Holiday Reading 2000: A selection of children's and young adults' books

  • Young adults

  • Anderson, Rachel. Bloom of youth First in the Moving times series.
  • Anderson, Rachel. Warlands "A quite wonderful novel" about a refugee from Vietnam. (Times Educational Supplement)
  • Barnes, Helen. Killing Aurora
  • Barrett, Tracy. Anna of Byzantium Based on The Alexiad by Anna Comnena. In the eleventh century the teenage princess Anna Comnena fights for her birthright, the throne to the Byzantine Empire, which she fears will be taken from her by her younger brother John because he is a boy.
  • Bertagna, Julie. Soundtrack Life in a small fishing village changes when a fishing vessel is sunk by a submarine.
  • Block, Francesca Lia. Violet & Claire In search of material for a screenplay they are developing, seventeen-year-old Violet and her new friend Claire try to make life a movie as they chase their dreams through dangerously beautiful Los Angeles.
  • Bloor, Edward. Tangerine Twelve-year-old Paul, who lives in the shadow of his football hero brother Erik, fights for the right to play soccer despite his near blindness and slowly begins to remember the incident that damaged his eyesight.
  • Bunting, Eve. Blackwater When a boy and girl are drowned in the Blackwater River, thirteen-year-old Brodie must decide whether to confess that he may have caused the accident.
  • Cadnum, Michael. The book of the Lion Sequel, of sorts, to the acclaimed In a dark wood. Squire Edmund accompanies a knight on crusade to the Holy Land. Somewhat more episodic than In a dark wood this tale is nonetheless stirring and poetic.
  • Cadnum, Michael. Rundown As a game, sixteen-year-old Jennifer pretends that she has been attacked by a serial rapist, but then she finds herself getting more attention than she wanted from the police and her parents.
  • Crew, Gary. Edward Britton Edward is a 17-year-old convict transported to a boys' prison in Port Arthur, Australia.
  • Disher, Garry. From your friend, Louis Deane
  • Earls, Nick. 48 shades of brown An exceptionally funny, and subtle, novel about "breaking free, finding your feet, falling in love, and strange birds". Winner of the Children's Book Council of Australia's Book of the Year for Older Readers.
  • Fienberg, Anna. Borrowed light
  • Flame angels: an anthology of Irish writing
  • Fleischman, Paul. Cannibal in the mirror Selections from anthropological writings are paired with photographs of twentieth-century people engaged in similar activities. One of those books that make readers see the world quite differently.
  • Fleischman, Paul. Mind's eye A novel in play form in which sixteen-year-old Courtney, paralysed in an accident, learns about the power of the mind from an elderly blind woman who takes Courtney on an imaginary journey to Italy using a 1910 guidebook.
  • Garden, Nancy. The year they burned the books While trying to come to terms with her own lesbian feelings, Jamie, a high-school senior and editor of the school newspaper, finds herself in the middle of a battle with a group of townspeople over the new health education curriculum.
  • Geras, Adele. Troy Told from the viewpoints of various characters, including the gods themselves, this is a marvellous rendition of a familiar story, also retold recently by Ken Catran in Golden prince and Neo's war and by Paul Fleischman in Dateline: Troy.
  • Gwynne, Phillip. Nukkin ya This sequel to brilliant, award winning Deadly unna? maintains its light, sardonic tone but adds a deeper layer of cynicism as Blacky's romance with Clarence engenders even more racist behaviour from the residents of the Port. A totally unexpected twist in the tale concludes this "significant and impressive work".
  • Harris, Christine. Foreign devil Winner of the Aurealis Award for best horror novel of 2000.
  • Hautman, Pete. Feeling lucky Focus on teenage gambling.
  • Herrick, Steven. The simple gift Verse novel about Billy who runs away from home and finds shelter in a disused railway freight car. "Fine work," said the reviewer in the Australian Book Review.
  • Hicyilmaz, Gaye. Girl in red A story of prejudice and betrayal.
  • Kelleher, Victor. The ivory trail Jammie Hassan is 15 years old and, with the help of his very bizarre family, learns to channel and to step into the realms of the dead. Here he follows the ivory trail, a pathway through the years signposted by an ancient ivory carving of an elephant. To reach his goal he must somehow piece together the complex puzzle of everything he experiences.
  • Kerr, M E. What became of her Edgar Tobbit meets Neal Kraft at a group session arranged by their psychotherapist and their friendship ends up thwarting the plans of an eccentric widow to get revenge on the town where she was mistreated as a young girl.
