The 2013 Text Prize Shortlist Announced!

 

Last week, after reading over 350 manuscripts, Text Publishing announced the four finalists for the 2013 Text Prize for Young Adult and Children's Writing.

 

Waer by Meg Caddy
An intricate fantasy novel set in an imagined land of waerwolves, thieves and magic. Twenty-one-year-old Perth student and childcare worker Meg Caddy has been working on the novel since she was fourteen, and is following in the footsteps of her author father, David Caddy, who has published several books with Fremantle Press.

Lost Vegas by Jo Hegerty
A funny, heartwarming story for younger readers about a bullied boy and his second-hand, far-from-ideal dog, Vegas. Jo Hegerty is a Brisbane-based journalist, editor and blogger.

Elizabeth and Zenobia by Jessica Miller
Elizabeth and her imaginary friend Zenobia suddenly find themselves living in the haunted home of Elizabeth’s distant father, Witheringe House. Brisbane-based Jessica Miller has written a fantastically imagined story for eight- to twelve-year-olds about all the different ways we can be haunted.

Flood Damage by Diana Sweeney
A timely novel for older readers, Flood Damage explores a young woman’s struggle to regain control of her life after a devastating flood claims the lives of her parents and sister. Diana Sweeney has published a number of papers in academic journals, but Flood Damage is her first novel.

The winner will be announced on 29 May. 

 

The Text Prize is awarded annually to the best manuscript written by an Australian or New Zealander for young adults.

Both published and unpublished writers of all ages are eligible to enter with works of fiction or non-fiction. Judged by a panel of editors from Text Publishing, the winner will receive a publishing contract with Text and a $10,000 advance against royalties.

The previous winners are:

2012: Zac and Mia - AJ Betts (to be published August 2013)

2011: Fire in the Sea - Myke Bartlett
2010: The Bridge - Jane Higgins
2009: This Is Shyness - Leanne Hall
2008: The Billionaire’s Curse - Richard Newsome

Source: Text Publishing

Girl Defective by Simmone Howell

Title: Girl Defective
Author: Simmone Howell

Release Date: 1st March 2013

My Rating: 5/5

Blurb:

We, the Martin family, were like inverse superheroes, marked by our defects. Dad was addicted to beer and bootlegs. Gully had "social difficulties" that manifested in his wearing a pig snout mask 24-7. I was surface clean but underneath a weird hormonal stew was simmering...

It's summer in St Kilda. Fifteen-year-old Sky is looking forward to great records and nefarious activities with Nancy, her older, wilder friend. Her brother – Super Agent Gully – is on a mission to unmask the degenerate who bricked the shop window. Bill the Patriarch seems content to drink while the shop slides into bankruptcy. A poster of a mysterious girl and her connection to Luke, the tragi-hot new employee sends Sky on an exploration into the dark heart of the suburb. Love is strange. Family Rules. In between there are teenage messes, rock star spawn, violent fangirls, creepy old guys and accidents waiting to happen. If the world truly is going to hell in a hand-basket then at least the soundtrack is kicking. Sky Martin is Girl Defective: funny, real and dark at the edges.

In A Nutshell:

Mysteries and music in Melbourne. Enough said.

My Review:

I think the mark of a good book is one where you keep thinking about it long after you have finished it. I read this ages ago and I still find my mind wandering back to it.

I really loved Girl Defective. In the interests of full disclosure, I didn’t think I would. I didn’t enjoy Everything Beautiful which everyone else seemed to, and so I didn’t have high hopes for Girl Defective. But, I liked the premise so I thought I would give it a go and I’m so glad I did. It just proves that you can’t judge an author on one book alone. Some stories will speak to you, some won’t. Girl Defective was un-put-down-able.

Sky Martin lives with her wannabe detective younger brother Gully and their record obsessed Dad above his beloved record store. Their mother, who went through a ‘bird faze’ naming them Seagull and Skylark, walked out on them three years ago to ‘find herself’. She now lives in Japan and works on her creative outlets, which currently involves performance art while covered in tampons.

