February 2008

This is an initial list of books which I hope will be a useful resource for teachers and librarians for the Middle Years Programme Areas of Interaction  of the International Baccalaureate.  I have included picture books, poetry, drama, autobiography and traditional stories all under fiction.  I have tried to choose books which do not have a narrow focus but which are trans-disciplinary in concept.  The titles have been included under the Area of Interaction which I think is most appropriate.  However obviously many of these titles would also fit very well into one or more of the other Areas of Interaction.  Please contact me if you would like recommendations for books on specific subject areas, and at a particular age level.  The list will gradually be added to and improved as I have time to add to it and as I get more feedback from teachers and librarians.  I have divided the list into the five areas of interaction (though I realise that there can be considerable overlap between various themes).  I have given an indication of reading levels to each of the titles.

Please Note   All prices are in Australian dollars and include the 10% GST tax.  However this GST does not apply to exports from Australia.

If you would like to order any of the books on the list, send the orders to Austral Ed by post, fax or by email.  Payment can be made with bank cheques in Australian dollars, by direct bank transfer or by Credit card.   Freight is sent by the most economical method within Australia or overseas, depending on urgency.

Please note that titles newly included in this list are marked •  

Recommended by Kate Shepherd

Approaches to Learning

Fiction and autobiography

Aquila by Andrew Norriss  pb $14.95
When Geoff and Tom discover the skeleton of a Roman centurion and a UFO, it sparks an intense desire to find out more about the centurion and how the machine could work.  Their teachers are dumbfounded because neither student has previously ever shown any interest in school work.  This book is great fun as the boys discover the wonders of flying a UFO but it is also an exploration of how we learn and what motivates us.  (10 – 14 years)

Chinese Cinderella  by Adeline Yen Mah  pb $17.95  
This is the story of Adeline Yen Mah’s childhood up to the age of 14 years.  The full story of her determination to overcome the pain of being an unwanted child and to make something of her life was told in the very popular adult novel, Falling Leaves.  It was her determination to learn and to do well at school that enabled her to make a different life for herself.   This book has been well adapted by the author herself for younger readers.  (11 - 14 years)

Daughter of Venice  by Donna Jo Napoli  pb $16.95
Set in C16th Venice, this is an intriguing portrait of a young girl who is intensely curious about the world and its workings and who longs to know more about everything.  As a young noblewoman, her life is very circumscribed until she comes up with an audacious plan that enables her to leave the palazzo and explore the city.  It is a novel which succeeds in incorporating fascinating historical detail into the fabric of the story.  (11 – 15 years)

• Don’t call Me Ishmael! by Michael Bauer  pb $18.00
This book is written with a flair and vigour and love of language which is invigorating and very, very funny.  Ishmael Leseur is bullied at school but describes his humiliation in a very funny self-deprecating way.  He is amazed when James Scobie comes to the school and shows no fear of the class bully but wins encounters time and again through a very clever wit and fast thinking.  When Ishmael becomes involved with James Scobie and an attempt to set up a debating team, it looks disastrous but is hilarious as the team attempts to work on a topic from totally different perspectives.  However the team does learn to work together and their thinking and communication skills improve greatly.  Very enjoyable .  (11 - 16 years)

• The Goat who sailed the World by Jackie French  pb $15.00
This book has two narrators, a young twelve year old boy called Isaac Manley and a much travelled and superior Goat.  This is a narrative device which gives us two very different perspectives on Cooks’ voyage around the world from 1768 to 1771.  The Goat views the voyage from her position on the high quarterdeck near the officers for whom her milk provided much needed nourishment.  She was a remarkable creature as is testified by the honours heaped upon her on her return to England, including a State pension from the Admiralty.  Jackie French has taken the story of the voyage from various diaries such as those by Joseph Banks and Captain James Cook where there is much information about the actual voyage but very little on the interesting details of day to day life.  These details Jackie has made up herself and they make this voyage of discovery, when Australia was discovered and the ship almost wrecked on the Great Barrier Reef, an extremely interesting story.  Jackie also includes notes on the history and websites where journals of the voyage can be accessed.  I think this book could inspire much original historical reading by young readers.  (8 - 14 years)

