By Randa Abdel-Fattah
Genre - Romance
A boy. A girl. Two families. One great divide.
When Michael meets Mina, they are at a rally for refugees - standing on opposite sides. Mina fled Afghanistan with her mother via a refugee camp, a leaky boat and a detention centre. Michael’s parents have founded a new political party called Aussie Values. They want to stop the boats. Mina wants to stop the hate. When Mina wins a scholarship to Michael’s private school, their lives crash together blindingly.
A novel for anyone who wants to fight for love, and against injustice.
By Lisa Fuller
Genre - Paranormal (First Nations Story)
Remember daughter, the world is a lot bigger than anyone knows. There are things that science may never explain. Maybe some things that shouldn’t be explained.
Stacey and Laney are twins – mirror images of each other – and yet they’re as different as the sun and the moon. Stacey works hard at school, determined to get out of their small town. Laney skips school and sneaks out of the house to meet her boyfriend. But when Laney disappears one night, Stacey can’t believe she’s just run off without telling her.
As the days pass and Laney doesn’t return, Stacey starts dreaming of her twin. The dreams are dark and terrifying, difficult to understand and hard to shake, but at least they tell Stacey one key thing – Laney is alive. It’s hard for Stacey to know what’s real and what’s imagined and even harder to know who to trust. All she knows for sure is that Laney needs her help.
Stacey is the only one who can find her sister. Will she find her in time?
By Elizabeth Kasmer
Genre - Contemporary
Tonight we are wolves. Our pack moves as one, past empty shop fronts and faded billboards.
Sixteen-year-old Rory is at a crossroads in her life. While her gang plans its next move in a racially motivated turf war, Rory is sentenced to spend her summer at an aged care facility. She’s proud of taking the rap for a crime her gang committed and reading to a feisty old boxing champion isn’t going to change that.
But what happens when Rory’s path intersects with migrant boxer Essam’s and she becomes the victim, not the perpetrator? Can she find the courage to face her past and become the girl her dad called Aurora?
By Lystra Rose
Genre - Dystopian (First Nations Story)
Three misfits. Two warring spirits. One chance to save the world. Kirra is the great-granddaughter of a certified crazy person and her terrible dreams are coming true. When an end-of-the-world nightmare forces her to surf where her brother was killed, she time-slips into a dangerous yet freeing place. Narn is the son of a well-respected Elder and holds an enviable role in his saltwater clan. Though he bears the marks of a man, many treat him like an uninitiated boy, including the woman he wants to impress. Tarni is the daughter of a fierce hunter and the custodian of a clever gift. Somehow, she understands Kirra when no-one else can. But who sent this unexpected visitor: a powerful ancient healer or an evil shadow spirit?
When death threatens all life, can a short-sighted surfer, a laidback dolphin caller, and a feisty language unweaver work together to salvage our future?
By Diana Nguyen with Peter Kalive, based on the novel by Alice Pung
Genre - Contemporary (Play)
Adapting Alice Pung's award-winning book, writer and comedian Diana Nguyen and director Petra Kalive bring Laurinda's schoolyard setting to the stage for a fresh and feisty new work. Like Heathers or Mean Girls with a uniquely Australian flavour, this delightful take on the beloved novel is an incisive, funny study of a woman caught between cultures and class. When 15-year-old Lucy Lam wins the inaugural Equal Access Scholarship to a prestigious private school, the smart and well-liked student is not prepared for the new world she's suddenly propelled into.
It's a world of wealth and opportunity, overseen by The Cabinet-a trio of girls who wield power over their classmates, and even their teachers. But when The Cabinet turn their attention to Lucy she has to make a choice: fit in and succeed, or stay true to herself. Either way, there's a cost. Whether high school is (thankfully) a distant memory or a current reality, this MTC NEXT STAGE commission offers a witty and moving insight into an all-too common experience as well as the inner strength it takes to speak truth to power.
By S.E Hinton
Genre - Classic
The Outsiders is an outstanding story of teenage rebellion, written when the author was only 17 years old.
Youngsters in a small Oklahoma town have split into two gangs, divided by money, tastes and attitude. The Socs’ idea of having a good time is beating up Greasers like Ponyboy Curtis. Ponyboy knows what to expect and knows he can count on his brothers and friends - until the night someone takes things too far.
By Tristan Bancks
Genre - Mystery and Suspense
One afternoon, police officers show up at Ben Silver’s front door. Minutes after they leave, his parents arrive home. Ben and his little sister Olive are bundled into the car and told they’re going on a holiday. But are they?
It doesn’t take long for Ben to realise that his parents are in trouble. Ben’s always dreamt of becoming a detective - his dad even calls him ‘Cop’. Now Ben gathers evidence and tries to uncover what his parents have done.
The problem is, if he figures it out, what does he do? Tell someone? Or keep the secret and live life on the run?