At 15, Sky is a bit of a loner. She’s lost in the world, searching for her place and her own identity. She spends her days either at school in the computer lab vandalising her mother’s website, at the record store, watching over Gully who has taken to wearing a pig-snout mask and pretending to be a secret agent, and arguing with her dad who refuses to move with the times in order to save the store. Her only friend is 19-year-old Nancy who is a bit wild and carefree, somewhat unreliable and the complete opposite of Sky. But she makes Sky feel alive and Sky holds onto their unlikely friendship like a lifeline.  

“Sometimes I thought if it wasn’t for music I wouldn’t be able to cry or laugh or feel giddy or wild.” 

Set over the course of six weeks, the lives of the Martin family takes a little detour down the seedier streets of St Kilda as Gully tries to investigate who threw a brick through their shop window, Nancy becomes obsessed with rock star Otis, and Sky’s dad, Bill, hires new-comer Luke to help out at the store. While Sky is originally grumpy about Luke employment, she can’t help but be intrigued by him, watching him over the top of her Record Collector magazine. Luke is quiet and sad and we learn very early on that he is in town to try and piece together the last months of his sister’s life, a life that seems remarkably similar to Nancy’s.

With Luke searching for answers about Mia’s death, Sky becomes fascinated by the life that Mia appears to have led and does a little investigating of her own while pondering her feelings for both Nancy and Luke. Her character evolves through the story and by the end of it I was so proud and happy for her with the way things eventuated, with the risks she takes and the realisations she comes to.

I loved both Gully and Bill. Gully is eccentric and quirky and I love him to bits. I think it is implied he has Asperger’s but I’m not knowledgeable enough about the condition to say for sure. Bill’s dedication to records and his refusal to stock CDs or sell online, let alone stock anything released after 1995, is endearing, even if he is running his business into the ground.

Last but not least, I love mysteries and novels that incorporate music. The Martin family are music snobs but we love them anyway. I really enjoyed the music references, even if I only knew half the bands mentioned, but I could still appreciate the love and dedication they had towards their favourites. 

“I like watching people’s faces when they listen to music. I like how it’s private. Even at a gig if you’re all hearing the same thing, you’re really all hearing something different.”

Thank you to Macmillan for this review copy. 

Just One Day by Gayle Forman

Title: Just One Day

Author: Gayle Forman

Release Date: 8th January 2013

My Rating: 5/5

Blurb:

When sheltered American good girl Allyson "LuLu" Healey first meets laid-back Dutch actor Willem De Ruiter at an underground performance of Twelfth Night in England, there’s an undeniable spark. After just one day together, that spark bursts into a flame, or so it seems to Allyson, until the following morning, when she wakes up after a whirlwind day in Paris to discover that Willem has left. Over the next year, Allyson embarks on a journey to come to terms with the narrow confines of her life, and through Shakespeare, travel, and a quest for her almost-true-love, to break free of those confines.

In A Nutshell:
I loved Just One Day. A lot can happen in one day. It can change your life and it does just that for eighteen-year-old Allyson. It was absolutely amazing to see the transformation she goes through over the course of a year, following her one day. How Allyson deals with depression, love, loss, friendships, family, college and parental expectations is nothing short of a pleasure to read.

My Review:
The basis of Just One Day is the idea that anything can happen in one day. While I started the book thinking it was about how you can fall in love in a day, I now believe that is just an undercurrent and that more so, in a day, your whole life can be set on a different course.

After a random, whirlwind meeting and adventure with Dutch amateur theatre actor Willem, eighteen-year-old Allyson is devastated by the way their day in Paris turns out. Returning to the US in a depressed funk, Allyson can’t seem to get her life back on track; her best friend Melanie can’t understand why she can’t just get over it, her uninformed parents can’t understand the changes in her personality, and her new college roommates don’t know what to think of her. It’s always difficult for people to understand what someone is going through unless they have experienced something similar as they can’t comprehend the need for closure. But for Allyson, it’s far more than some smooth guy using and ditching her. While she was with him, she got a taste of who the real Allyson is; the Allyson she hasn’t allowed herself to discover in order to keep everyone around her happy. Now that she has ‘met’ her, she can’t just go back to the life her parents’ mapped-out for her.