Kelp   by Linda Aronson  pb $16.95 
This is the very funny story of Emily Tait who is only fourteen but longs to be a business tycoon.  She can see business opportunities everywhere especially in the family seaweed business that her eccentric family run on an island off the coast of Australia.  However she learns that change is not as easy as she had thought as it can have far-reaching impact on people.  The story lends itself to wide ranging discussion on many topics such as business and business ethics, family, conservation and so on.  (11 – 16 years)

Sing to the Dawn  by Minfong Ho  pb  $12.95 
Set in a marginal rice growing area of Thailand this short novel would be an excellent introduction to a discussion of the effect of climate and geography on village life in parts of Asia.  Some of the frustrations, difficulties and injustices of village life are revealed in this story of Dawan, a 12 year old girl who strives to continue her education at a high school in Thailand in spite of competition from her brother and opposition from her father.  (10 years up)

Community and Service

Picture Books

For Every Child  The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in words and pictures text adapted by Caroline Castle  pb $21.95  
A beautifully illustrated picture book which restates in simple language fifteen  of the most important Rights of the Child.  Each Right of the Child is illustrated in a very different style by a different artist from round the world.  There is much to discuss.  (7 – 12 years)

My Dog  by John Heffernan illus by Andrew McLean   pb $16.00
A very moving understated story in picture book format of terrible suffering as a consequence of ethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavia.  Seen through the eyes of a young boy, the story is illustrated sensitively illustrated in water colours by Andrew McLean. It would be a moving introduction to discussion on human rights.  (8 – 12 years)

Grandfather’s Journey by Allen Say   hardback  $33.95 
A beautifully illustrated picture book for older students.  Allen Say’s grandfather made the journey from Japan to the United States when he was a young man and this story beautifully describes through text and illustrations the love that he and his grandson feel for both countries.  Many students will relate to the feelings of longing expressed.   (9 years up)

• The Arrival  by Shaun Tan  hardback $39.95

This extraordinary book has amazed and delighted everyone I have shown it to.  It is textless and depicts many strange things and a world that we do not understand and yet at the same time it is not difficult to understand.  It shows the experience of an immigrant when he or she comes to a country where they know no one and understand very little.  Shaun Tan wants us to understand the feelings of apprehension as a young man leaves his young wife and daughter and his country to travel a vast distance to a completely different country where he can’t speak the language or read any signs. A country where the landscape and the creatures and even the pets are very different and where he doesn’t understand how things work or what is the purpose of so many strange things.  However on his arrival in this new land, he meets new friends who show him how to get to places and how things work and they also tell him the stories of how they too came to this new land.  And so we get the very moving stories of a number of immigrant families.  The illustrations are meticulously drawn in detailed panels of illustrations or sometimes full page illustrations in black and white or various shades of grey and sepia.  It is a very evocative and moving book.  It could be used with children from about 9 years up I think but it would be especially effective when used with older students in upper elementary and middle school.  It is especially helpful for discussion with any study concerning immigrants.  (9 years to adult)

Fiction and Autobiography

Benny and Omar by Eoin Colfer pb $16.95
Benny is devastated when he has to leave Ireland and his hurling friends and go and live in Tunisia.  He is a rebel and finds the unthreatening friendly atmosphere of the international school very strange and feels more at ease with a young homeless Tunisian boy who is forced to live life on the edge.  Colfer succeeds in giving a believable, unsentimental portrayal  of poverty and homelessness.   (10 – 15 years)

Boy Overboard  by Morris Gleitzman   pb $16.95     Also as 2 audio cassettes  $14.95   Gleitzman has succeeded in writing a comic/tragic account of a refugee family from  Afghanistan.  Jamal and Bibi are ordinary kids who love soccer and kids will relate to their plight as they are forced to flee Afghanistan, because their mother has been running a school for girls, which was of course forbidden.  Their lives are often in great danger but amazingly enough it is often very funny.  There is much that can be discussed.  In the sequel Girl Underground, pb $14.95, the children are now in a detention camp in Australia.  Two Australian children attempt to help them to escape.  Again humour and tragedy mixed and much to discuss regarding action which can make a difference.   (9 years up)
                                                                                                                         
