Review: Frankie

“Don’t judge me, bitch. This is a high-stress situation.” - Frankie, p. 9.

Shivaun Plozza's debut YA novel Frankie.

Shivaun Plozza’s debut YA novel Frankie (Penguin, April 2016) will slice you like an electric knife through kebab meat. The title character’s sassiness, cynicism, mistrust and anger hooked me immediately, and I seesawed between wanting to hug her and boot her up the backside throughout the book. The writing is smooth and immediate, and pinballed me around the full range of the emotional spectrum.

Frankie Vega’s 17 and lives with her aunt Vinnie in a flat above Vinnie’s kebab shop. Xavier contacts Frankie claiming to be her half-brother, and she’s suspended from school after breaking a boy’s nose. When Xavier disappears, Frankie reluctantly accepts help from his partner in crime (not a euphemism) Nate to help find him.

Review: Forever

Forever

Judy Blume

Macmillan (2015 reprint)

The 2015 reprint of Judy Blume's Forever.

My son pulled Forever off a shelf in a bookstore. It was next to Enid Blyton in the young readers’ section.

He thought I’d like it because it had a cherry on the front, and I like cherries. He’s a young, innocent child. Thoughtful – but innocent.

Why the message matters

We’re sending our children mixed messages. 

On one hand – be confident to be yourself. On the other – don’t be too much like yourself, because difference is something to be feared.

Between the failings raised by the current inquiry into institutionalised child abuse, the treatment of asylum-seeker children in offshore detention centres and the attacks on the Safe Schools program, which provides “resources and support to equip staff and students with skills, practical ideas and greater confidence to lead positive change and be safe and inclusive for same sex attracted, intersex and gender diverse students, staff and families”, Australia is not acting like it’s kid-friendly.

Make that Australia’s not kid-friendly to those who don’t fit into a constructed view of ‘normality’.

Diversity prominent in new Oz YA titles

Diversity is a hot topic in young adult book titles set for release in Australia in 2016.

Two hundred people received a crash course
in upcoming YA releases in Australia,

Publishers travelled from all over the country to Melbourne last night, spruiking their upcoming releases with the five-minute time limit strictly enforced by the tambourine of doom in a crazy reverse Literary Speed Dating session where the publishers were pitching to the punters.

Review: One True Thing

Teenage life in the media spotlight

Nicole Hayes looks at the media and politics
through the eyes of the Premier's daughter
in One True Thing.

There’s YA realism and there’s YA realism. One True Thing is definitely the latter: a great story with a relatable protagonist who draws the reader into current, relevant and topical issues. Following Nicole Hayes's 2013 debut novel The Whole of My World, which examined grief and the attitude of sports clubs and stars towards women; One True Thing – released earlier this month – tackles the media, its treatment of women in politics, and the effect of negative coverage on families.

A vital return to reality

There’s a pristine 330-page YA manuscript sitting on my desk and it’s taking all of my willpower to stay away from it.



The first printout. The next edit will be on hard copy. 

It’s my first novel. It’s taken months to write. Over the past fortnight I’ve spent about ten hours a day going through from start to finish, twice. I laughed, I cried, I culled characters and scenes.

Destiny on and off the page

Melissa Wray's debut novel
was released in 2012.

Pivotal moments affect the lives of authors and characters, as Melissa Wray discovered.



A father saying ‘yes’ to his daughter proved a pivotal moment in the life of author Melissa Wray, and the protagonist, Jessica, in Melissa’s debut young adult novel Destiny Road. Two years after the book’s launch, the Geelong-based author looks back on her path to writing the novel, which she describes as “a story if choices, consequences, heartbreak and acceptance”.

Melissa has written a moving account on her blog about how pivotal moments, regret and death led to Destiny Road, saying “It came about because one night I was lying in bed and couldn’t sleep. There was an unspoken conversation going on in my mind.”