Confessions of a Liar,

Thief and Failed Sex God

by Bill Condon

Woolshed Press. Australian, Young Adult. Paperback rrp $18.95

Neil Bridges is a 16-year-old Catholic school boy who doesn’t know what he wants to do or where he wants to go. It is 1967 and the all-boy’s school he attends is run by teachers and priests who believe that a leather strap is the best way to learn manners, mathematics and the right way to being a better person. His strict but loving parents are hard-working and try to bring up Neil and his older brother, Kevin, as good Catholics.

What Neil wants is to grow up. But there are too many distractions. The girls in the girl’s school next door, his brother leaving for service in Vietnam, and the loss of his best friend.

When Neil loses his best mate in a strange accident, he doesn’t know where to turn. He is confused and angry. When he starts to form an alliance with a boy that was expelled from his school, indirectly due to Neil not telling the truth, his life starts to take an upward turn.

Bill Condon has written a book that is universal in time – set 40 years ago, it is equally relevant today. I guarantee you cannot put this one down. I read it in one sitting. More than the confessions of a teenage boy, it is a record of the journey into adulthood. Sometimes that journey seems so fast, it’s in danger of spinning out of control.

Bill Condon’s Dogs (2001) and No Worries (2005) were Honour Books in the Children’s Book Council Book of the Year Awards. No Worries was also short-listed for the Ethel Turner Prize in the 2005 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards. Daredevils made the long-list in the inaugural Inky Awards.

The Reading Stack reviewed Bill Condon’s Daredevils in Issue 1 and Give Me Truth in Issue 14.

Pig Boy

by J C Burke

Woolshed Press. Australian, Young Adult. Paperback RRP $18.95

Pig Boy is a very confronting book. While I was reading it, a bullied school boy in the United States walked into his classroom and opened fire. It was eerily resonant. Could Damon Styles’ end up like this boy in the US?

Damon Styles is in his last year at school in the small country town of Strathven, where everybody knows everybody’s business. Damon has been bullied his whole high school life and taunted with the nickname of Damoink. He is intelligent but fat. He wins literary awards but the Principal never acknowledges him. He loves playing violent on-line video games but has trouble shooting a real weapon. He has anger issues with nearly the whole town.

Could he kill for revenge?

Damon’s eighteenth birthday starts badly and by lunchtime he has been expelled from school. What happens next will change Damon’s life. What did Damon stumble upon? And is there someone who knows what Damon saw?  

With paranoia setting in, Damon comes up with a plan. He knows what he has to do. First, he needs to make a list.

                TO-DO LIST

·         Google for info

·         Check newspapers etc

·         Get a padlock

·         Look into renewing firearms licence – book safety course, call rifle club re rejoining and course availability

·         Visit Pigman about a job

With no-one to turn to and no-one to trust, Damon is forced to take matters into his own hands.  

But when his careful planning begins to unravel, there is someone unexpected there to help him after all.

Pig Boy is a riveting read. The first half of the book builds Damon’s character looking back at what he has endured all his life. The second half of the book goes at a flying pace that before you realise, you are at the end and your heart has been beating double time and you desperately need to come up for air. A twisted story with a fantastic climax.

http://www.jcburke.com.au/

Anonymity Jones

by James Roy

Woolshed Press (Random House Australia). Young Adult fiction, Australian. Paperback rrp $ 17.95


Reviewed by Sandy Fussell

From the very first page this is a story about identity and change. Anonymity’s mother changed her name when she got married, and changed it again when the marriage fell apart. Older sister Raven changed her name just for the hell of it. And Anonymity… her name is a statement in itself.

To find out who she is, Anonymity must survive a changing world. Her new stepfather is a hovering potential predator. Her best friends now have boyfriends. Her sister is leaving home. Dad has his own troubles. The teacher she has a crush on is sending her mixed messages.

As a protagonist Anonymity is not always likeable and her actions often lack personal honesty but that is what makes her real. She is a strong, feisty heroine who sometimes makes the wrong decision. Or does she? Who is to say what is right and what is wrong for her? Anonymity is not afraid to stand up and be counted. She confronts her lying friends, traps her stepfather when her mother refuses to listen and delivers a warning to her art teacher.