Coram Boy by Jamila Gavin  pb $14.95
This story has an assuredness and depth of compassion and of reality in character portrayal beyond any of Jamila Gavin’s other books.  The book won the Whitbread Children’s Book Award in 2001.  Set in eighteenth century England, the story is woven around the “Coram Man” who collected unwanted babies or children for a fee while assuring their desperate mothers that they would be taken to the Coram Hospital and Orphanage where they would be cared for.  However the children were often sold into slavery and the babies were disposed of.  A number of absorbing interlocking stories are woven around this horrific backdrop making a novel of great intensity, emotion, love and courage. (12 years up)

Deadly Unna? By Phillip Gwynne pb $19.95   
This is a perceptive and highly entertaining book describing the growing friendship between Blacky, a white teenager and Dumby Red an Aboriginal young man from out of town and how it is affected by the narrowness and pervasive racism of a country town.  In the sequel Nukkin Ya, pb $17.95, Blacky falls for Dumby’s cousin but it seems that the whole town has objections to them going out together.  Blacky does succeed in making a statement to the town on how he feels about racism. (13 years up)

Mao’s Last Dancer  (Young Readers’ edition) by Li Cunxin  pb $17.95 
This is wonderful story about an eleven year old boy from rural China who was chosen to study ballet at Madame Mao's Dance Academy in Beijing.  His mother told him to try hard to succeed because it would be his only chance of escaping the extreme poverty of his parents and his six brothers.  At first Li Cunxin was intensely lonely and he hated the harsh regimen of the Academy but his struggle not to give up gradually developed into a strong determination to succeed as a ballet dancer.  He finally became one of the top dancers in the USA and then in Australia.  The adult edition (pb $32.95) has been immensely popular in Australia.  Li Cunxin has adapted the book himself for younger readers.  The writing has been simplified a little and he has given a greater emphasis to his childhood years at the Academy and less to his adult years as a dancer when he defected to the US.  This is an engaging and inspiring autobiography.  It is being made into a film. (11 - 15 years)   

My Forbidden Face  Growing Up Under the Taliban: A Young Woman’s Story  by Latifa  pb $22.95    This is the true story of Latifa who was sixteen years old when the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan.  She was studying to be a journalist and had enjoyed a liberal life when suddenly with her mother and elder sister, she became a prisoner in her own home.  This is a vivid portrait of the days that followed the Taliban’s seizure of power and the desperate circumstances for many Afghanis, especially the women.  Although written from a personal point of view, the book is also very helpful in giving some understanding of the complex political situation in Afghanistan.  Latifa becomes very depressed and sick because of her enforced confinement, but when she, her sister and a friend set up a clandestine school for children they shake off their feeling of utter uselessness.  (12 years up)

No Gun for Asmir  by Christobel Mattingley  pb $16.95 
Set in war torn Sarajevo.   A Muslim mother and two children escape to become refugees without knowing what has happened to the father left behind in Sarajevo. This moving story is told from the point of view of Asmir, the elder boy and is based on a real life story.  (9 – 13 years)

The Other Facts of Life by Morris Gleitzman  pb $14.95
Originally written for a television series called The Winners, this book is simply written with a racy text.  However at times there is biting satirical humour on an environmental theme.  (11 years up)

The Other Side of Truth  by Beverley Naidoo  pb $12.95
This is a moving story about a young girl and her brother who are smuggled into Britain after their mother is killed by gunmen because of their journalist father’s outspoken newspaper articles against corruption in Nigeria.  Beverley Naidoo describes the bureaucratic procedures involved in becoming considered for refugee status and we start to understand just how traumatic the whole procedure must be for the children and their father.  (10 - 15 years)