I loved Just One Day. It was absolutely amazing to see the transformation that Allyson goes through and how she deals with depression, love, loss, friendships, family, college and expectations. Now don’t get me wrong, I was intrigued by Willem’s character and wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt, even though my ‘spidey-sense’ was telling me he was a player, just as Allyson’s self-doubt made her think he couldn’t actually like her. But like Allyson, I pushed it away, choosing to focus on the positive signs rather than the negative ones. And hey, their time in the artist squat was hot as. But their story went in a different direction. No matter how short their time together was, and no matter how it ended, Allyson made a profound connection in that time, whether with Willem or herself, it doesn’t matter, because the pain is real and the loss is felt.

Back in the US, Allyson wallows in a self-pitying depression. She feels empty as though something, or someone, is missing from her life. The realisation comes slowly, that it is not just the beautiful boy she is mourning, but her identity. To rediscover the person she was in Paris means Allyson has to change the way her life is now. She knows she will be disappointing her parents but if the medical school route they planned for her means forgoing her own happiness, then what is the point of living if only to be miserable the entire time?

As she slowly begins to rediscover herself, she branches out: taking chances, changing the course her life has been put on and, much to her bewilderment, makes some unlikely new friends. Her search for the answers about what really happened with Willem leads her to a Shakespeare class, a café job, French lessons, and then once again, Europe, where the new Allyson takes challenges in her stride.

The people Allyson meets along her journey are so completely endearing. Her Shakespeare study buddy Dee, the enthusiastic and genuine bartender Modou, her fellow travellers, and the zesty but somewhat wounded Wren, who was probably my favourite supporting character of them all. And I really liked the way Forman portrayed the friendship between Allyson and her childhood friend Melanie. It’s good to recognise that people change and that through no fault of either party, they grow apart. They can be going through different things in their lives and while some friendships will last, others will just naturally fizzle out. But with relinquishing old friendships also comes new and amazing ones and Allyson’s happiness and enthusiasm coincides with these.

I’d like to do a quick shout-out to some of the locations featured in the book. Excluding Mexico and Florida, it is set in Boston, Paris, London and Amsterdam, and since I have been to all of them, I know that Forman really captured the essence of the cities. I think that any reader, either well-travelled or not, can absolutely connect with the feelings and anticipations that Allyson has while travelling to each place. Her travels brought back my memories of visiting these cities for the first time, and then the jolt of familiarity I had upon returning and recognising places, just as Allyson has when she returns to Paris.

It will be very interesting to see how our assumptions of Willem play out in Just One Year, as Forman presents us with Willem’s story starting from the fateful morning in Paris when everything goes wrong. At the ending of Just One Day, I am not the biggest fan of Willem’s, whereas I am so proud of Allyson and all that she experienced and challenged herself with in the year following her meeting with Willem. I am a massive fan of Where She Went, Adam’s story and the male point of view from Forman’s amazing If I Stay/Where She Went companion novels so I’m interested to see how I take to reading the year from Willem’s point of view.

Massive amounts of love and respect for this book. Love your work Gayle!

The Maze Runner by James Dashner

Title: The Maze Runner

Author: James Dashner

Series: The Maze Runner #1

Release Date: 6th October 2009

My Rating: 3/5

Blurb: 

When Thomas wakes up in the lift, the only thing he can remember is his first name. His memory is blank. But he’s not alone. When the lift’s doors open, Thomas finds himself surrounded by kids who welcome him to the Glade—a large, open expanse surrounded by stone walls.

Just like Thomas, the Gladers don’t know why or how they got to the Glade. All they know is that every morning the stone doors to the maze that surrounds them have opened. Every night they’ve closed tight. And every thirty days a new boy has been delivered in the lift.

Thomas was expected. But the next day, a girl is sent up—the first girl to ever arrive in the Glade. And more surprising yet is the message she delivers.

Thomas might be more important than he could ever guess. If only he could unlock the dark secrets buried within his mind.

In A Nutshell:

A promising beginning but it didn't follow through to an ending that interested me.

