Young Adult Fiction

Three strong, original books

August 4, 2017 by Karen Comer 6 Comments

I’ve been reading quite a few wonderful books lately so I thought I’d bundle a few together in a review. I have so many library books teetering in a pile on my bedside table that I’m worried I’ll be decapitated during the night!

I’ve reviewed an adult novel by a well-known Australian writer, a young adult novel by a US novelist and a debut children’s novel. All three books had strong female characters, with so much determination and courage.

Beauty in thorns by Kate Forsyth (adult historical fiction) – I am such a fan of Kate’s. She teaches a wonderful writing course in Sydney through the Australian Writers Centre on plotting, and her latest book is testament to her ability to weave together threads from a few stories and timelines. It’s set in the Pre-Raphaelite era and focuses on the lives of a few artists – Ned Burne-Jones, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and William Morris, and the women who loved them. The story focuses mainly on the women – and they were a talented, creative force as well. I didn’t enjoy this book as much as Kate’s previous books, perhaps because it felt that she was following the stories in a chronological manner, rather than crafting a story. But the characters are compelling, the settings evocative and Kate’s writing is as rich and descriptive as usual.

The girl from everywhere by Heidi Heilig (young adult fiction) – a friend recommended this book to me, and I’m glad she did. It’s about a sixteen-year-old girl called Nix Song, who is a Navigator on a pirate ship with the ability to follow maps into the margins, into different countries and different timelines. Led by her father the Captain, and supported by a crew of time refugees, she discovers her own abilities. She needs to, lest her father steer them into a time and place where Nix doesn’t exist. Because of the complex and sophisticated plot of time travelling, I know I’ll read this book again to figure out the connections between the different timeframes. (That’s a sign of a wonderful book, when the reader is planning to read it again after finishing the last page!) It’s a really unique book, that shows a different sort of protagonist to the usual YA ones concerned with school and parties and friendships. There’s also a sequel available now – The ship beyond time – I can’t wait to read it. Best for 14-16 year-olds, but absolutely fabulous for all adults.

How to Bee by Bren MacDribble (children’s novel) – this is set in a dystopian world, where nine-year-old Peony is desperate to become a ‘Bee’, someone who climbs the trees, waving a wand to collect the honey. She lives and works on a farm with her sister and grandfather. But trouble arrives in the form of Peony’s mother, who wants to take Peony away to a different life. Peony’s voice is strong and compelling and whisks readers away into her world where you just want everything to work out for her because she is such a hard worker and so determined to support her family. I loved this book – definitely one of the best children’s books I’ve read this year. And the cover is gorgeously striking! A fabulous read for 9-12 year-olds.

I’ve also spent a bit of time in the last fortnight reading some unpublished books. I’m part of a writer’s group and last weekend we met up as usual to discuss each other’s work. I absolutely believe in the writing from the other members – I’m sure I’ll be reviewing their published work one day – a crime novel, a middle-grade novel and a young adult book.

Any recommendations for me? I’m compiling a wishlist for National Bookshop Day on Saturday 12th August – I’ll definitely be visiting my local. Tell me what’s on your book wishlist!

Words in deep blue – book review

September 23, 2016 by Karen Comer 10 Comments

Sometimes I feel that it is my job to find beautiful books and tell others about them because I feel their lives will be enriched. Cath Crowley’s young adult novel, Words in deep blue, is one such book.

The story is told in first person, alternating between Henry, who has finished year 12, works in his family’s secondhand bookshop and has just been dumped by his girlfriend, Amy – and Rachel, his ex-best friend, moving back to the city after being away for three years and who lost her younger brother when he drowned at sea.

The setting had me at hello – a secondhand bookshop with a letter library. The letter library section is full of secondhand books which can’t be bought because anyone is welcome to come in and underline or highlight or write notes about their favourite lines or paragraphs. The result is layer upon layer of annotated messages between strangers, friends and lovers. People also leave letters between the pages of their favourite books for strangers, friends or lovers to find. The letters form part of the story.

The characters are well-read, appreciate nuances, discuss books, write well and care deeply. As older teenagers, they are also caught up in their world of girlfriends and boyfriends, friends, music, books, going out, lack of money, jobs, fitting in, parents, school, social media.

Here’s a passage from Rachel:

Henry read me ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’ once, on a night in year 8. We were lying on the floor of the bookstore, and I’d told him that I didn’t like poetry. ‘I can’t understand it, so it never makes me feel anything.’

‘Hang on,’ he’d said, going over to the shelves.

He came back with the Prufrock. The poem did sound like a love song. As I listened I stared at a mark on the ceiling that looked like a tear-shaped sun. The mark somehow got mixed with the words.

I didn’t know exactly what ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’ was about, but lying there next to Henry, with his voice so close, I wanted to disturb something. I wanted to disturb us, shake us out of him seeing me as just Rachel, his best friend. I loved the poem for making me feel like disturbance was possible. And because it said something to me about life that I wanted to know, but didn’t understand.

I stayed up way too late to finish this book, and found myself crying at one point. Because this book had disturbed me – in a good way. It holds characters with dreams and pasts, a bookshop with fluid connections between the living and the dead, the possible and the imagined.

What’s the latest (good) disturbing book you’ve read?

The stars at Oktober Bend – book review

February 9, 2016 by Karen Comer 6 Comments

Miss 9 and I had a girls’ afternoon out on the weekend – we do like to leave our boys behind and go to places likes cafes, craft classes, cheese shops and gardens every now and again – and went to a fabulous book launch at Readings. We were there for the launch of The stars at Oktober Bend by Glenda Millard, her latest young adult book. Miss 9 was there to ask Glenda to sign her first book from the Kingdom of Silk series.