Parvana  by Deborah Ellis  pb $15.95   
This novel describes life under the rule of the Taliban in Afghanistan.  Parvana is an eleven year old girl who used to love going to school but under the Taliban ruling was forced to stay at home.  When both her parents lose their jobs and then her father is arrested, their plight becomes desperate since girls and women were not allowed to leave the house unless accompanied by a man.  In order for the family to survive, Parvana disguises herself as a boy.  It is a disturbing story but the emphasis is on a young girl’s courage and determination.  (The original Canadian edition is called The Breadwinner.)    •  The sequel is Parvana’s Journey  pb $15.95 (10 - 14 years)

Refugee Boy by Benjamin Zephaniah  pb $ 15.95
Alem’s father is Ethiopian and his mother Eritrean and with both countries at war they are welcome in neither country.  His father takes him to and leaves him there in the hope that Alem will be granted refugee status so that his son can escape the persecution that the whole family has been suffering.   The tension rises as Alem and his father try to negotiate the tortuous bureaucratic process of trying to gain refugee status.   Finally it is Alem’s friends who organise a demonstration in support of Alem and more compassionate treatment of refugees.  This is a powerful story of courage and friendship.  (11 - 16 years)

• To the Boy in Berlin  by Elizabeth Honey and Heike Brandt  pb $15.95 

This is the story of an intriguing email correspondence between Henni who lives in Melbourne, Australia and Leo Schmidt in Berlin.  The emails fly backwards and forwards providing much amusement and also glimpses of the difference and similarities between their lives.  They both become involved in working on Henni’s school project which involves fascinating historical documentation about early German immigration to Australia and the treatment of Germans in Australia during the 2 World wars.   We also learn incidentally about some of the problems of immigration in Germany and Australia today.  I especially liked the humour, especially humour concerning the difficulties of translation and also some of the extraordinarily long German words that exist.  This is an excellent book for discussion on a variety of topics.   (10 – 14 years).

Homo Faber (or Human Creativity)

Picture Books

D is for Doufou: An Alphabet Book of Chinese Culture  by Krach Maywan Shen illus by Hongbin Zhang   pb $26.95    An exceptional book which gives an insight into the pictographic nature of the Chinese language through 25 Chinese words and phrases.  It gives a fascinating historical and cultural background through well known words such as kungfu, feng shui or more complex words like “ai” meaning “love” where the explanation shows some of the cultural differences between Chinese and western ways of thinking.   Wonderful illustrations in the style of Chinese folk art.  (9 years up)

Tokyo Friends  - Tokyo no Tomodachi  by Betty Reynolds pb   $16.95
This is an excellent introduction to Japanese language and culture and also some of the differences between Japanese and western customs.  When Katie meets her two Japanese friends in Tokyo, they show us some of the everyday things that they do and the Japanese and English words for them.  The words are written in English, in Japanese phonetically and also in the Japanese script and are accompanied by lively illustrations.  (6 - 12 years)

The Highwayman by Alfred Noyes illustrated by Charles Keeping pb $21.95   This classic stirring poem comes to life through the stunning black and white illustrations by Charles Keeping.  (10 years up)   

Collections

A Kick in the Head: An Everyday Guide to Poetic Form  selected by Paul B Janeczko illustrated by Chris Raschka  hardback $29.95     A delightful selection of poems which are examples of 29 different poetic forms.  The author explains that knowing the rules makes the writing of the poem more challenging, more exciting, more like a game.  Each poem is imaginatively illustrated and the poems are chosen for their wit, beauty and as examples of their particular form.  There is a detailed description of the forms and how it works at the end of the book.  (10 – 14 years)

In Every Tiny Grain of Sand   A Child’s Book of Prayers and Praise collected by Reeve Lindbergh. hardback   $34.95      A beautiful collection of poems and prayers that comes from people of many different ages, cultures and religions round the world. It is divided into different sections: For the Day, For the Earth, For the Home and For the Night, each of which is illustrated by a different artist.  (9 years up)

