The Best of Aussie YA (2) My Girl Friday

The Best of Aussie YA - Mini Series

some of the featured books...

About the mini series & best of Aussie YA current give-away

in case you missed it: 1 - Tye from The Book Gryffin

Say hey to Steph from My Girl Friday. Have you checked out her happening little corner on the web yet? It has such a unique vibe and always always quality content. A Melbourne girl who has a thing for zombies and fashion and good films and books :)


1. The Aussie YA scene is so strong at the moment - with so many BRILLIANT titles that came out this year. What tops your list of favourite Aussie YA reads this year?
This is such a tough question as so many amazing Australia YA titles were published this year! I've carefully narrowed it down to a top 3: Graffiti Moon - Cath Crowley, Six Impossible Things - Fiona Wood and This is Shyness - Leanne Hall.

2. What books from previous years are on your all-time favourite Aussie YA list?
 Oh yay, I can aspread the love around so more! Saving Francesca - Melina Marchetta (my favourite MM novel), Pink - Lili Wilkinson, Beatle Meets Destiny - Gabrielle Williams. I also absolutely adore Hollywood Ending - (John Belushi is Dead in the US)which though isn't set in Australia, is written by Kathy Charles, an Australian author. I'm also kind of a huge Kathy Charles fangirl (and  was thrilled to bits to hear that the the film rights for Hollywood Ending have been sold!). 

3. Any lesser known Aussie YA books/authors you adore?
The Good Daughter - Amra Pajalic was a book I don't remember seeing much of during it's initial release, but after hearing Amra speak at the Melbourne Writers Festival, I had to track down a copy and adored it. I also loved Finding Freia Lockhart - Aimee Said, which is a lovely debut YA novel (and hopefully there are more books to come from Aimee!)

4. What upcoming titles are you hanging out for? 
Ohh, after such an excellent 2010, I'm really excited to see what the New Year brings in Aussie YA! I'm looking forward to The Bridge - Jane Higgins - (the 2010 Winner of the Text Prize)


Quick 5: Choose the book you'd recommend to someone in the mood for:

A tear jerker - Not a traditional tearjerker, but I kept crying throughout The Piper's Son - Melina Marchetta

Awesome male POV - Six Impossible Things - Fiona Wood or Slice - Steve Herrick

Quirky and hilarious - Loving Richard Feynman - Penny Tangey

A story that lingers - Fury - Shirley Marr

A book that you can't put down - Stolen - Lucy Christopher

Thanks My Girl Friday ~ you have the coolest taste!

Don't forgot to swing around to her blog and say hi!

She's also currently running TWO international give-aways 

(closes by the 11th of December so scramble over!

Give-away one                                    And Give-away Two

The winners of this years Inky Awards...

The winners of this years Inky Awards were announced today - wahoo!

The Gold Inky (Australian title) went to Lucy Christopher's Stolen

And the Silver Inky (International title)  went to Maggie Stiefvater's Shiver

A HUGE congrats to both :) 

and also to all 20 short-listed titles...

Previous posts regarding the Inky's:
The 2010 Inky Longlist (and previous winners 2007 - 2009)
The 2010 Inky Shortlist (and my picks)

RTW - Best book of the month

Road Trip Wednesday is a blog carnival courtesy of YA Highway who post a writing- or reading-related prompt for all the YA bloggers to participate in.

The topic this week is:

What’s the best book you read in July?

Easily one of the best books I've read this year: Stolen by Lucy Christopher. Stunning and scary and beautiful with the most crush-worthy of writing it messed with my head and completely spun me out.

Told in a moving letter to her captor, sixteen-year-old Gemma relives her kidnapping from Bangkok airport. In a story of survival, passion and darkness, Gemma reveals how she had to deal with the nightmare or die trying to fight it. Sensitive, powerful and beautifully written. (from Coffs Harbour Library catalogue)

The synopsis? Basically, Ty kidnaps 16 year old UK girl Gemma from Thailand and takes her to his remote place in the Australian outback.

Goodreads blurb quote: Ty, her captor, is no stereotype. He is young, fit and completely gorgeous.