By Kwame Alexander
Genre - Sport Stories (Verse Novel)
‘With a bolt of lightning on my kicks…The court is Sizzling. My sweat is Drizzling. Stop all that quivering. Cuz tonight I’m delivering’
12-year-old Josh and his twin Jordan have basketball in their blood. They’re kings of the court, star players for their school team. Their father used to be a champion player and they each want nothing more than to follow in his footsteps. Both on and off the court, there is conflict and hardship which will test Josh’s bond with his brother.
In this heartfelt novel in verse, the boys find that life doesn’t come with a play-book and it’s not all about winning.
By Davis Spillman and Lisa Wilyuka
Genre - Historical Fiction (First Nation Story)
Funny, straight-talking Ruby lives on a cattle station and goes to the ‘silver bullet’ school. When she questions Mr Duncan, her well-meaning teacher, on why their cultures are so at odds with each other, she unintentionally triggers her own awakening.
The more Ruby learns, the harder the journey becomes as she is drawn back to country to uncover the secrets of her past. Us Mob Walawurru follows the life of Ruby, a young Luritja girl growing up in Central Australia in the 1960s. Living on a cattle station, Ruby is faced with many situations and dilemmas resulting from cultural difference - education, language, family obligation, relationship to country and environment, and ideas of ownership. Us Mob Walawurru is a work of historical inter-cultural exploration.
Some of the events are based on stories told by the Luritja people of Titjikala in the Central Australia. Some historical events are also included.
By L.M Montgomery
Genre - Historical Fiction
When the imaginative, outspoken orphan Anne Shirley arrives on Prince Edward Island, Matthew Cuthbert and his sister, Marilla, are surprised to say the least. After all, the Cuthberts had requested that the orphanage send a boy to help with the work around their farm. They certainly didn’t bargain for talkative Anne’s outlandish ideas and independent ways. Soon her high spirits win over Matthew and Marilla, even when these same traits lead Anne into mishap after mishap as she makes friends and discovers an exciting new life in the quirky town of Avonlea.
By Finegan Kruckmeyer
Genre - Contemporary (Play)
Sixteen-year-old Connor is angry. He doesn’t know why, and he doesn’t know where to direct it. People and things he once liked annoy him. His parents, his best friend, his once-cool uncle now officially suck. Then, the outburst. Connor is dropped in a forest … for a week … by himself … to calm down. But his anger has travelled with him.
Then a girl called Lotte walks into the woods.
And she is angry too …
From Inaugural Sydney Myer Creative Fellowship recipient Finegan Kruckemeyer comes this smart, sweet and fiery tale about two offbeat kids who, at war with the world, find a moment’s peace with each other. It’s a reminder of the impatient impulse in all of us to kick and scream at the universe, and the equally impatient impulse to lie in a forest glade and plan for the future.
By Yeva Skalietska
Genre - Biography and Memoir
Everyone knows the word ‘war’. But very few understand what it truly means. When you find you have to face it, you feel totally lost, walled in by fright and despair. Until you’ve been there, you don’t know what war is.
This is the gripping, urgent and moving diary of young Ukrainian refugee Yeva Skalietska. It follows twelve days in Ukraine that changed 12-year-old Yeva’s life forever. She was woken in the early hours to the terrifying sounds of shelling. Russia had invaded Ukraine, and her beloved Kharkiv home was no longer the safe haven it should have been.
It was while she and her granny were forced to seek shelter in a damp, cramped basement that Yeva decided to write down her story. And it is a story that the world needs to hear.
Yeva captured the nation’s heart when she was featured on Channel 4 News with her granny as they fled Ukraine for Dublin. In You Don’t Know What War Is, Yeva records what is happening hour-by-hour as she seeks safety and travels from Kharkiv to Dublin.
Each eye-opening diary entry is supplemented by personal photographs, excerpts of messages between Yeva and her friends and daily headlines from around the world, while three beautifully detailed maps (by Kharkiv-native Olga Shtonda) help the reader track Yeva and her granny’s journey through Europe.
You Don’t Know What War Is is a powerful insight into what conflict is like through the eyes of a child and an essential read for adults and older children alike.
By Ally Condie
Genre - Dystopian
On her seventeenth birthday, Cassia meets her Match. Society dictates he is her perfect partner for life. Except he’s not.
In Cassia’s society, Officials decide who people love. How many children they have. Where they work. When they die. But, as Cassia finds herself falling in love with another boy, she is determined to make some choices of her own.
And that’s when her whole world begins to unravel…
By Shaun Tan
Genre - Picture book
The story of a cicada who works in an office, and all the people who don’t appreciate him. The new picture book from multi-award-winner Shaun Tan, author of The Arrival, The Lost Thing and Rules of Summer.
Cicada work in tall building.
Data entry clerk. Seventeen year.
No sick day. No mistake.
Tok Tok Tok!
Cicada works in an office, dutifully toiling day after day for unappreciative bosses and being bullied by his coworkers. But one day, cicada goes to the roof of the building, and something truly extraordinary happens …
A story for anyone who has ever felt unappreciated, overlooked or overworked, from Australia’s most acclaimed picture book creator.