A spotlight on Making Friends with Alice Dyson by Poppy Nwosu
Making Friends with Alice Dyson by Poppy Nwosu is one of the six books shortlisted for this year’s Readings Young Adult Book Prize.
No stupid rumour is going to derail my study. I am on fire, a learning machine. And mostly I’m totally able to concentrate on the work at hand. And I hardly ever think of Teddy Taualai at all.
– Poppy Nwosu, Making Friends with Alice Dyson
Here’s what the judges said…
‘Alice Dyson’s number one priority is her future – nothing is going to get in the way of her concentrating on her school work, nailing her exams and achieving the future her parents always dreamed of. It’s easier to do when the people at school leave you alone, and you only have one friend. But when Teddy Taualai crashes into Alice’s life and catapults her into the centre of attention with a viral video and an onslaught of rumours, Alice’s best laid plans to get through Year 12 unnoticed are thrown into chaos.
This gentle and tender contemporary romance from Poppy Nwosu finds friendship, compassion and understanding under the weight of other people’s expectations. Alice is a true introvert, shy and a little naïve, closed off but never misanthropic, and her genuine kindness emanates from the pages. Nwosu bypasses toxic and high-stakes romantic tropes for a refreshingly nuanced and realistic dynamic, while still giving readers the slow-burn romance they crave: a gloriously heady mix of tentative self-consciousness, bittersweet longing and simmering tension.’
– Georgia Phelan, chair of the
Meet the author…
Poppy Nwosu grew up in central North Queensland, enjoying a thoroughly wild childhood surrounded by rainforest and cane fields. After studying music at university, she moved overseas to Ireland, where she spent two years working and visiting stunning Europe.
Though she adored the travelling, Poppy missed the wide-open Australian skies and came back home to settle in Adelaide near the sea, where she lives with her husband.
Making Friends with Alice Dyson is her first novel.
