Which Australian YA book should you read over summer?
The sun is high in the sky, the flies are buzzing, you’re sick of your family and you don’t want to watch the cricket – it sounds like it’s time to seek out some quality Aussie young adult fiction. Here is our suggested LoveOzYA summer reading.
(For more recommended LoveOzYA, check out our collection of Australian YA fiction from the past year here.)
Because you want to escape the heat…
Unearthed by Amie Kaufman and Meghan Spooner
The middle of a sweltering Australian summer is an excellent time to ponder moving to another planet, leaving behind climate change and environmental destruction. In Amie Kaufman and Meghan Spooner’s excellent sci-fi adventure Unearthed, two very different teens join the race to discover and decode the lifesaving secrets of an ancient civilisation on the distant planet Gaia.
Because you want to be on the edge of your seat…
This Mortal Coil by Emily Suvada
This debut techno thriller will test the nerves of any reader – a deadly plague sweeps Earth as Catarina, a prodigious teen hacker, goes head to head with shadowy gene tech corporation Cartaxus in the search for her late father’s vaccine. A truly terrifying sickness that causes its victims to explode, vivid VR hacking scenes and oodles of conspiracy make This Mortal Coil a page-turning summer read.
Because you have no idea what you’re doing next year…
Untidy Towns by Kate O'Donnell
Confused? Paralysed? Full of supposed ‘potential’? Spend some time with high school dropout Adelaide in Kate O’Donnell’s gentle and searching Untidy Towns. After an abrupt departure from boarding school during her final year, Adelaide returns to her small hometown and tries to reconnect with friends, family, and revise her ideas about how to create meaning and happiness.
You don’t have to take just our word for it though… This charming and thoughtful debut novel was also chosen by our customers as a favourite this year.
Because you want to live in a better world…
In this section we must recommend not one, but four books. Australian YA authors have really taken on the task of exploring complex real-life challenges and issues this year, offering food for thought, calls to action and much-needed injections of hope.
In Zana Fraillon’s The Ones That Disappeared, three young people struggle to extricate themselves from gang life and enforced labour.
Two teenage girls from very different backgrounds connect through a homeless shelter and a creative writing group in Because of You by Pip Harry.
Scot Gardner vividly depicts survival in northern Australia in the hopeful and gripping Sparrow. The eponymous Sparrow has to be Bear Grylls-level resourceful in the Australian wilderness, in juvenile detention and on the streets of the city.
The varied lives and problems of the residents of a suburban street are compassionately depicted in Living on Hope Street, a debut novel by Demet Divaroren that delves into experiences of domestic violence.
Because you want to swoon…
Night Swimming by Steph Bowe
Country girl Kirby is teetering on the edge of adulthood and big life decisions, yet doesn’t want to unstick herself from her home town and her family. Fortunately, there is more than enough in Alberton alone to keep her in a whirl: a search for her father, her grandfather’s dementia, and beautiful newcomer Iris. This is a fun, quirky read with oodles of romance and capers.
Because you had a difficult 2017…
Beautiful Mess by Clare Christian
Grieving Ava meets shy Gideon at her part-time job at a kebab shop, and together they build a tentative friendship through words, poetry and letter writing. Beautiful Mess doesn’t shy away from how rough the teen years can be, but also demonstrates the possibilities of healing and provides quite a few laughs to boot.
Because you should read it before the TV show…
We really had to mention two favourite OzYA books here.
The TV series based on Sue McPherson’s 2012 novel, Grace Beside Me, will be showing on NITV and ABC ME in 2018, so get it onto your reading list fast! Indigenous teen Fuzzy Mac just want to fit in and live an ordinary life – a hard task when you can see ghosts, and your Ancestors won’t leave you alone.
Perth author AJ Bett’s wonderful novel about the friendship between two teens facing the challenge of cancer has been adapted for a TV series in the US. While only available in the US at present, we have her fingers crossed we’ll be able to watch it in Australia soon. In any case, it’s the perfect time to read or re-read the smart, funny and warm Zac and Mia.
You can read all about the production of McPherson’s novel here, and about Bett’s novel here.
Because you love real-life stories…
Finding Nevo by Nevo Zisin
Young Melburnian Nevo Zisin writes with an engaging and disarmingly honest voice in their memoir, Finding Nevo. Zisin reflects on their childhood and teen years, navigating family, friendships, the Jewish community and school, all the while exploring their sexuality and non-binary gender identity.
Because you’ll miss your friends over summer…
Exchange of Heart by Darren Groth
Canadian exchange student Munro tries to run from his grief to Brisbane, and instead finds a myriad of new connections in Darren Groth’s funny and heartwarming Exchange of Heart. When Munro is assigned to do work experience at an assisted-living village, he worries it will be a painful reminder of his late sister, who had Down’s Syndrome. Instead, the genuine friendships he forms help him cast out his demons.
