Holiday Reading 2002

Fiction for Young Adults

Anderson, M. T. Feed: In a future where most people have computer implants in their heads to control their environment, a boy meets an unusual girl who is in serious trouble.
Ashley, Bernard. Revenge house
Bagdasarian, Adam. First French kiss and other traumas: The author recounts humorous, sad, traumatic, romantic, and confusing episodes from his childhood.
Bedard, Michael. Stained glass: Hiding in a rundown church to avoid having to go to his piano lesson, fourteen year old Charles discovers an injured homeless girl with amnesia, and his curiosity about the girl leads him to try to help her.
Blackman, Malorie. Dead gorgeous: Moving to the country because her parents want to run a dilapidated old hotel is not Nova's idea of fun. But meeting the hotel's resident ghost makes it a bit more bearable for Nova especially as he's a gorgeous teenage boy, with problems of his own to sort out.
Bowler, Tim. Starseeker: Since the death of his father, Luke has changed his priorities and fallen into bad company. When his new friends persuade him to break into a house, he follows the sound of crying and, looking through a locked keyhole, discovers a girl standing alone, sobbing. Who is she and why is she so unhappy?
Breslin, Theresa. Remembrance: The destinies of two Scottish families, one of shopkeepers and one of wealth and power, become entwined through their involvement in World War I, social causes, and love.
Brooks, Kevin. Martyn Pig: With his father lying dead at his feet, Martyn Pig has two choices - he can tell the police what happened, that it was an accident, or he can get rid of the body and pretend to get on with the rest of his life. He decides on the latter.
Brugman, Alyssa. Walking naked: "Perdita was the most uncompromising person I have ever met, and when I think of her now, that is the quality I admire the most. It's also the quality that made her choose to die. I think she gave up on the world, and gave up on me, too soon. The thing that most disappoints me, is that Perdita was not around to see that I too have learned the enterprise in walking naked."
Cadnum, Michael. Forbidden forest: the story of Little John and Robin Hood: Profiles Little John, from his quiet life before joining Robin Hood through his adventures protecting a beautiful lady when she is wrongfully accused of murdering her husband. Sequel to In a dark wood.
Cadnum, Michael. The Leopard Sword: A knight's squire, exhausted from the Crusades, must use his sword to fight attacking infidels during the return voyage to England. Sequel to The book of the lion.
Cohn, Rachel. Gingerbread: After being expelled from a fancy boarding school, Cyd Charisse's problems with her mother escalate after Cyd falls in love with a sensitive surfer and is subsequently sent from San Francisco to New York City to spend time with her biological father.
Cooney, Caroline B. Goddess of yesterday: Left as the sole survivor of the island where she was once a playmate for a princess, Anaxandra takes on the role as Princess Callisto herself when found by Menelaus and taken to his kingdom of Sparta and his wife, Helen.
Confessions of a neo-milkmaid and other stories: Written by young Australians these seven novellas were the winners of the 2001 National Somerset Novella competition.
Crew, Gary. The diviner's son
Cross, Gillian. Calling a dead man: When John, an explosive expert dies in an accident, his sister and friend go there to mourn. Before long, they suspect there is more to his death than meets the eye and certain people are trying to keep them away from the truth.
Crowther, Peter. All we know of heaven
Dean, Carolee. Comfort: Fourteen-year-old Kenny Roy Willson fantasizes about escape from his hometown of Comfort, Texas, following his alcoholic father's release from prison.
Dessen, Sarah. This lullaby: Raised by a mother who's had five husbands, eighteen-year-old Remy believes in short-term, no-commitment relationships until she meets Dexter, a rock band musician.
Doyle, Brian. Mary Ann Alice: When a new project is presented to dam up the river, Mary Ann Alice and her teacher, Patchy Drizzle, know that many wonderful fossils and rocks will be lost forever.
Doyle, Malachy. Who is Jesse Flood?: Striving to cope with the arguments of his parents and his feelings of not belonging, fourteen-year-old Jesse Flood struggles to find his place in a small town in Northern Ireland.