Poems From Many Cultures Compiled by Fiona Waters  hardback  $39.95
A wonderful collection of poetry from many different cultures round the world.  It includes well known poets such as Wole Soyinka (Nigeria), Michael Ondaatje (Sri Lanka), Grace Nichols (Guyana) and Benjamin Zephaniah (Jamaica/England) and many more not so well known.  Some poems are traditional though most are modern.  All the poems give us an insight into the way people think and feel and see from different cultures round the world.  (11 years up)                                                                                                         

Seasons of Splendour by Madhur Jaffrey  pb  $16.95
These are marvellous retellings of traditional tales from Hindu epics, which Madhur Jaffrey has enriched with descriptions of how the stories were told and celebrated in her own family.  The stories have been arranged in sequence as they might be told at religious festivals in the course of a Hindu calendar year.   It is a collection which gives a rich personal insight into Indian life. (8 years up)

This Same Sky A collection of poems from around the world  selected by Naomi Shihab Nye   pb  $19.95   An excellent collection of poems from round the world.  A very impressive range and choice of inviting poems from a truly wide range of countries and cultures. (8 years up).

Fiction

The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents  by Terry Pratchett  pb $19.95
It is hard to know which area is most appropriate for this wonderfully entertaining and continually surprising story of Maurice, a streetwise tomcat who suddenly has acquired the gift of talking and thinking.  He wants to put these skills to ever more inventive money-making scams with the assistance of his unlikely friends the educated rats who also acquired the skills of speaking and thinking at about the same time.  However as a natural consequence of being able to think, some of the rats begin to struggle with the question of what is right and what is wrong (especially in relation to some of Maurice’s schemes) and also with the stirrings of a conscience. This is a hilarious skit on the story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin, however it could also be used as a challenging and very entertaining introduction to the subject  of ethics.  (10 – 16 years)

Galax-Arena  by Gillian Rubinstein pb $16.96 
Peter, Joella and Liane managed to escape from a life in which they were forced to perform acrobatics in a highly competitive dangerous world. It is a gripping and thought-provoking futuristic story.   (11 - 16 years)

• Macbeth and Son by Jackie French  pb $15.95
I have included this book because it deals with a most unusual topic for a novel.  Jackie French has written a novel about the truth in history and whether it really matter?  Her complaint is with Shakespeare who wrote about the Scottish King Macbeth who was by all accounts an honourable king but was turned into a villain in Shakespeare’s play Macbeth.  Jackie uses the dreams of a modern day boy, Luke who is studying the play at school to show what really? or possibly happened to Lulach and his father Macbeth in eleventh century Scotland.  She uses a time-slip device to contrast events in the lives of both Luke and Lulach.  Jackie vividly describes the battles and difficulties Lulach faces.  But the most fascinating aspect of the story is the theme of whether the truth really matters and whether Shakespeare was justified in making Macbeth a villain for the sake of the play.  This would make a fascinating book for discussion.  (11 – 14 years)

Weird Stuff by Richard Tulloch  pb $15.95
This is a very funny novel about a boy who, although he thinks he has very little imagination is always able to think up fantastic excuses for being late for school.  However when it comes to creative writing he can never think of anything to say. This all changes when he borrows a pink Easyflow pen from a friend and he finds he can hardly stop writing but to his dismay, the writing is flowery and romantic. In the midst of all the fun, Richard invites kids to look at and compare various writing styles.  This book would be great to read aloud and then to discuss.  Sequels are Weird Stuff and Awesome Stuff  pb $15.95 each  (9 - 13 years).

Drama

Zap  by Paul Fleischman   hardback $24.95  pb $12.95
Paul Fleischman is well known as an author and poet but this is his first play.  He decided to write it because so many schools seemed to put on the same plays and he thought he would try something different.  He liked the idea of using the idea of the “zap” of the remote control to be able to switch back and forth between various types of plays.  He decided to use Richard III and then to write six other plays all modelled on familiar categories or type of plays. There is plenty of action for as soon as the action appears to wane a little the scene flicks back and forth between each of the plays.  There are many very funny contrasts.  I think it would be a wonderful play for discussion and to illustrate the different conventions of various plays and their contrasts and similarities but best of all would be to perform it.  (14 years up)