My Review:

The Maze Runner is sort of like a cross between The Hunger Games and the TV show Lost. A group of about fifty teenage boys have been placed in an unknown area with no escape. They are given certain supplies each week and once a month, another boy joins them with his memory wiped clean. With no way of leaving, the boys send groups into the maze which is connected to the area they have been remanded to, in the hope of finding an exit and the possibility of a normal life and finding the families they hope are looking for them on the outside. But the maze appears unsolvable and has Grievers, mechanical monsters that patrol, ready to kill any boy that comes into contact with them.

Despite their undesirable circumstances, the characters have managed to form their own working community with a type of government and jobs to keep them busy. Everyone has a job to do, whether it be maintaining the vegetable gardens and caring for the livestock, cleaning the living quarters, taking care of the sick and injured, preparing meals or entering the maze. With the arrival of Thomas, and then Teresa, things start to change and as people begin to remember snippets of their former lives, the maze and the community they have created may not be all that bad after all.

I enjoyed the story and the characters for a large portion of the novel and I was really intrigued as to which way the plot was going to go. However, the direction the author took wasn’t for me and I began to lose interest in the final chapters. The last pages introduced a whole new mystery which did not appeal to me so I won’t be continuing on with The Scorch Trials.

Psych Major Syndrome by Alicia Thompson

Title: Psych Major Syndrome

Author: Alicia Thompson

Release Date: 11th August 2009

My Rating: 5/5 

Blurb:

Using the skills you've learned so far in Introduction to Psychology, please write a brief self-assessment describing how things are going in your freshman year.

Presenting Concerns:

The Patient, Leigh Nolan (that would be me), has just started her first year at Stiles College. She has decided to major in psychology (even though her parents would rather she study Tarot cards, not Rorschach blots). 

Patient has always been very good at helping her friends with their problems, but when it comes to solving her own...not so much. 

Patient has a tendency to overanalyze things, particularly when the opposite sex is involved. Like why doesn't Andrew, her boyfriend of over a year, ever invite her to spend the night? Or why can't she commit to taking the next step in their relationship? And why does his roommate Nathan dislike her so much? More importantly, why did Nathan have a starring role in a much-more-than-friendly dream

Aggravating factors include hyper-competitive fellow psych majors, a professor who’s badly in need of her own psychoanalysis, and mentoring a middle-school-aged girl who thinks Patient is, in a word, naive.

Diagnosis:

Psych Major Syndrome

In A Nutshell:
Psych Major Syndrome was a light, unputdownable read that totally filled my quota of favourite things for the day: a college setting, swoon-worthy guy, spunky alternative best friend and a road trip.

My Review:

Psych Major Syndrome has all my favourite things: a college setting, cute guy, spunky alternative best friend, dorm rooms and a roadtrip. It also has all the things that can make life miserable (excluding death and illness): an academic rival, a bitchy girl who you just want to throw the best comebacks at but can never think of them at the right time, and an arsehat of a boyfriend. Throw in a troubled teen in need of someone to talk to, a hippy/new age family and a loveable but rundown old car and you have Leigh Nolan’s life.

It really was just one of those books that makes you feel happy and go ‘awww’. It was a light, unputdownable read that totally filled my quota of favourite things for the day.

Leigh is somewhat neurotic. It seems to be true what they say about psychologists having just as many problems as their patients (Leigh is studying psychology). She can be annoying because, like a lot of girls, she over analyses things and can’t see what is blaringly obvious to everyone around her. But, the whole book was endearing and a total comfort read for me.

Nathan pretty much ticks all the boxes for perfect swoon-worthy guy. He is sweet, pays attention, plays guitar, believes Leigh deserves better *cough* him *cough* and is guaranteed to melt the hearts of everyone who reads Psych Major Syndrome. Prepare for major swoon-age.

Loved it.

Big thanks to Nomes over at inkcrush for this recommendation.

The Times, They Are A Changing...

So, like everyone, I am somewhat confused about what is going to be happening with Blogger come July 1st.

I know that Google Reader is going bye-bye. I've had a look around at some of the other platforms we can use to follow our favourite blogs and after testing out Bloglovin over the last 2 weeks, I've decided that I'm really happy with it. So, now I am recommending it to all of you! You can really easily import all the blogs you currently follow on Google Reader into your (free) Bloglovin account. They have buttons that you can add to your blog for people to follow you and if someone doesn't have a button, you can still add the blog easily. And, they have a great phone app. I'm seriously loving it. So without further ado, please go and sign up for an account if you haven't already got one and sign up to follow my blog. Pretty please...