Um, agree :)


This book messed with my mind and made me question right and wrong and all the shades in between.


 The writing, holy guacamole, is so evocative that it seeps into you. So so much goodness to crush on. The setting was so rich: I felt the stifling heat and slipped right into the red earth with Gemma and Ty. 


The plot? It's psycholgical and twisty and I just had no idea what the ending would be or could be or even how I wanted it to end. I was so driven to see what would happen and it's been a long time since I've been so caught up in a story like that. 


The characters. Okay, hands down, Ty is a new fave literary guy for me. I cant even describe all the emotions he made me feel. Love , intrigue, pain, terror, sorrow, beauty and gratitude - he seriously is in a new dimension of his own reserved for the elitist of haunting and unique characters that make me ache in the most hard-core of ways.


The ending. Ooooh, the ending. It killed me and gripped me and lingered with me for days.


This book, is why I read.


And, it just intimidated me as a writer on a whole new level of whoah. 


Okay, so I feel like this response is a bit incoherent. Here's how John Marsden (legendary author of the Tomorrow series) figured out how to express all that I feel about Stolen:

"Stolen is a brilliant novel, which will pick up your world and shake it so hard that you can never be sure of anything again. Set in a landscape so exotic and powerful that it becomes one of the main characters in the book, this story of a boy and a girl delivers one compelling scene after another. Ty and Gem will be in your head a long time. If you were getting tired of reading, Stolen will turn you back into an addict."… John Marsden

Link to read the first chapter.


Obviously, 5 stars.  Couldn't put it down and can't get it out of my head.

And, totally rooting for it to win CBCA best book of the year. Winner announced in a few weeks :) Plus, it's nom'd for the Prime Minters Award (a prize including $100 000 cash). 

Lucy Christopher's Stolen and Aussie Book Awards

Stolen just won the Branford Boase Award on July 14. Whoo hoo!


This UK award for first-time authors has an impressive track record. Previous winners include names you just might have heard of such as Marcus Sedgwick, Mal Peet, Meg Rosoff, Siobhan Dowd and Frances Hardinge. (info taken from Fiction Focus)


Here's the seven books it was short-listed with - I'll be checking a few of them out too.


It's also on the short-list with the Children's Book Council of Australia for best book of the year for older readers (Aussie YA).


My library has all the books short-listed, but they dont get released to patrons until the winner is announced on Friday the 20th of August - the librarians keep them for display during book week and also for themselves to read. 


But I, oooh yeah, collaborated with my fave librarian and got her to smuggle a copy out for me. 


It pays to buddy up with librarians who rock :) 


I'm nearly finished it already (interrupted my reading to post about it winning the Branford. It's really really good :)


I've read Liar and like Stolen a bit better for the winner. Seriously cannot wait for A Small free Kiss in the Dark where survivors of a sudden war hide out in the ruins of an amusement park 


Book of the Year - Older Readers Short List 2010 CBCA



CHRISTOPHER, Lucy       Stolen       



CLARKE, Judith        The Winds of Heaven       




LARBALESTIER, Justine       Liar       

METZENTHEN, David       Jarvis 24       




MILLARD, Glenda       A Small Free Kiss in the Dark       



TANGEY, Penny       Loving Richard Feynman      





And... just today the Short List was announced for  2010 Prime Minister's Literary Awards and for the first time, they have a Young Adult category

Young Adult Fiction shortlist (Prime Ministers Award)

• Stolen, Lucy Christopher
• The Winds of Heaven, Judith Clarke
• Confessions of a Liar, Thief and Failed Sex God, Bill Condon
• The Museum of Mary Child, Cassandra Golds
• Swerve, Phillip Gwynne
• Jarvis 24, David Metzenthen
• Beatle meets Destiny, Gabrielle Williams

And there's Stolen again! (plus some other crossovers from the CBCA short-list.) I've read Swerve, which was a fantastic male POV.

I can't wait to see who the winners will be :) The winner of the Prime Ministers Award will receive $100, 000.


sorry for the wonky formatting. It's all flipped out...(?)