Environment

Picture books

My Place  by Nadia Wheatley illus by Donna Rawlins   pb $19.95
By moving backwards in decades from 1989, this sophisticated picture book shows how a particular neighbourhood in Sydney has changed from an urban street to the first white settlement and before to the time when the Aborigines lived there. The story is told through the eyes of the various children who lived there.  An innovative book which inspires students to work on similar projects wherever they are in the world.  (8  years up)

The Rabbits by John Marsden  illus by Shaun Tan  hardback $29.00  pb $17.00  
A sophisticated picture books for middle & secondary students.   A powerful allegory which surveys, aided through extraordinarily innovative illustrations, the impact rabbits (and human rabbits) have had on the Australian land

Fiction

Blueback: A Fable for all Ages  by Tim Winton   pb $14.95 
An environmentally conscious story about Abel and his mother who live by the sea and whose lives revolve round the ocean.  They endeavour to protect their bit of ocean and the creatures who live in it from anything that may harm them.   (9 years up)

Escape to Kalimantan   by Steve Tolbert pb $18.95 
Jack and his father head to Kalimantan in Indonesia hoping to leave behind many family problems.  In the wild life reserve in the jungle they are ecstatic to see the orangutans but appalled at the threat of poachers which kill, maim and capture.  This is a well written depiction of the threats facing wild life reserves in Indonesia and other countries.  (12 - 16 years)

Hatchet by Gary Paulsen  pb $14.95
This is a story of survival.  Brian is travelling in a plane over the Alaskan wilderness when it crashes.  With nothing but a hatchet rescued from the plane Brian survives for 59 days alone before being rescued.  It is a fascinating exploration of his thoughts and feelings towards himself and the environment as he struggles to find ways to survive and the change he feels in himself as he realises that he can.  (10 – 15 years) 

Journey to the River Sea by Eva Ibbotson  pb $14.95
A splendid story about a young orphan girl who at the turn of the century goes on a long journey with her governess to the Amazon.  The town of Manaus is a place of horror to some because of its all pervasive insects, wildlife, heat, fearsome Indians and steamy lushness but for others like Maia and her governess, it is a place of endless wonder, of amazing creatures, plant life and people.  Maia the young orphan girl is a most resourceful heroine who shows her ingenuity time and again as she struggles to live in the same house as her thoroughly obnoxious relatives.  This is a richly satisfying adventure story which has warmth, humour and a sense of the fantastic. (9 - 14 years)

Kensuke’s Kingdom  by Michael Morpurgo  pb $14.95 
When Michael is washed up on an island he struggles to survive on his own.  He is about to give up when food appears.  He is not alone.  This is a wonderful story of survival and about Kensuke, an elderly Japanese man who lives on the island and has survived for many years using traditional Japanese skills and crafts. (9 – 15 years).
           
Village by the Sea  by Anita Desai pb  $18.95 
A moving story by this well known author showing some of the problems facing families trying to escape from the poverty of village life in India.  It shows some of the environmental problems facing villagers as the population increases and resources are threatened.  (12 years up)

Health and Social Education

Fiction

• After the Death of Alice Bennett by Rowland Molony  pb $13.95

After the death of his much loved mother, Sam struggles to understand what happens to people when they die.  His Mum had said just her body was dying and that she was just going to the Other Side and so why couldn’t he get in touch with her?  When Sam texts a message to a contact number in his mother’s handwriting that has been left on the fridge and receives a message back, he is convinced it is from someone who is in touch with his mother.  The story of who Sam is really texting makes for an absorbing story.  This is an extremely moving story about life, death and the impact of our lives on others in life and in death.    (11 years up)

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon
pb $23.95  Written from the perspective of a fifteen year old boy who has Asperger’s Syndrome, this is a very moving story.  Christopher is brilliant at maths and science but is unable to respond to or to give affection.  He keeps his own rules which he has invented to make sense of his life.  When he finds his neighbour’s dog dead on his front lawn, he is determined to find the culprit and following his own internal logic he investigates the crime. (13 years up)  