But if you don't want to, I have other options!

I haven't been able to figure out if Google Friend Connect is also disappearing or if it is staying (does anyone know for sure?) but I'm assuming it is also leaving us since it is connected to the Google Reader. For the time being I still have the option to follow via GFC (see the little blogger book button over on the sidebar?) but at the risk of it disappearing, I would appreciate it if you could now follow using a different method. I've got email subscription and RSS, plus of course Bloglovin, but if they really don't work for you, or if it's just easier, then I've got Facebook, Twitter and Goodreads. Or you could just follow all the different ways (I often post extra stuff on Facebook)! See those nifty little follow buttons? Over there on the right? I'm really loving them right now too.

That's right, keep up. You don't wanna lose me

I hope everyone enjoyed my Aussie Author Month that I ran throughout March. I had some hilarious interviews and discovered some excellent Aussie YA fiction. And all the signed give-aways are still open internationally until the end of April so make sure you go and check out all the awesome.

The Mimosa Tree by Antonella Preto

Title: The Mimosa Tree
Author: Antonella Preto

Release Date: 1st April 2013

My Rating: 4/5

Blurb:

It’s the summer of 1987 and Mira is beginning her first year at uni. She’s got a radical new haircut, and an all-black wardrobe — she should be having the time of her life.

But it’s hard to get excited about anything when you’re being smothered by your crazy Italian family, enrolled in a course you’re not interested in, and expecting nuclear warfare at any moment.

Even a new best friend and the magnetic boy from art class can’t wipe away the image of a looming mushroom cloud. And Mira’s right. Her world is about to explode, but it’s not the skies she should be checking.

In A Nutshell:

The Mimosa Tree is a story about grief, growing up and the importance of family. Cancer is a strong element of the novel but the story connects because it is surrounded by the everyday happenings of life. The novel will have you laughing, crying and seething in frustration but as you will see, it is how people react and cope in difficult situations that define who they are and who they will become.

My Review:
The Mimosa Tree is a snapshot of the life of seventeen year-old Mira who is an only child growing up in a traditional Italian family in Australia. It’s 1987 and Mira has finally left high school behind. Entering university, she hopes for bigger and better things, for real friends with the same passions and interests as her. But it’s hard to make friends when she dismisses those who don’t appear to be like her and with a stifling and bossy extended family who have an opinion on every facet of her life.

Adjusting to the university workload and an irritating but persistent new friend helps keep Mira somewhat sane from her meddling aunt Via. But, when her mother’s cancer returns, Mira’s life is turned further upside down. With the illness kept a secret from those not in the family, Mira takes her grief and frustrations out on unsuspecting people, such as her new friend Felicia. Mira keeps everything bottled up, becoming isolated because she only really has her exasperating aunts to talk to, which is not ideal.

Mira’s aunt Via angered me so much that I almost put the book down a few times. She was just so incredibly frustrating and pushy and I would go mad if someone like her was always meddling in my life. But, I do understand why she is the way she is and that it is just her way of showing she cares.

I loved Mira. I don’t think a lot of people would probably feel the same way. She’s negative, grumpy and judges people too quickly, but it’s all about protecting herself from getting hurt. It’s a coping mechanism and since she has never had any real friends, it’s hard for her to accept people, particularly when she has a particular image in her head of what new friends might be like. She is an honest character and I love Antonella Preto for writing her.

Mira really frustrated me at times because she doesn’t do anything around the house to help her mother out. This really bugged me because I viewed her as a selfish, spoilt child and couldn’t understand why she didn’t help out more. Then I realised that that isn’t the way the Italian home works. That is the wife’s job, to take care of everything around the house. At least, this is my impression of how it was 25 years ago.

People deal with grief in their own ways and existing relationships are often altered, some for better, some for worse. What Mira discovers is that while family is incredibly important, they are not always enough and sometimes you need the support of people outside the situation to help you cope.

