Readings.com.au: New Young Adult Fiction

I'd Tell You I Love You But Then I'd Have To Kill You: The Gallagher Girls Book One

The Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women is a fairly typical all-girls school - that is, it would be if every school taught advanced martial arts in PE and the latest in chemical warfare in science, and students received extra credit for breaking CIA codes in computer class. The Gallagher Academy might claim to be a school for geniuses, but it's really a school for spies.

Cammie Morgan is a second-generation Gallagher Girl, and by her sophomore year she's already fluent in fourteen languages and capable of killing a man in seven different ways (one of which involves a piece of uncooked spaghetti). But the one thing the Gallagher Academy hasn't prepared her for is what to do when she falls for a boy who thinks she's an ordinary girl.

Sure, she can tap his phone, hack into his computer, and track him through town without his ever being the wiser - but can she have a relationship with a regular boy who can never know the truth about her?

Cammie may be an elite spy-in-training, but in her sophomore year, she's beginning her most dangerous mission - falling in love.

Something In The World Called Love

It's true, there's something in the world called love. Esma felt it when she moved into the house with the blue stairs. There was Kara beside her, and Simon below with his room that looked out to the road - two roads actually so you had a choice as you were leaving or arriving, which way to take. But anyway, Esma at the beginning saw only one way. . .

When Esma moves into 22 Starling Street, she knows she's come to the right place. A place to become someone new. A place to belong.

As the seasons change, she finds herself falling deeper and deeper in love. But not in the way she expects. . .

A remarkable new novel about friendship, trust and hope - and what it means to love.

Generation Dead

All over the tri-state area, something strange is happening. Teenagers who die aren't staying dead. They are coming back to life, but they come back different - they stutter and their reactions to everything are slower. Termed 'living impaired' or 'differently biotic', there are lots of conspiracy theories to explain this new phenomenon. But as their numbers keep on growing, so does the discomfort of the living people in the community.

When Phoebe falls for Tommy Williams, her best friend and star of the football team, Adam, has conflicting emotions. And when Tommy decides to try out for the football team, it sets off a chain of events that escalates into deadly violence.

Dust Devils: The Broken Land Book Two

Continuing Ros's extraordinary adventures in the Broken Lands ...

Adi's body has been borne away across the desert by her Clan, but her spirit remains Ros's constant companion. If he can't find the travellers in time, Adi will be presumed dead and her body cremated, leaving her a ghost forever.

But Ros is not prepared for the dangers lurking in the shifting sands. Rescued from bandits and Dust Devils by a boy named Yury, he takes refuge in Yury's home – an extensive network of tunnels known as Dunetown – and learns that Yury in turn needs Ros's help. His family has been kidnapped by the sand bandits, a ruthless gang led by a psychopath obsessed with treasure and power.

Ros must learn to trust again, and to overcome those who cannot ever be trusted. Darker things lurk in the desert than Dust Devils and sand bandits. And, all the while, Adi's voice is a constant reminder that time is running out ...

Sprite Downberry

Right now, Sprite Downberry's life is pretty tough. Her dad's busy and away a lot, and her mum, Sunny, is very moody and unpredictable, so Sprite feels she can't tell her about the nasty girls at school. And Sprite is also worried about her little brother, Mozz. He can't talk properly and he's supposed to be starting school soon.

Now Dad's taken off, and Sunny's so unhappy she won't even get out of bed. Determined to fix things, Sprite grabs Mozz and sets out to find their father.

In a night that never seems to end, Sprite faces decision after decision. Can she trust Luther, the runaway boy who rescues her and Mozz? And what should she tell the friendly policeman who knows so much about her?

By the time Sprite is reunited with her dad, things look like they're getting out of control. Will she figure out how to get her family back together – and handle the friendship problems at school?

Angus Thongs And Perfect Snogging: Confessions Of Georgia Nicholson Book One Film Tie In

There are six things very wrong with my life:

I have one of those under–the–skin spots that will never come to a head but lurk in a red way for the next two years.
It is on my nose.
I have a three–year–old sister who may have peed somewhere in my room.
In fourteen days the summer hols will be over and then it will be back to Stalag 14 and Oberführer Frau Simpson and her bunch of sadistic 'teachers'.
I am very ugly and need to go into an ugly home.
I went to a party dressed as a stuffed olive.

Read all about Georgia's hilarious antics as she desperately tries to muddle her way through teenage life.

The Absolutely True Diary Of A Part Time Indian

In his first book for young adults, bestselling author Sherman Alexie tells the story of Junior, a budding cartoonist who leaves his school on the Spokane Indian Reservation to attend an all-white high school. This heartbreaking, funny, and beautifully written tale, coupled with poignant drawings that reflect the character's art, is based on the author's own experience and chronicles the contemporary adolescence of one Native American boy as he attempts to break away from the life he seems destined to live. Illustrated in a contemporary cartoon style by Ellen Forney.

Stravaganza City Of Masks

Imagine you are one moment ill in bed, and the next transported to a world that is awash with deception, intrigue and glamour.

In a spine-tingling discovery, Lucien finds out that he is in fact a 'Stravagante' - somebody who, with the help of a talisman, can transport himself in time and place. But that is not all - in his new-found world it appears that he is integral to saving the city, Belleza, from disaster . . .

