2020 Shortlisted FICTION for Years 7-9 RESOURCES
Akarnae
by Lynette Noni
With just one step, sixteen-year-old Alexandra Jennings's world changes - literally. Dreading her first day at a new school, Alex is stunned when she walks through a doorway and finds herself stranded in Medora, a fantasy world full of impossibilities. Desperate to return home, she learns that only a man named Professor Marselle can help her... but he's missing.
While waiting for him to reappear, Alex attends Akarnae Academy, Medora's boarding school for teenagers with extraordinary gifts. She soon starts to enjoy her bizarre new world and the friends who embrace her as one of their own, but strange things are happening at Akarnae, and Alex can't ignore her fear that something unexpected... something sinister... is looming.
An unwilling pawn in a deadly game, Alex's shoulders bear the crushing weight of an entire race's survival. Only she can save the Medorans, but what if doing so prevents her from ever returning home?
Will Alex risk her entire world - and maybe even her life - to save Medora?
Interview with Lynette Noni about Akarnae (video)
Lynette Noni launches the special edition (Facebook video)
As happy as here
by Jane Godwin
Three teenage girls from very different backgrounds find themselves sharing a hospital ward. When they witness a crime in the park below their window, they bond over trying to solve the crime and each one undergoes a profound change.
A beautiful coming-of-age story about identity, expectation, class, justice, society, fairness, and, above all, kindness.
As happy as here teacher’s notes
Detention
by Tristan Bancks
A daring escape. A school lockdown. A thrilling chase. What would you risk to save a life?
Sima and her family are pressed to the rough, cold ground among fifty others. They lie next to the tall fence designed to keep them in. The wires are cut one by one. When they make their escape, a guard raises the alarm. Shouting, smoke bombs, people tackled to the ground. In the chaos Sima loses her parents. Dad told her to run, so she does, hiding in a school and triggering a lockdown. A boy, Dan, finds her hiding in the toilet block. What should he do? Help her? Dob her in? She's breaking the law, but is it right to lock kids up? And if he helps, should Sima trust him? Or run?
This moment, these decisions, will change the course of their lives.
Detention videos to support learning by Tristan Bancks (video)
Tristan Bancks interview with Australian Writers’ Centre (podcast)
Dragonfly song
by Wendy Orr
There are two ways of looking at Aissa's story. She's the miracle girl who escaped the raiders, or she's the cursed child who called the Bull King's ship to the island. The firstborn daughter of a priestess is cast out as a baby, and after raiders kill her adopted family, she is abandoned at the gates of the Great Hall, anonymous and mute. Called No-Name, the cursed child, she is raised a slave, and not until she is twelve does she learn her name is Aissa: the dragonfly.
Now every year the Bull King takes a tribute from the island: two thirteen year-old children to brave the bloody bull dances in his royal court. None have ever returned - but for Aissa it is the only escape.
Aissa is resilient, resourceful, and fast - but to survive the bull ring, she will have to learn the mystery of her true nature.
Dragonfly song teacher’s notes
Illuminae
by Jay Kristoff
Kady and Ezra thought their break-up was messy until they witnessed their entire world literally falling apart. Now they're piecing together what's left of their lives, and their romance, and trying to survive an intergalactic war. The year is 2575, and two rival mega-corporations are at war over a planet that's little more than an ice-covered speck at the edge of the universe. Too bad nobody thought to warn the people living on it. With enemy fire raining down on them, exes Kady and Ezra are forced to escape on the evacuating fleet. But the warship is the least of their problems. A deadly plague has broken out and is mutating, with terrifying results. The fleet's AI, which should be protecting them, may actually be their enemy; and nobody in charge will say what the hell is going on. As Kady hacks into a tangled web of data to find the truth, it's clear only one person can help her bring it all to light: the ex-boyfriend she swore she'd never speak to again.
Illuminae: a message from Ezra (video)
Jay Kristoff and Amie Kaufman interview with The Ravenous Reader (video)
Lenny’s book of everything
by Karen Foxlee
I knew my brother. I knew when he talked too much about Timothy, his imaginary pet eagle, he was scared. 'Whatever you do,' I said to Davey on the walk to school, 'Do not tell people about your eagle. Do not tell Miss Schweitzer about your eagle.’ He looked crestfallen. His shoulders slumped. He looked to make sure Timothy hadn't fallen off.
Lenny, small and sharp, has a younger brother Davey who won't stop growing - and at seven is as tall as a man. Raised by their single mother, who works two jobs and is made almost entirely out of worries, they have food and a roof over their heads, but not much else. The bright spot every week is the arrival of the latest issue of Burrell's Build-Itat-Home Encyclopedia. Through the encyclopedia, Lenny and Davey experience the wonders of the world - beetles, birds, quasars, quartz - and dream about a life of freedom and adventure, visiting places like Saskatchewan and Yellowknife, and the gleaming lakes of the Northwest Territories.
But as her brother's health deteriorates, Lenny comes to accept the inevitable truth; Davey will never make it to Great Bear Lake.
Lenny’s book of everything teacher’s notes
Lenny’s book of everything trailer (video)
Liars: no survivors
by Jack Heath
Kelton was the perfect hiding place. Until now...
A plane crash destroys a house in Kelton. The cause of the accident is a mystery and all the passengers are missing. Jarli has been lying low since the crime boss known as Viper threatened his family. But then his Truth App uncovers a dangerous secret at the crash site. A secret Viper wants to stay buried. Suddenly Jarli is a target again. There's no-one he can trust, not even the police. He has to find out what else Viper is hiding before it's too late.
Lies can hurt, but the truth can kill.
Liars: truth app teacher’s notes
Liars: truth app book trailer (video)
Jack Heath interviews with Scholastic (video)
Punchlines
by Oliver Phommovanh
As long as you can make a girl laugh, she'll go for you, right? Well, unless you're a seriously weird teenager like Johnny Khamka. Surviving high school is hard enough, but how on earth can he get his childhood bestie, Josie, now a seriously hot teenager, to take him seriously? The answer is to keep her laughing. But when Johnny decides to take comedy seriously, he's suddenly at risk of not being funny at all.
Oliver Phommavanh interview with SBS (video)
Oliver Phommavanh interview with the Premier’s Reading Challenge 2017 (video)
Raelia
by Lynette Noni
Returning for a second year at Akarnae Academy with her gifted friends, Alexandra Jennings steps back through a doorway into Medora, the fantasy world full of impossibilities. Despite the magical wonder of Medora, Alex's life remains threatened by Aven Dalmarta, the banished prince from the Lost City of Meya who is out for her blood. To protect the Medorans from Aven's quest to reclaim his birthright, Alex and her friends seek out the Meyarin city and what remains of its ancient race. Not sure who or perhaps what she is anymore, all Alex knows is that if she fails to keep Aven from reaching Meya, the lives of countless Medorans will be in danger.
Can she protect them, or will all be lost?
· See Akarnae for more links
A song only I can hear
by Barry Jonsberg
Rob has a huge crush on the new girl at school. But Rob is painfully shy and suffers severe panic attacks. How is her heart to be won?
Good evening, Rob. Your first challenge follows. These challenges have nothing to do with impressing Destry Camberwick. They are all to do with Rob Fitzgerald impressing Rob Fitzgerald. Bear that in mind at all times. Challenge 1. You will enter the Milltown's Got Talent competition. This gives you over a fortnight to polish your act and work out strategies to overcome panic attacks. I would wish you luck but the point of this challenge is that you don't need it.
An anonymous texter is sending Rob challenges and they might just help. Or not!