The Mimosa Tree is a story about grief, growing up and the importance of family. Cancer is a strong element of the novel but the story connects because it is surrounded by the everyday happenings of life. For Mira, the difficult transition from high school to university, becoming an adult and learning how to cope with a very sick mother is different to the way in which her father and aunts react. The novel will have you laughing, crying and seething in frustration but as you will see, it is how people react and cope in difficult situations that define who they are and who they will become.

Aussie Author Month Giveaway: Friday Brown by Vikki Wakefield

 The final give-away I have up for grabs for Aussie Author Month is the amazing Friday Brown by Vikki Wakefield. And, like the others, it is signed!

 

‘They call me Friday. It has been foretold that on a Saturday I will drown…’

Seventeen-year-old Friday Brown is on the run, trying to escape memories of her mother and the family curse. She befriends Silence, a strange boy with a troubled past. But it is the charismatic Arden who will challenge Friday in more ways than she’d like. In Murungal Creek, a ghost town in the outback, Friday must face her own past. She learns that family, like fate, is more than what you’re born with—and that love is always worth fighting for.

 

What I said:

Friday Brown is "an exceptional Australian novel".

(Click to read the full review)

 

 To enter:

- Fill out the form below

- You must be a follower of this blog

- The give-away is international

- Entires close 30th April 2013

- Extra entires available for those who share the give-away on their blog, facebook and/or twitter

Author Interview: Jaclyn Moriarty

Jaclyn Moriarty wrote the popular Ashbury/ Brookfield High School series; Feeling Sorry for Celia, Finding Cassie Crazy, The Betrayal of Bindy Mackenzie and Dreaming of Amelia.

Her most recent novel, A Corner of White, was released in October 2012 and is the first in the Colours of Madeleine Trilogy.  

Feeling Sorry for Celia has been a favourite of mine since I first read it in 2000.

Please welcome Jaclyn Moriarty to The Tales Compendium!

I was the kind of kid who... got lost, tripped over, fell over, spilled paint on my clothes, got my arms stuck between fence posts, and was often essentially blind because my hat kept slipping forward over my face.

My mother always told me... that I had to learn to look after myself (emphasis in the original).

The biggest lesson I learnt at school was... to avoid eye contact with the Wells’ twins.

My first big crush was... on a leg. Someone came to school with a photo from a party, and you could see a boy’s leg in the corner: the lower part of his left leg (he must have been wearing shorts) and his foot. His calf muscles were beautifully toned (his left calf muscles, anyway); he had nice, fine, manly leg hair (again, going by the left leg); and his foot had a solid, good-natured, humorous, grounded look. I developed an instant crush. Nobody knew who owned the leg. A lot of people got involved in trying to find out for me, and at one point someone thought his name could be Peter. But that has never confirmed.

I earnt my first pay cheque... when I was seven and my dad paid me $1.50 to write a novel. After that I made a modest fortune polishing chandeliers for the lady who lived down the street. She had arthritis in her fingers, she said, and metal screws in all the joints, so she couldn’t do it herself.

I really hate it when... I get parking tickets, late fees, penalty notices, reprimands from the body corporate for hanging my laundry on the balcony, etc, etc. I’m a Good Girl but often absent-minded and I can’t stand getting into trouble.

I’m very good at... gazing out the window.

The hardest thing I’ve ever done is... read Cases and Materials on Administrative Law. Having a baby was not exactly a walk in the park either, but lord, those cases were boring.

I’m frightened of... snakes. I have a lot of nightmares about snakes.

When I’m in the shower I sing... No I don’t. When I’m driving, I sing.

My road to publication... probably had just the right number of rejection letters although it didn’t seem like it at the time.

The last book I read was... Sam the Sudden by P.G. Wodehouse.

I would love to meet... Thor, the god of thunder.

When I get the munchies I eat... chocolate.

I’m currently working on... the third book in my trilogy about the Kingdom of Cello. The first, A Corner of White, has just been released, and I just finished writing the second, Cracks in the Kingdom.

I hope I never... have to become an administrative lawyer.

Life is... not remotely like a box of chocolates, but is often blindingly brilliant anyway. 

Thankyou for being part of Aussie Author Month, Jaclyn!

Jaclyn on Goodreads

Jaclyn's website