens when a rural teenager’s efforts to run with the popular crowd clash with her discoveries of a tragic wartime family history? Lizzie is a year 12 student who has turned her back on her studies, her family and her long-time friendship group after attracting the attentions of the cool girl and the most desirable boy in town. While her life begins to disintegrate, she reluctantly begins researching her family’s World War I history for a school project.

Alternating with Lizzie’s contemporary tale comes the story of her family’s experiences during the Great War, told through a combination of letters and third-person narration. The reader is immersed in the experience of war, from the process of enlisting and fighting on the Western Front, to bearing the inevitable anxiety and grief on the home front. While the historical chapters broadly focus around the relationship between Tom, the youngest of five sons to go to war, and his intended, Evie, the whole family’s experience is represented.

There’s a lot going on in this novel, which is heavily based on the author’s previous non-fiction work Anzac Sons: Five Brothers on the Western Front and her own family research. The contemporary chapters layer family tension, financial pressure, drought, teenage angst and year 12 stress. The reader is also confronted with a bald (though not excessively graphic) depiction of sexual assault and its aftermath. Marlow Paterson builds a strong sense of place through keen observation of small details (an ancient, dented kitchen table and threadbare tea-towel, for example) and the use of key features of the landscape to create echoing imagery.

The most important of those images is the ancient tree near the family homestead, which serves to tie the “then” and “now” strands of the story together with its significance to all the main protagonists. It serves as a motif for the novel’s unifying themes of family and romance, and the ghosts of the past lingering around its trunk give Lizzie valuable perspective on her life.

There is real emotional depth to this book, particularly in the historical chapters, which reduced me to tears and gave me chills down my arms on several occasions. Nevertheless, those chapters have some structural weaknesses. Marlow Paterson has tried to incorporate the breadth of her family’s experience and include some real letters from her research. This has educational value but also muddies points of view, which switch frequently between scenes and sometimes mid-scene. Some chapters, for example, take the point of view of the mother of the family, which resonated with me as a mother myself, but is not ideally tailored to a young adult audience. The emotional climax also comes relatively early in the novel – around the halfway mark – which makes for a long, melancholy denouement.

Follow After Me is a moving contribution to the increasingly popular YA war story genre. It will appeal to a wide range of older teenagers (and adults) from 14 years and up, particularly those with an interest in real stories, history or rural life, although it also has a place as contemporary fiction. Despite the female main protagonist, there is a lot here for boys, both in conveying the wartime experience of their predecessors and providing insight into the modern experience of teenage girls in a #MeToo era.