There was cheese, there was champagne, and then the formalities. An Allen and Unwin editor introduced the book, then Mike Shuttleworth from Readings told us why he loved it. I agreed with his point about Glenda offering a different sensibility, a different way of viewing the world.

Glenda’s book is told from the point of view of fifteen-year-old Alice who has an acquired brain injury. She has difficulty voicing her thoughts but writes them beautifully in poems, which she leaves around her small Australian town for strangers to find. Manny finds them. He is a refugee, a child soldier who is trying to establish a new life in Australia.

The book is written entirely in lower case, as we see everything through Alice’s eyes, with small sections of the book in Manny’s voice. Despite my last post about editing your own work and the importance of communicating clearly, the lower case writing draws us immediately into Alice’s way of seeing – might not be correct grammar but it expresses Alice’s voice authentically. A perfect pairing.

I’ve lost count of how many books I’ve read and owned by Glenda. What I love about her writing are the characters and her language. Miss 9 and I told Glenda we would like to live with the Silk family – those characters are so creative, sensitive, brave and thoughtful. And Alice is a beacon for every teenager on the outsider, everyone struggling to express themselves aloud, for every young adult on the brink of falling in love. As for her language, this is one of Alice’s poems:

and when he comes
i will
pass to him
new poems
on fine white pages
sonnets and songs
rows of notes
for words to waltz to
and when he reads them he will
know that i am
more
than twelve
more
than broken much
more
he will take
my hand press my fingers
gently into his
scarred places and i
will know their meaning.

Or this is her voice –

there were fewer silences than there might have been during that first shared meal. hope prised open the tiny doors of my caged heart. twice now manny had seen me fitting. twice he had not turned his back. he had listened to fragments of my stumbling speech and begged me to speak again. his wanting to listen made no difference to my speech. it was no clearer, quicker or more fluent. my words did not sound like birdsong or poetry. but many watched me and waited while i spoke. asked me when he didn’t understand. laughed with us when we laughed at my mumblings and his misunderstandings. that night we had everything we needed – food for our hunger and conversation for our souls.

And lest you think that this book is just about stars and poems, the last section is so gripping you will not be able to put it down. Promise. This is a beautiful book for the young adult in your life – it will encourage them to look at poetry, the evocative language will expand their vocabulary and the story of two outsiders will make their world a little larger.

Glenda told Miss 9 about the next three books she was writing – we both can’t wait to read them.

Cloudwish – book review

October 9, 2015 by Karen Comer 2 Comments

Cloudwish
Fiona Wood
Macmillan
2105

The story: Vân Ước Phan is a year 11 student, attending a prestigious Melbourne school on a scholarship. Her parents, immigrants from Vietnam, want her to study medicine at university. She wants to daydream about Billy Gardiner, a year 11 rower, and become an artist. Vân Ước describes herself as ‘in the dumpbin category of scholarship/poor/smart/Asian’ and has an affinity with Jane Eyre – the book and the character. What would Jane do, she asks herself when there is Billy trouble, parent trouble, mean girls at school trouble, prank at school trouble? Clash of cultures, clash of classes, clash of dreams, clash of generations – it’s all here in this young adult book. On top of the realism of this story is the floating, vague, mysterious premise of Vân Ước’s wish, using a glass vial from a visiting writer’s box of writing prompts.

The highlights: I loved Vân Ước. She is a complex, many-layered, articulate, shy, Jane Eyre aficionado, creative, sensible, value-driven, infatuated character. Fiona Wood’s earlier two young adult novels, Six Impossible Things (shortlisted for the Children’s Book Council of Australia Book of the Year, Older Readers, 2011) and Wildlife (winner of the Children’s Book Council of Australia Book of the Year, Older Readers, 2014) focus on some of the characters in Cloudwish. You don’t need to have read the earlier books first, but I would definitely recommend reading them in any order. (And, please, Fiona, can you write Michael’s story next?)

When interviewed for The Sydney Morning Herald, Fiona discussed the respect needed for gritty subjects when writing for young adults. ‘Six Impossible Things touched on homosexuality, divorce and financial troubles; Wildlife looked at sex and death and loss of innocence. Cloudwish touches on depression, bullying and post traumatic shock disorder.’

Considering the current refugee situation, Cloudwish is topical material. Last night, Mr 11 and I saw the documentary Between the devil and the deep blue sea. Jessie Taylor made the documentary six years ago when she visited detention centres in Indonesia to understand why families would risk their lives on boats to spend years in Indonesian detention centres. I pictured Vân Ước’s parents, leaving Vietnam on a boat to Malaysia. Vân Ước’s mother tells her:

“You’re a good girl. But it is not the same. That chain has been broken. You have independence. Ba and I want that for you. But everything here is different. And that’s still hard for me.”

“But not bad?”

“No, not bad! You will have a good life. But the old life is gone forever.”

Cloudwish is a fabulous read for adults and young adults. I can see it being set for an English curriculum.

One true thing

September 9, 2015 by Karen Comer 6 Comments

One true thing
Nicole Hayes
Random House
2015

The story: Frankie is sixteen, a guitarist in a band, and lives with her father, an academic, her mother, a politician and her younger brother, a swimmer with asthma. Frankie’s mother, Rowena, is in the middle of an election campaign, working to be the first elected female premier of Victoria. Rowena is used to the criticism and taunts of the media, but when she is photographed with an unknown man at night, the media becomes relentless and Frankie’s family begins to fall apart.

The highlights: There’s so much passion in this book – Frankie’s passion for her band, Rowena’s passion for politics and Frankie’s passion for Jake, the new kid at her school with his own passion for photography. Frankie, Rowena, and Rowena’s mother (Gran) are strong women – each with their secrets, their strengths and weaknesses. The pace is fast, the tension of politics, love, family life and school keeps the story entwined and interesting. No wonder young adult fiction is so popular!