This month we’re spoilt for choice with new books from three favourite Australian authors. We also get our mitts on the next instalments in several bestselling series, and we announce the shortlist for our very first Readings Young Adult Prize.

(Find our best recommendations for kids’ books this month here.)

LOVEOZYA PICKS

A new book from Vikki Wakefield is always cause for celebration (and a possible stampede to the bookshop…). Her latest is Ballad for a Mad Girl – an unexpected and utterly successful departure into supernatural territory. Grace takes on a dare for the honour of her school, and finds herself possessed by the ghost of long-missing local girl Hannah Holt. This is a unique and unsettling thriller that explores grief and mental illness.

Marie Claude, or MC, finds herself subject to trolls galore after her online rant goes viral in My Life as a Hashtag by Gabrielle Williams. So many authors seem perplexed about how to treat social media in YA fiction but this books tackles the hilarity and problems head-on. (You can read about how Williams approached the problem here.) Doncaster children’s book buyer Natalie Platten loved MC’s struggles with boys, parents, schoolfriends and bullies, and admired her ‘painful self-awareness and a preparedness to confront one’s own bully nature’.

You can read Natalie’s full review here.

Debut author Demet Divaroren sets her first novel, Living on Hope Street, among the multicultural, multigenerational residents of a suburban street. Narrated by seven wildly different characters, this is a big-hearted and compassionate book that looks at family estrangement, domestic violence, poverty, sexual identity, PTSD and recent arrival in Australia. Ultimately it’s the kids and teenagers in this story that bring about community cohesion and change. If you like heartrending and hopeful reads, this one is for you.

You can read my full review here.

INTERNATIONAL YA PICKS

One of Us is Lying by Karen McManus has been doing the rounds among Readings staff who have loved this page-turning, stereotype-smashing novel. Five teenagers are forced into detention with each other The Breakfast Club-style… but only four make it out alive. Our reviewer, St Kilda children’s book buyer Kim Gruschow, praises it as ‘a suspenseful, entertaining and highly addictive novel; it’s a clever thriller with some nice touches of humour and a little romance’.

You can read Kim’s full review here.

I’m excited by Tanya Landman’s latest novel, Beyond the Wall, as I can’t remember the last time I read a novel set in Roman Britain (The Eagle of the Ninth perhaps?). Beyond the Wall tells the story of Cassia, a slave on the run trying to make it beyond Hadrian’s Wall.

Tara Altebrando is back this month with another psychological thriller, The Possible. When an investigative reporter shows up on Kaylee’s doorstep she is forced to reexamine her past, her relationship with her imprisoned biological mother, and possible talents that they might share.

Alex Wheatle won the 2016 Guardian children’s fiction prize with Crongton Knights and has now followed up with Straight Outta Crongton. Wheatle returns to the South Crongton housing estate with a focus on a new protagonist, Mo, and familiar characters Elaine, McKay and Liccle Bit. Readers who like a slice of tough urban life and serious issues will enjoy Wheatle’s unique style.

Young true crime and Serial listeners might want to check out Allan Wolf’s fascinating Who Killed Christopher Goodman?. Wolf revisits a shocking crime that happened in his hometown when he was a teenager, turning the events into a novel. Six teens (including the killer) narrate the story in verse, prose and movie scripts, revealing their versions of the events that led to likeable Christopher being murdered.

In series news, Alex Rider fans will be excited to see book 11, Never Say Die, arrive in-store this month. And Skulduggery Pleasant devotees will be surprised and pleased to see the skeleton detective return for a tenth outing in Resurrection. Information on the latest episodes in these bestselling series is minimal and mysterious, so you’ll have to read them to find out what’s in store for our heroes.

NON-FICTION SPOTLIGHT

I am super excited about the new puberty book by world-record-holding Australian hula hooper Marawa Ibrahim, The Girl Guide. Written together with Dr Radha Modgil and illustrated by Sinem Erkas, this a bright, colourful and very frank account of the weirdness, disasters and joys of the unpredictable teenage years that covers physical changes, self esteem, sexuality, mental health and more. Accurate information is balanced perfectly with Ibrahim’s charming, often embarrassing, personal accounts and fun photos. I suggest you buy it for every tween and teen girl in your life.

YA EVENTS IN JUNE

Come help us celebrate the launch of Gabrielle Williams’s My Life as a Hashtag on Thursday 8 June at Readings Hawthorn. Free, no booking required.

And the always-excellent Emerging Writers Festival is on very soon – a highly recommended outing for aspiring writers or keen readers. We’re especially looking forward to the Looking for Alibrandi movie night (a #LoveOzYA classic!), and the inspiring 5 X 5 Rules of Writing featuring Festival ambassadors with their best writing advice.

READINGS YA PRIZE SHORTLIST

And drumroll, please!

We’ve announced the shortlist for our inaugural Readings Young Adult Prize. The Prize celebrates new Australian young adult literature, and we’re delighted to tell you all about the six amazing shortlisted books:

• Boone Shepard by Gabriel Bergmoser
• Freedom Swimmer by Wai Chim
• The Bone Sparrow by Zana Fraillon
• Becoming Aurora by Elizabeth Kasmer
• The Road to Winter by Mark Smith
• Our Chemical Hearts by Krystal Sutherland

There’s something for every taste, and you can even purchase the whole bundle ($99.99, ), and have a winter #LoveOzYA reading marathon.

Leanne Hall