This is a book that grew on me. It’s not that I didn’t immediately like it. In fact, that was the problem. I read it too fast, in one sitting. Discussing it later with a friend I realised I had totally overlooked the most identity-less character of all. It’s a credit to Roy’s storytelling that he paints with such a light touch, and a debit to me that I rushed past without noticing. So read slowly and savour as I did second time around.

Teenage girls will particularly enjoy Anonymity Jones but the readership will certainly extend to a wider audience.

View the book trailer here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROmEdhYbPZo

http://www.jamesroy.com.au/

Pyro Watson and the Hidden Treasure

by Nette Hilton. Illustrated by Gregory Rogers

Random House (Woolshed Press). Australian, Junior. Paperback rrp $16.95

Pyro Watson has been sent to stay with his Aunt Mor and her partner Mr Stig whilst his mother looks after his nan and his father goes to work. Pyro doesn’t want to go and stay in the old camper in the caravan park where his aunt lives. He wants to be back at school with his best friend Geezer making pirate maps and building pirate boats. It’s only for a week or two but Pyro is sure there will be nothing to do and he will be bored.

To help the boredom, Pyro becomes Simeon, the Pirate Fighter. When he meets Min and his little yappy dog, Becks, Pyro finds a true soul mate. Both Min and Pyro love pirates and find lots of adventures around the beach and surrounding rocks. But they have to beware of the Worries, the local bullies who want to hassle Pyro.

Simeon knows how to defend himself, but can Pyro?

When the Worries steal Becks whilst Pyro is looking after him, Pyro must face danger alone. Pyro needs to be as brave as Simeon.

A wonderful tale of a young boy trying to conquer his fear of both friendship and bullying. Boys and girls will delight in Pyro’s adventures, riveted to the end.

Shortlisted for Qld Premier's Literary Awards for Young Adults 2009 and NSW Premier's Literary Awards - Ethel Turner Prize 2009.

http://www.nettehilton.com.au/

Confessions of a Liar, Thief

and Failed Sex God

by Bill Condon

Woolshed Press. Australian, Young Adult. Paperback rrp $18.95

Neil Bridges is a 16-year-old Catholic school boy who doesn’t know what he wants to do or where he wants to go. It is 1967 and the all-boy’s school he attends is run by teachers and priests who believe that a leather strap is the best way to learn manners, mathematics and the right way to being a better person. His strict but loving parents are hard-working and try to bring up Neil and his older brother, Kevin, as good Catholics.

What Neil wants is to grow up. But there are too many distractions. The girls in the girl’s school next door, his brother leaving for service in Vietnam, and the loss of his best friend.

When Neil loses his best mate in a strange accident, he doesn’t know where to turn. He is confused and angry. When he starts to form an alliance with a boy that was expelled from his school, indirectly due to Neil not telling the truth, his life starts to take an upward turn.

Bill Condon has written a book that is universal in time – set 40 years ago, it is equally relevant today. I guarantee you cannot put this one down. I read it in one sitting. More than the confessions of a teenage boy, it is a record of the journey into adulthood. Sometimes that journey seems so fast, it’s in danger of spinning out of control.

Bill Condon’s Dogs (2001) and No Worries (2005) were Honour Books in the Children’s Book Council Book of the Year Awards. No Worries was also short-listed for the Ethel Turner Prize in the 2005 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards. Daredevils made the long-list in the inaugural Inky Awards.

The Reading Stack reviewed Bill Condon’s Daredevils in Issue 1 and Give Me Truth in Issue 14.

Magenta McPhee

by Catherine Bateson


Woolshed Press. Australian, Junior. Paperback rrp $16.95

Guest Reviewer Jo Burnell

Short-listed for the Speech Pathology Australia Book of the Year Award (Upper Primary), Catherine Bateson’s Magenta McPhee addresses issues for many kids whose parents are separated or divorced.

