In our final meeting for this year’s Teen Advisory Board (TAB), we asked the members about their experiences, best books of the year, favourite guests and more.

Check out their answers below.

Who was your favourite visitor this year?

• Eleni Hale, author of Stone Girl – Zach, Ngaire, Lil, Uly, Xiao-Xiao, Laura and Marley

• Mark Rubbo, Readings managing director – Grace, Uly, Xiao-Xiao

• Katya De Beccera, author of What the Woods Keep – Luci

What was your favourite read for TAB this year?

• It Sounded Better in My Head by Nina Kenwood and Stone Girl by Eleni Hale – Zach

• Shauna’s Great Expectations by Kathleen Loughnan – Jess

• Stone Girl. One of the most emotionally charged, beautifully written books I’ve ever read. – Ngaire

• Maybe Stone Girl. Or Lenny’s Book of Everything by Karen Foxlee. Or It Sounded Better in My Head. Love love love. – Xiao-Xiao

• My top three were The Learning Curves of Vanessa Partridge by Clare Strahan, It Sounded Better in My Head and Stone Girl for its nonconformity to other YA and the eye-opening story. – Lil

• Lenny’s Book of Everything, Stone Girl and It Sounded Better in My Head. – Uly

• Either It Sounded Better in My Head or Lenny’s Book of Everything. But the advanced reading copy I was given of The Boy Who Steals Houses was pretty phenomenal too. – Laura

• 1. Lenny’s Book of Everything 2. Stone Girl 3. It Sounded Better in My Head – Luci

• Stone Girl – Marley

• Either Stone Girl or Four Dead Queens. Actually, definitely Stone Girl. I also loved Shauna’s Great Expectations! – Grace

What was the most surprising thing about being on the TAB?

• Meeting so many like-minded, open and opinionated people. – Marley

• The variety of books we got to read – so many genres! – Grace

• All the fun I had just talking and joking with the other members – also all the things I learnt in terms of different perspectives on publicity. – Luci

• Meeting so many people who shared the same idiosyncrasies about books and pet peeves about certain tropes. – Laura

• How diverse a look we had into the different jobs that go into making a book – publishing, writing, promoting, etc. – Uly

• Hearing from the author and publisher of Stone Girl. – Lil

• How deeply and extensively we explored the depths of the book industry. So much goes into it! So many jobs; not just authors and booksellers! Wow. – Xiao-Xiao

• How much I loved it – being able to meet people in the literary world, explore prospective jobs and meet with and discuss books with other people who like to read was awesome experience; one that I didn’t expect to enjoy as much as I did. – Ngaire

• The sense of community and friendship. It was generally more informal than I expected it to be. – Jess

• The connections with some of the Readings staff members, probably! – Zach

Has this changed your career plans/ideas at all, and in what way?

• It has helped to solidify my interests in working in the literary world, and also broadened my views of what specific jobs and paths are available to me. – Zach

• It has opened my eyes to the multitude of careers that exist in the literary sphere that I hadn’t ever considered or known about! – Ngaire

• Yes! I really want to go into it. – Xiao-Xiao

• I wouldn’t mind going into contract law and therefore helping to arrange book deals. – Uly

• It definitely helped me to get a job in libraries and hopefully begin the career path I want to follow. – Laura

• It has definitely changed my view of how much it takes to publish a book and get it on shelves. – Luci

• I would still love to be a writer of some sort, so meeting writers and other people in the industry was a huge inspiration. – Marley

• It has certainly enlightened me as to the breadth/depth of careers within the industry. – Grace

What’s your top book of 2019 so far (does not have to be YA) and why?

• Stone Girl – it’s a beautifully raw and powerful story that is hard to stomach at times, but still accessible. It brings to light an important social issue that I knew nothing about before I read it. – Grace

• It Sounded Better in My Head by Nina Kenwood – Marley

• My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh – Luci

• The Last Days of the Romanov Dancers by Kerri Turner, because it combines my love of revolutionary Russia and fascination with ballet. And The Boy Who Steals Houses by C. G. Drews; it was so well written and described living with anxiety so well, that by the end I couldn’t stop crying. – Laura

• Definitely It Sounded Better in My Head – Uly

• Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks stands out from the books I have read this year. I enjoyed Brooks’ writing style and how she wove her story around a historical village. This novel reminded me of Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood, which I also loved. Plus, strong female protagonists! – Lil

• It Sounded Better in My Head was sooo fun. And I’m loving Heir of Fire! – Xiao-Xiao

• Aurora Rising! Amazing, beautifully written, un-put-downable. No, really – a hilarious, action-packed and all-round brilliant book by the ever-amazing Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff. – Ngaire

• Shauna’s Great Expectations, as I hadn’t really explored stories about Indigenous themes before. – Jess

• The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon. – Zach

We’d like to say a big thank you to Lil, Uly, Laura, Luci, Marley, Grace, Xiao-Xiao, Ngaire, Jess and Zach for their help this year. From passionate discussions about new releases to weighing in on the Readings Young Adult Prize to hearing from industry heavyweights, these teens have done it all.

Applications for the 2019–2020 Teen Advisory Board have now closed. We’re very excited to announce the new members in late July. Stay tuned!