Leanne Hall
Twitter: lilymandarin
Leanne Hall is the former children’s and YA specialist for Readings online. She also writes books for children and young adults.
Reviews
Parachutes by Kelly Yang
Dani is a high-achieving Filipino American scholarship student at American Prep high school in California. When she’s not practising with the debate team and planning her path to Yale, Dani works as …
After Story by Larissa Behrendt
Burnt out after a disturbing homicide case, lawyer Jasmine takes a leap of faith and invites her mother Della to join her on a literary tour of England. Della has never travelled far beyond Frog Holl…
Amari and the Night Brothers by B.B. Alston
Amari Peters misses her older brother Quinton, who has been missing for six months. When Amari receives a mysterious delivery, supposedly from Quinton himself, it seems like she might be getting clos…
Love Is a Revolution by Renée Watson
When Nala sees Tye Brown on stage at an open mic night run by youth activist group Inspire Harlem, she’s instantly smitten by his good looks and his caring manner. Nala is there for her ‘cousin-siste…
The F Team by Rawah Arja
Tariq Nader is lucky enough to have a close group of friends in his life – dubbed ‘The Wolf Pack’ – but his under-resourced high school is struggling. Constant negative media attention has whipped up…
The Mermaid, the Witch and the Sea by Maggie Tokuda-Hall
Flora has been living on the pirate ship Dove as the boy Florian, along with her brother Alfie, her only living family. Life on the Dove is brutal – for the well-heeled passengers, who are informed m…
Again Again by E. Lockhart
Adelaide Buchwald has just been dumped by Mikey, who has gallivanted off to Puerto Rico for the summer, leaving Adelaide behind at Alabaster Preparatory Academy. Adelaide plans to spend her holidays …
Metal Fish, Falling Snow by Cath Moore
Her mother has passed away, and now Dylan has to leave her small rural home town of Beyen, in the company of her mother’s boyfriend, Pat. Dylan and Pat drive towards the ocean and the boat that Dylan…
Big Sister, Little Sister, Red Sister by Jung Chang
British–Chinese writer Jung Chang (Wild Swans, Empress Dowager Cixi: The Concubine Who Launched Modern China) is well-known for writing intimate biographies set against some of the world’s most turbu…
The Surprising Power of a Good Dumpling by Wai Chaim
Anna Chiu and her younger siblings Lily and Michael are very familiar with the ups and downs in their mother’s mental health, but that doesn’t make their family life any easier. Year Eleven student A…
Wombat, Mudlark and Other Stories by Helen Milroy
Wombat helps Mother Earth recover the eternal flame in her belly. Mudlark discovers the reason for Sun’s burning anger and soothes him. Clever Penguin stops Whale from stealing from Sky, and finds hi…
Lizard’s Tale by Weng Wai Chan
Lizard is a street-smart twelve-year-old who lives in tiny quarters above a tailor’s shop in Singapore’s Chinatown, and ekes out a bare living with legitimate odd jobs, and a few slightly shady ones …
We Are Okay by Nina LaCour
This moving novel creates the claustrophobia and snowy hush of seventeen-year-old student Marin’s winter break, which she’s chosen to spend in the empty dorms of her upstate New York college. This de…
Meet Me at the Intersection by Rebecca Lim & Ambelin Kwaymullina
Masterminded by authors Rebecca Lim and Ambelin Kwaymullina, Meet Me at the Intersection is a highly successful and much-needed anthology of Australian Own Voices writing – stories about marginalised…
The Relic of the Blue Dragon by Rebecca Lim
Harley Spark isn’t sure why he’s drawn to the dusty vase sitting outside the local antique warehouse. Harley’s mum, Delia, has always counselled him to be honest, not least because his dad Ray’s crim…
Real Pigeons Fight Crime by Andrew McDonald & Ben Wood
The Real Pigeons are a crimefighting squad of city birds, each with a unique Pigeon Power. Grandpouter is the patriarch in charge of super-strong Frillback, extra-bendy Tumbler, navigational expert H…
Big Bones by Laura Dockrill
I first came across Laura Dockrill’s unique voice with her wildly poetic mermaid duology, Lorali and Aurabel, and Big Bones is another addition to her marvellous body of work about young people who g…