Magenta’s parents are divorced, her mum is remarrying and Magenta is worried about her dad. He seems lonely, maybe even depressed. With best friend Polly assisting, Magenta posts her dad’s profile on an Internet dating site. Things get complicated when someone responds and Magenta answers emails on her dad’s behalf. How can Magenta tell him she has arranged for him to meet a strange woman for coffee? Is there an easy way of mentioning that this person thinks she has been chatting with him by email for weeks? Can Magenta avoid being grounded for a lifetime?

When the meeting between her dad and the new woman takes place, another perspective on single parent households arises. Cal is also keen for his mum to find a friend of the opposite sex, but for very different reasons. His very existence complicates Magenta’s life. Are you allowed to be interested in the son of someone your dad might date?

Magenta sees herself as a budding writer. Chapters of her first historical fiction are threaded between the pages of her life. The medieval princess and teenage witch provide a neutral space to sort through her modern day dilemmas. Catherine Bateson masterfully embeds modern issues within Magenta’s funny, sometimes poignant story in much the same way that Magenta addresses personal dilemmas in her work of historical fiction.

The result is yet another engaging and easy read with quirky characters from Catherine Bateson.

You won’t be disappointed with Magenta McPhee. Oh. First boyfriends and kisses are also contemplated…

http://www.catherine-bateson.com/

HUNTING ELEPHANTS

by James Roy

Woolshed Press. Australian, Young Adult. Paperback rrp $18.95

It has been nearly a year since Harry’s younger brother Joel died from Cystic Fibrosis. Harry’s mum refuses to pack up Joel’s bedroom as though she is still clinging to his life. Dad is preoccupied all the time. Even Harry is seeing the world differently although everything is the same – except that Joel is not there.

When the family go to spend a few days at Uncle Frank’s in the country to help celebrate his fourth wedding, Harry finds he must face his demons while helping the family with theirs.

Harry feels that he is to blame for his brother’s death. Sure Joel was dying, but did Harry speed things along? And if Uncle Frank really was one of the heroic tunnel rats in the Vietnam War, why doesn’t he talk about it? Even more important, when a young local boy gets washed down a tunnel why doesn’t he help? Where does the truth start and where do the lies end?

As the back blurb says “Sometimes, when you’re surrounded by truths that might be lies, and lies that might just be true, you discover you’re just … Hunting Elephants.”

This is a wonderful story of what happens when people have to confront death, lies and the assumptions others make. James Roy is the winner of the NSW Premier’s Literary Award for his novel Town. I can see why. A great book for young adult boys and girls whether they just want to hunt elephants – or search for the truth.

www.jamesroy.com.au

The Wish Pony

by Catherine Bateson

Random House (Woolshed Press). Junior Fiction, Australian. Paperback rrp $15.95

The Wish Pony is a treasure. The book I mean, although fittingly, the little glass pony is as well. This is a story which immediately goes to the heart of those things that trouble middle primary schoolers – best friends, school, fitting in, parents and in Ruby’s case, the pending birth of a baby brother she doesn’t even want.

Life is changing and Ruby doesn’t like it. Her parents have no time for her at the moment as her pregnant mother is often sick and eventually hospitalised. School is full of problems too and for the first time ever, Ruby is labelled troublesome and difficult. After Ruby tries to copy her best friend Sarah’s maths, Sarah abandons Ruby for the new girl at school. Ruby feels it’s all so unfair. After all, none of it is her fault.

Then Ruby meets Magda, the eccentric old neighbour who is asked to look after Ruby whenever her mother is in hospital. Magda opens Ruby’s eyes and shows her how to take responsibility instead of trying to blame everyone else. She gives Ruby a small glass pony. A Wish Pony.

Ruby makes a terrible wish. Then her baby brother is born premature and there’s a strong chance he won’t survive. Now things are going very wrong and it might truly be her fault. But something magical happens. Is it the pony or something Ruby finds within when she stops feeling sorry for herself and starts to put others first.

Catherine Bateson has won the Children’s Book Council Book of the Year for Junior Readers twice. And this book is another example why. She is a wonderful writer who tells equally wonderful stories perfectly pitched to her audience. Recommended for children 8 – 12 years and in particular, girls.

http://www.catherine-bateson.com/