A Different Sort of Real: the Diary of Charlotte McKenzie, Melbourne 1918 - 1919   by Kerry Greenwood   hardback and pb $18.00   A most absorbing and believable story.   Charlotte struggles to understand her father’s shell shock as a result of the Great War but she finds great rewards as she helps the local doctor tend patients stricken by the devastating influenza epidemic sweeping the community.  (9 years up)

A Gathering Light by Jennifer Donnelly pb $16.95
This is a beautifully written book which is fascinating in its portrait of a small community in the Adirondack region in the early 1900s.  The story is based on the real murder of a young pregnant girl who is found drowned in a lake and her story is linked to that of Mattie, about the same age, who is torn between her sense of responsibility to look after her family, her first romance and her intense desire to write and to be independent.  There are many wonderful insights into Mattie’s feelings and desires and the difficulties that beset so many women of that time who wanted an education and independence. (13 years up) 

Flour Babies   by Anne Fine  pb $12.95
A very entertaining novel which a class is given a lesson in responsibility when they have to care for their “flour babies” which are really six pound bags of flour, as if they were real babies. (9 – 13 years)

Lady Dance  by Jackie French pb $14.95 
An unusual story about the horrors of the plague set in medieval times. (9 – 14 years)

Looking for Alibrandi by Melina Marchetta pb $22.95 Film Tie-in,  pb $19.95  
It has been a bestseller with adolescents and adults because of its vitality and exuberance.  Josephine is an Australian, of Italian background and this is the story of her final school year.  Winner of the CBC Award 1993.  (13 years up)

Love, Ghosts and Nose Hair by Steven Herrick pb $18.95 
A highly successful verse novel.  Humorous, engaging, sad and full of vitality this is the story of 16 year old Jack and his friends, his family, his hopes and his fears.  (13 years up)

The Midwife’s Apprentice by Cushman  pb $14.95
A homeless young girl is given food and shelter in return for helping the village midwife.  However she shows such determination and perseverance that she is finally accepted as the midwife’s apprentice. (10 – 14 years)

Painted Love letters  by Catherine Bateson pb 16.95  
A moving account of a family coping with the death of their much loved father. (12 years up)

The Power of One  by Bryce Courtenay pb $24.95
This book has been an international bestseller and is extremely popular in particular with Year 9 boys.   (14 years up)   Told by an excellent story teller, this is the story  of a young boy who learns from the boxing ring that small can beat big and sets out to be the welterweight champion.  It is set in a South Africa divided by racism and hatred and has a strong message against racism.   The Power of One  - Young Readers’ Edition  pb $19.95 is the story of Pekay’s life till he goes to high school. (11 - 15 years)

The Ruby in the Smoke by Philip Pullman pb $16.95
Sally Lockhart is a most memorable heroine in this absorbing mystery set in Victorian London.  As well as being a gripping and exciting mystery with connections to the exotic Far East, the book also gives a vivid portrayal of the seamier side of London in Victoria times, especially of child poverty and of some of the vices such as the opium trade in Victorian times.     (13 up)

Red Scarf Girl  A Memoir of the Cultural Revolution by Ji Li Jiang  pb $13.95  
A deeply moving autobiography set during the Cultural Revolution in China.   Ji Li Jiang describes her own experiences as a twelve year old girl puzzling to understand the strange and terrifying events that befell her family at that time.  An excellent introduction to any study of the Cultural Revolution.  (11 years up)

Saving Francesca by Melina Marchetta  pb $19.95 
The most enjoyable story of Francesca and the ups and downs of her year eleven at a Catholic Boys school which is accepting girls into Year eleven for the first time.  It is fascinating look at the effect of girls on the culture of a boys school and also the way the girls are changed.  (13 years up)

Two Weeks with the Queen by Morris Gleitzman   pb  $14.95
This is one of Morris Gleitzman’s best novels in which he interweaves humour and tragedy as Colin seeks a cure from the Queen’s top doctors for his brother’s cancer.  (9 – 13 years)

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© Kate Shepherd 2008.