Earls, Nick. Making laws for clouds
Frank, E. R. America: Teenage America, a boy who has spent many years in institutions for disturbed, antisocial behaviour, tries to piece his life together.
Freymann-Weyr, Garret. My heartbeat: As she tries to understand the closeness between her older brother and his best friend, 14-year-old Ellen finds her relationship with each of them changing.
Gantos, Jack. Hole in my life: The author relates how, as a young adult, he became a drug user and smuggler, was arrested, did time in prison, and eventually got out and went to college, all the while hoping to become a writer.
Goobie, Beth. Before wings: Having physically recovered from a brain aneurysm two years earlier, Adrian is drawn to the water at her aunt's summer camp, where she sees spirits dancing in the waves, calling to her, inviting her to join them, even as they reawaken Adrian's will to live.
Harland, Richard. Ferren and the white doctor: Volume Two of the Heaven and Earth trilogy.
Hearn, Lian. Across the nightingale floor: A fantasy novel set in medieval Japan, this story of ancient tradition undermined by spies and assassins unravels within a landscape of incomparable beauty torn by civil war.
Hoffman, Mary. Stravaganza: city of masks: While sick in bed with cancer, Lucien begins making journeys to a parallel Venice called Belleza, where he discovers he is a magician who can travel in space and time and is integral to saving Belleza from disaster.
Horowitz, Anthony. Skeleton key: Sequel to the dramatic thriller Point Blanc.
Howarth, Lesley. Carwash: It's summer and time for Luke to start up his carwash business again. But this summer will be different from the others.
Hughes, Dean. Soldier boys: Two boys, one German and one American, are eager to join their respective armies during World War II. Their paths cross at the Battle of the Bulge.
Koertge, Ron. Stoner & Spaz: A troubled youth with cerebral palsy struggles toward self-acceptance with the help of a drug-addicted young woman
Latifa. My forbidden face: A poignant first-hand account of life for a young Afghani woman under the Taliban. Born into an educated, middle-class family in Kabul, Latifa's world changed from the moment the Taliban seized power there in 1996. She reveals her helplessness and despair, and her own defiance under the regime.
Laird, Elizabeth. Jake's tower: Jake, abandoned by his father at birth and abused by his mother's boyfriend, plans his dream home, a tall thin tower with his own special room at the top and surrounded by a moat in which he is completely safe. When he and his mother run away and seek protection at his father's old home, he finds in his grandmother someone who gives him the strength to stand up for himself and to put away his fantasies and to face the truth about his father.
Larkin, John. Lasagne brain
Lawrence, Iain. The lightkeeper's daughter: When, after a four-year absence, seventeen-year-old Squid returns to her childhood home on a remote lighthouse island off British Columbia with her young daughter in tow, she and her parents try to come to terms with each other and the painful events of the past, especially the death of her older brother.
Lowe, Pat. Feeling the heat: An edgy, unpredictable story of self-discovery set in Australia's far north west.
Magrs, Paul. Strange boy: David is ten years old but growing up fast in a broken home in the north-east of England at the beginning of the 1980s. Afraid to trust his instincts and with his loyalties torn in two, he must face up to his childhood's end, his feuding family and his own burgeoning sexuality.
McDonald, Meme and Boori Monty Pryor. Njunjul the Sun: Final in the impressive trilogy that began with My Girragundji, this time exploring a young Aboriginal man's experience of life in the big city.
McKinley, Robin. Water: tales of elemental spirits: This volume has stories by both McKinley and Peter Dickinson.
Metzenthen, David. Wildlight: a journey: Set in Victoria during the 1840s this novel tells the story of Dirk Wildlight's coming of age as he escapes an abusive childhood and ventures out into the world.
Moeyaert, Bar.t It's love we don't understand: In three episodic scenes of their family life, a 15-year-old girl describes the troubled interrelationships, alternating between love and hate, between herself and her siblings and their self-absorbed, neglectful, and often absent mother.