Norse Myths by Kevin Crossley-Holland
I’m a known collector of fancy editions of timeless tales, and a sucker for all things mythological, so I was very excited to pick up Kevin Crossley-Holland’s illustrated Norse Myths: Tales of Odin, …
Moxie by Jennifer Mathieu
Vivian is one of the ‘nice girls’ at East Rockport High. She has a small group of friends, and her main mission is to fly under the radar and not draw too much attention to herself. Her grandparents …
The Goldfish Boy by Lisa Thompson
Matthew hasn’t left the house for quite some time. Instead he sits in his bedroom (very clean and disinfected) or the study (within the acceptable limits of cleanliness, if he’s careful about what he…
The Fighting Stingrays by Simon Mitchell
Adventure, Australian history and the power of friendship come together in this extremely engaging novel about a trio of boys living on Thursday Island during World War II. Charlie, Alf and Masa spen…
Marsh and Me by Martine Murray
Joey M. Green is a boy with ‘sensitivities’, who rarely has the right words at the right time. He’s a deep thinker, part of a loving family; he wonders about his place in the world. He plays his guit…
Living on Hope Street by Demet Divaroren
Living on Hope Street is the impressive debut novel of Turkish–Australian writer and co-editor of the acclaimed Coming of Age: Growing Up Muslim in Australia anthology, Demet Divaroren.
Brothers Ka…
Do Not Lick This Book by Idan Ben-Barak & Julian Frost
Do not lick this book doubles as a fun interactive picture book, and a fascinating science lesson about microbes. Readers are introduced to Min, a cartoon microbe, and encouraged to press the page wi…
Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor
Somewhere in the world (or perhaps another world), a mythical and wondrous city closed its borders to outsiders, had its name stolen, and is now only known as Weep. Weep is the obsession of choice of…
Valentine by Jodi McAlister
Traditional fairy lore is transplanted into a small-town Australian location in Jodi McAlister’s debut novel, Valentine, and given a thoroughly contemporary spin.
A frightening black horse appears a…
My First Lesson by Alice Pung
Teenagers are often written at by adults, but My First Lesson is a rare opportunity for twenty-five teenagers to tell their own stories in their own inimitable ways. Keen young writers were invited t…
The Book of Pearl by Timothee De Fombelle
A fourteen-year-old boy runs through the forest – bleeding, heartbroken and confused – before stumbling across a welcoming hut belonging to an elderly saviour, Joshua Pearl. So begins a mystery that …
Max by Sarah Cohen-Scali
Prepare to be taken uncomfortably deep into the Third Reich. Our narrator, Konrad, begins his story in utero – immediately demonstrating an ambitious nature and unswerving devotion to the Führer. Kon…
Momo by Michael Ende
German author Michael Ende might be better known for his novel The Neverending Story, but it is the sweet and magical Momo that holds first place in my heart. Momo is a surreal (and at times creepy) …
News
Must-read YA for the second half of 2021
Layla Karimi is sort of Australian and sort of Lebanese: a ‘halfie’ who doesn’t really fit into either world. So when all hell breaks loose at a beach party, Layla finds herself caught between her fri…
Seven picture books to lift your spirits
When Mole looks around his underground home, all he sees is the black-and-white world of his hole. Mole digs and dreams of finding something colourful, but day after day he is disapp…
Recent escapist fantasy reads for kids
Ten-year-old Ray Grey lives in the city of Celestia in the magical Weatherlands, high in the sky. Ray is surrounded by Weatherlings with astounding weather power at their fingertips … but she doesn…
Recommended children’s books & news for July
Bridget ‘Bee’ Ballentine is 12 and starting her first year of …
Recommended YA books & news for July
Henry Hamlet doesn’t know what he wants after school ends. It’s his last semeste…
Recommended children’s books & news for June
Dr Melissa Kang and Yumi Styn…