Swishing velvet, glittering masks, political intrigue and treachery, a demanding and imperious Duchessa - inspired by Venice, Belleza is filled with an extraordinary richness that touches all the senses.

My Candlelight Novel

The house is a crumbling two-storey weatherboard place, a guest house, of the cheapest and shabbiest kind. But there is something magical and other-worldly about it. Because it's on the river, in that place where earth and water meet, it sits on a threshold, a margin, a place of change. And it was in this muddy, watery place where transformations are said to occur that I dreamed I might one day be transformed.

And so this is my story. I will make it something after my own heart, tender and dark, a little candlelight novel, started this late summer night as my baby daughter sleeps in the big bed in the corner, and my sister Kate leans thoughtful and sleepless against the railing of the dark verandah outside

A sensuous, evocative companion to the award-winning and highly acclaimed Secret Scribbled Notebooks.

Reviews of Secret Scribbled Notebooks:

'A deeply satisfying novel on every level . . . understated and beautifully written.' - Viewpoint

'Kate's emotions, her thoughts and her honesty are transfixing. Horniman captures the anxiety and possibility of the cusp of adulthood, using elegant, evocative prose.' - Weekend Australian ive prose.'

Weekend Australian

Savvy

For Mibs Beaumont's family, the day of their thirteenth birthday could be an adventure or a disaster. It's when they get their savvy - an extra-special talent and know-how. Her brother Rocket is Mr Electric, he can send static shocks from the other side of the room, just for fun...

But on Mibs's special day, their Poppa lies in a coma in hospital, and she has to reach him. The only way to get there is on the pink Bible bus, so, adventure or disaster, Mibs is getting on that bus. And who could guess what might happen then?

Luxe

Imagine, if you will, New York City, 1899 . . .

Society's elite: the glamour, the grandeur, the glittering parties, the most handsome beaus, the most beautiful debutantes, the sounds of decadence, the rich girl, the humble boy, the forbidden love, the hushed whispers, the stolen glances, the secret rendezvous, the sin, the scandal, the mystery, the revenge.

You are cordially invited to step into The Luxe, where the secrets are dark and the sins are delicious . . .

Goodbye Jamie Boyd

'Love's not a cake', I say. 'You don't carve it into pieces 'til there's none left; it's more like the Magic Pudding - the more you use of it, the more it grows.'

Anna and Jamie are inseparable, the brother and sister team who face the world, their family and school together. Their love for each other is bigger than anything else they know and stronger than any ordinary bond. It is Jamie who challenges Anna throughout her life; Jamie who drives her to do things and makes her grow up, Jamie who dares her to jump off Ben Hall's Rock, smoke weed and drive fast round Carrot Wash Bend. When Anna Boyd kills her brother, what follows next is a revelation to all, most especially to Anna.

A powerful verse novel from one of Australia's acclaimed storytellers.

Into White Silence

During the winter of 1922, the Exploration Vessel RAVEN became trapped in the Antarctic icepack, entombing 28 men aboard it through the dark, polar night. INTO WHITE SILENCE tells their story - a story of a lost past, of a tragic future, of ice, ambition and madness. It captures the terrible, fascinating beauty of Antarctica, both as it was then and is today, and is a journey into the mind of every person who has ever set foot upon those ice-bound shores.

Sky Village Kaimira Book One

This fascinating futuristic fantasy, the first of five, is Mad Max meets Yu-Gi-Oh.

Set in the future, the world is divided into three factions: humans, beasts and Meks (machines). 12-year-old Mei's scientist mother has been kidnapped by Meks and her father takes her to live in the skyvillage, a floating world above China, for safety. Mei’s father leaves her with the Tree Book, which holds special powers and links her to Rom, a boy living in post-apocolyptic Las Vegas. Their unlikely relationship and the mysterious Tree Book are at the centre of this surprising adventure.

Boofheads

The contemporary story of three lifelong mates who are dealing with growing up, drifting apart and coming to terms with change. Can anything bring them together again?

Ed , Steve and Tom are lifelong mates but for the first time since pre-school, the ‘three amigos’ are drifting apart. Ed’s high hopes for his football career with the Bombers’ Youth Squad have come crashing down to earth and Steve has become totally self-obsessed. Tom has become an agony aunt for a teen-girl magazine to prove a point to (and maybe even impress) the hottest and most hated girl in school but what will happen to their once strong friendship?

Murderers Thumb

Adam Statkus and his mother are new to Falcon Ridge, a dairy farming community in rural Australia. Within days of their arrival Adam discovers the body of a girl buried in a silage pit. Is it one of the teenagers who went missing from the area six years ago? And who wrote the diary that Adam finds in the old farmhouse?

The discovery of the murder affects the lives of many of the locals. Some are willing to do anything to get their hands on the missing pages. With the help of the diary, Adam pieces together the mystery of the body in the pit, despite the threat to his life.

Murderer's Thumb is a marvellous evocation of a close-knit community trying to cope with a mysterious crime against one, or perhaps two, of their local teenagers. It is a novel that speaks to young and old about what happens when outsiders uncover secrets that have been hidden for too long.

Beth Montgomery has an enviable prose style of perfect pitch. She has created a cast of distinctive characters - the idiosyncratic locals, a boy sleuth who also has to deal with his strange parents, and a feisty teenage girl whose voice is compelling.