Murray, Brendan. Tev: Fourteen-year-old Tevita Martin, a typical Australian teenager, is sent to Tonga, his mother's country of birth, for the Christmas holidays. There all sorts of wild things happen to Tev, and along the way he learns a lot about himself, his family and the advantages of his mixed cultural heritage.
Napoli, Donna Jo. Daughter of Venice: Frustrated with the restrictions her gender imposes on her life, 14-year-old Donata, disguised as a boy, sneaks out of her noble family's house to roam the streets of late sixteenth-century Venice. She must then confront the repercussions of her actions.
Newbery, Linda. The shell house: Greg's interest in a ruined mansion becomes more personal as he discovers the tragic events of its last inhabitants. Set against the modern day and World War I, Greg beliefs becomes intertwined with those of a foot soldier whose confusion about his sexuality and identity mirrors Greg's own feelings.
Nicholson, William. Firesong: The third volume in The wind on fire trilogy.
Oates, Joyce Carol. Big Mouth & Ugly Girl: When sixteen-year-old Matt is falsely accused of threatening to blow up his high school and his friends turn against him, an unlikely classmate comes to his aid.
Park, Linda Sue. When my name was Keoko: With national pride and occasional fear, a brother and sister face the increasingly oppressive occupation of Korea by Japan during World War II, which threatens to suppress Korean culture entirely.
Pierce, Tamora. Lady knight: When she becomes a knight, 18-year-old Kel hopes to be given a combat post, but instead she finds herself named commander of an outpost of refugees, where she must face the unnatural forces of the evil Balyce. The fourth volume in the Protector of the small series.
Prue, Sally. Cold Tom: "A bold mixture of magic and realism."
Rai, Bali. Dream on: Baljit's mates knew what was what. If you were good at football, really good, you could go places. But all his old man ever talked about was duty to the family and paying bills. Baljit couldn't just go on working in his old man's chippie. He wanted out!
Rennison, Louise . Dancing in my nuddy-pants: further confessions of Georgia Nicolson: Sequel to Knocked out by my nunga-nungas.
Richemont, Enid. For Maritsa, with love: Maritsa is a young homeless girl, living in the Paris Metro, begging for a living. Then she meets a man and his wife who promise her stardom. Her story takes a darker twist and Maritsa gets sucked into a world of porn and prostitution.
Riordan, James. Match of death: Vova is a 15-year-old boy living in Kiev. His first love is playing football, but when the Nazis invade the Ukraine in 1941, priorities change, and Vova and his sister join the partisans, to attempt to fight the enemy. Soon he becomes involved in a game with much higher stakes _ lose and live, or win and die.
Salisbury, Graham. Island boyz: Short stories set in Hawaii.
Singer, Nicky. Feather boy: Robert, the class victim who is never picked for the team, starts a quest to solve tbe mystery of derelict Chance House.
Smith, Sherri L. Lucy the giant: Fifteen-year-old Lucy, the largest girl in her school, leaves her small Alaska town and her alcoholic father and discovers hardship, and friendship, posing as an adult aboard a commercial fishing boat.
Rees, Celia. Sorceress: Mary and Agnes' lives may be separated by 400 years, but they are still linked by more than blood. Like Mary, Agnes has special powers and it is those special powers that Mary will rely on to tell her story. Sequel to Witch child.
Wilson, Jacqueline. Girls in tears: Ellie, Magda and Nadine have got all sorts of trouble. A kiss at a party threatens to break Ellie and Magda's friendship. But they both know that Nadine's about to get into big trouble with an `Internet date' and only the two of them together can save her. Will pride or friendship come first?
Zephaniah, Benjamin. Refugee boy: Left by his father in London because of the political situation in Ethopia Alem, now on his own, is in the hands of the social services and the Refugee Council. He lives from letter to letter, waiting to hear from his father, and in particular about his mother who has now gone missing.