  • Killeen, Gretel. My life is a wedgie
  • Lanagan Margo. White time Short stories. "Enter White time at your peril, for it is impossible to read this compelling collection without being shattered, amused, astonished, entranced and ultimately… altered." (Isobelle Carmody.)
  • Lawrence, Iain. The smugglers In eighteenth-century England, after his father buys a schooner called the Dragon, sixteen-year-old John sets out to sail it from Kent to London and becomes involved in a dangerous smuggling scheme. An thrilling sequel to The wreckers.
  • Lester, Julius. Pharaoh's daughter A fictionalized account of a Biblical story in which an Egyptian princess rescues a Hebrew infant who becomes a prophet of his people while his sister finds her true self as a priestess to the Egyptian gods.
  • Levitin, Sonia. The cure A sixteen-year-old boy living in 2407 collides with the past when he finds himself in Strasbourg in 1348 confronting the anti-Semitism that sweeps through Europe during the Black Plague.
  • Lowry, Lois. Gathering blue A companion to The giver this book is set in a future where mass destruction has reduced life to subsistence level. Plucked from the destructive life of her village, Kira is raised in status because of her skills in threading. Her artistic ability is, however, slowly harnessed to a purpose that does not respect artistry for its own sake.
  • McKinley, Robin. Spindle's end The infant princess Briar Rose is cursed on her name day by Pernicia, an evil fairy, and then whisked away by a young fairy to be raised in a remote part of a magical country, unaware of her real identity and hidden from Pernicia's vengeful powers. Detailed, and rather slow moving as a result, this is highly enjoyable nonetheless.
  • Mankell, Henning. Secrets in the fire A story of courage and survival in the landmine ridden country of Mozambique.
  • Marsden, John. Winter Readable but lacking depth. Winter, aged 16, returns to her home to find out why her parents died when she was just four years old.
  • Moriarty, Jaclyn. Feeling sorry for Celia A humorous story of love and relationships told in entirely in a variety of letter formats.
  • Myers, Walter Dean. 145th Street: short stories Ten stories portray life on a block in Harlem.
  • Napoli, Donna. Crazy Jack In this version of the traditional tale of the boy who climbs a beanstalk, Jack searches for his father, falls in love with Flora, and learns the value of real treasure.
  • Napoli, Donna Jo. Spinners Elaborates on the events recounted in the fairy tale, Rumpelstiltskin, in which a strange little man helps a miller's daughter spin straw into gold for the king on the condition that she will give him her first-born child.
  • Naylor, Phyllis Reynolds. The grooming of Alice During the summer between eighth and ninth grades, Alice and her friends Pamela and Elizabeth decide to improve their body image through exercise.
  • Nix, Garth. Lirael: daughter of the Clayr By the author of Shade's children.
  • Nolan, Han. A face in every window After the death of his grandmother, who held the family together, teenage JP is left with a mentally challenged father and a mother who seems ineffectual and constantly sick, and he feels everything sliding out of control.
  • Parry, Glyn. Scooterboy In the summer of her 17th birthday, Sam meets the scooterboy. Has there ever been a guy like him - cool, sexy, mysterious? Not in Hidden Valley with its small town gossip and redneck ways.
  • Places I never meant to be: original stories by censored writers edited by Judy Blume. A collection of short stories accompanied by brief essays on censorship, by 12 authors whose works have been challenged in the past.
  • Pressler, Mirjam. Shylock's daughter The story of Jessica, daughter of Shakespeare's Shylock, and her doomed love for Lorenzo.
  • Rennison, Louise. Angus, thongs and full-frontal snogging: confessions of Georgia Nicolson Humorous journal of a year in the life of a fourteen-year-old British girl who tries to reduce the size of her nose, stop her mad cat from terrorizing the neighbourhood animals, and win the love of handsome hunk Robbie.
  • Riley, Hazel. Thanis
  • Spinelli, Jerry. Stargirl In this story about the perils of popularity, the courage of nonconformity and the thrill of first love, an eccentric student named Stargirl changes Mica High School forever.
  • Voigt, Cynthia. Elske Thirteen-year-old Elske escapes rape and certain death at the hands of the leaders of her barbaric society and later becomes handmaiden to a rebellious noblewoman whose rightful throne they reclaim. Final in the outstanding Kingdom series.
  • Wheatley, Nadia. Vigil
  • Yolen, Jane. Queen's own fool: a novel of Mary Queen of Scots When twelve-year-old Nicola leaves Troupe Brufort and serves as the fool for Mary, Queen of Scots, she experiences the political and religious upheavals in both France and Scotland.