Jackie Tang
Jackie Tang is the digital content coordinator and the Readings Prizes manager.
Reviews
This is How We Change the Ending by Vikki Wakefield
Nate is stuck in a loop: go to school; go to the youth centre with his loudmouth best mate, Merrick; go home to his aggressive dad Dec, Dec’s new wife Nance and their three-year-old twin boys; lather…
The Place on Dalhousie by Melina Marchetta
A generation has grown up with Melina Marchetta’s writing since she debuted with her impeccable young adult novel Looking for Alibrandi in 1992. As one of that generation, it’s a joy to read The Plac…
The Boy Who Steals Houses by C.G. Drews
Fifteen-year-old Sam and his older brother Avery are struggling to make a better life for themselves on the streets after being abused by every parental figure in their life. Avery, who is autistic, …
News
An IDAHOBIT suggested reading list
Today – Friday, 17 May – is International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, Intersexism and Transphobia (IDAHOBIT), a day to stand against the prejudice, fear, violence and marginalisation that members of the LGBTQIA+ community continue to face in their daily lives. It’s also a day for LGBTQIA+ people to celebrate themselves and their community, and for allies to commit in solidarity to making th…
A monthly update from our Teen Advisory Board
This month we were fortunate to be visited by Bec Kavanagh; writer, reviewer, young adult fiction specialist at Readings Kids and former schools manager with the Stella Prize.
As befitting her diverse range of capabilities, Bec shared with the Teen Advisory Board members her remarkable career. She touched on starting the A Thousand Words festival in 2009, which celebrated and encouraged the read…
Sci-fi and fantasy reads for non-genre fans
The Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, Blade Runner … science-fiction and fantasy literature has spawned so many classic stories that catch the popular culture zeitgeist. And yet, for some readers, the genre can often feel too intimidating, dense and wrapped up in its own mythology to approach. Even the most open-minded and curious reader may lack the time to devote to a 1000-page door stopper.
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Board books with female characters to tackle gender bias
I once had a customer walk into the shop with a very reasonable request: board books featuring human girls or women – no female animals, please, she had plenty of those – for a family with a baby girl. This customer wanted that girl to start her life surrounded by stories about all different kinds of women – to inspire her, to spark her imagination and to normalise the idea early on that women sh…
Romance and rom-com readalikes
Uzma Jalaluddin has taken Jane Austen’s prototypical romantic comedy of manners and transformed the squabbling Bennett clan into a boisterous Indian-Muslim family living in modern-day Toronto. Ayesha Shamsi is smart, independent … and unmarried at 27, a fact …
