Runner
10 best books like Runner (Robert Newton): Her Father's Daughter, Swords And Crowns And Rings, Freedom Ride, Violet Mackerel's Remarkable Recovery, The Trial, Chasing Tail Lights, Welcome To Orphancorp, Stealing Air, Thuggin In Miami (The Family Is Made : Part 1), The Silver Donkey
| Author | Alice Pung |
| ISBN | 1863955429 |
At twenty-something, Alice is eager for the milestones of adulthood: leaving home, choosing a career, finding friendship and love on her own terms. But with each step she takes she feels the sharp tug of invisible threads: the love and worry of her parents, who want more than anything to keep her from...
Swords And Crowns And Rings
| Author | Ruth Park |
| ISBN | 0440178428 |
She was the banker's daughter, a highborn, golden beauty. He was a grocer's son, strong and proud, but fate had masked his strength and pride with a form that set him forever apart from other men. Compelling need drew them together, A bewitching fantasy encircled and sustained them. Then the Great Depression...
3.5 stars.
This was...yeah. It's an important book. But I think ultimately it focuses too much on the wrong thing. Because on the one hand, this is a young adult book about racism towards Indigenous Australians in the 1960s, which is EXCELLENT because it's a problem that's often overlooked...
So, let’s celebrate a combined non-fiction and early chapter book series today, shall we? I’ve recently become a huge fan of Anna Branford. I read Violet Mackerel’s Brilliant Plot; Violet Mackerel’s Remarkable Recovery; How to Make Small Things with Violet Mackerel – by Anna Branford...
| Author | Jen Bryant |
| ISBN | 0375827528 |
Imagine you are Bruno Richard Hauptmann, accused of murdering the son of the most famous man in America.
In a compelling, immediate voice, 12-year-old Katie Leigh Flynn takes us inside the courtroom of the most widely publicized criminal case of the 20th century: the kidnapping and murder...
| Author | Patrick Jones |
| ISBN | 0802796281 |
Break free.
Before he died, Christy's daddy used to say that when you feel lost, follow the tail lights of the truck in front of you, and they'll get you somewhere safe. Christy keeps chasing those tail lights, but somehow, she's always still lost in Flint, Michigan. Like most teens in Flint,...
| Author | Marlee Jane Ward |
| ISBN | 1921134593 |
A sharp-edged semi-futuristic riff about a rebellious teenager's last week at an industrial orphanage.
'Takes all of your dystopian nightmares and connects them to a mother lode of pure emotional intensity. There's so much keen detail here about the cruel logic of oppressive institutions,...
| Author | Trent Reedy |
| ISBN | 0545383072 |
You can't just ask for the chance to fly . . .
When his dad announced they were moving to Iowa, Brian looked forward to making some new friends. But on his first day there he makes an enemy instead -- Frankie Heller, the meanest kid in town. Brian needs to hang out with someone cool to get back on track. ....
| Author | R.A. Robinson |
| ISBN | 0985399538 |
After the death of his father, Rich Kid takes his destructive, malicious, and loyal team of hustlers, known amongst them-selves as The Family, to the next level of thuggin. Using his relationships within the drug distribution realm, Richard catapults his growing empire, taking down anyone who stands...
| Author | Sonya Hartnett |
| ISBN | 0763629375 |
From extraordinary novelist Sonya Hartnett comes a gently told fable of a lost soldier, heroic children, and a steadfast donkey.
One morning in the woods of World War I France, two young sisters stumble upon an astonishing find — a soldier, temporarily blinded by war, who has walked...
Darius Bell and the Glitter Pool
| Author | Odo Hirsch |
| ISBN | 1935279653 |
The Bell family's ancestors were showered with honors, gifts and grants of land. In exchange, they have bestowed a Gift, once every 25 years, on the town. The Gifts have ranged from a statue to a bell tower with stained-glass windows, but now it's Darius's father's turn - and there is no money for an impressive...
| Author | Victoria McKernan |
| ISBN | 0375837507 |
When orphans Aiden and Maddy Lynch first meet trailrider Jefferson J. Jackson in the spring of 1865, they're struggling to survive on their family's drought-ravaged Kansas farm. So when Jackson offers an escape – a 2000-mile journey across the roughest country in the world – Aiden knows it's their...
| Author | Kelly Gardiner |
| ISBN | 0732292808 |
England, 1640. Sixteen-year-old Isabella is forced to flee her home when her father’s radical ideas lead him into a suicidal stand against Oliver Cromwell’s army. Taking refuge in Amsterdam and desperate to find a means to survive, Isabella finds work with an elderly printer, Master de Aquila,...
You don’t get many crocodiles in Manchester. I know, I know, I should have warnings when I drop bombs like that, shouldn’t I? I hope you weren’t drinking or anything… apologies if your computer is now a bit damp.
I think the closest I’ve ever come to a crocodile was on a school trip to Chester...
From the author of the Chanters of Tremaris series comes a contemporary time travel fantasy, grounded in the landscape of Australia
Beginning and ending, always the same, always now. The game, the story, the riddle, hiding and seeking. Crow comes from this place; this place comes from...
| Author | Kirkpatrick Hill |
| ISBN | 1416914005 |
Deet's world turns upside down when his father is arrested for drug use. It doesn't seem possible that kind, caring Dad could be a criminal! After all, he only took the pills to stay awake so he could work two jobs. Now what will happen? How will Deet be able to face his classmates? Where will they get money?...
| Author | Kirsty Murray |
| ISBN | 1865087270 |
This sweeping historical novel for young adults documents the adventures of Bridie, an orphaned Irish teenager who escapes the potato famine that claimed the lives of her parents and baby brother. Independent and stubborn, Bridie makes a new life for herself in the rough-and-tumble world of Australia...
Cartboy and the Time Capsule
| Author | L.A. Campbell |
| ISBN | 0765333171 |
In the tradition of Diary of a Wimpy Kid comes this laugh-out-loud debut novel about sixth-grader Hal Rifkind—unfortunately nicknamed “Cartboy”—and his horribly historic, hilarious year.
Hal hates history class—it literally bores him to tears. But his father is a big history...
Things a Map Won't Show You: Stories from Australia & Beyond
| Author | Susan La Marca |
| ISBN | 0143565311 |
‘Things A Map Won’t Show You’ is a collection of short stories from Australia and beyond. Edited by Pam McIntyre and Susan La Marca, the collection features new and established writers who were given “free range to choose genre, location or form”, in writing for Year 7-8 readers.
I...
Each step becomes a heartbeat and I feel the distance between Omed and me closing. I remember when I first met him - when he had showed me what bravery meant. How he had stood up for what he believed. In the end that had been his undoing. The Ink Bridge is the compelling story of two young men: Omed, an Afghani...
Ruby Yarrow is a 14-year-old who lives in a busy, loving, chaotic family with her mum, stepdad, brother and two little stepbrothers. Ruby feels a bit like a doormat - she has to help out while her brother doesn't. He wins lots of prizes at school but she has a learning difficulty and needs a reader/writer...
Beneath the Darkening Sky
| Author | Majok Tulba |
| ISBN | 1926428420 |
On the day that Obinna’s village is savagely attacked by the rebel army and his father murdered, he witnesses violence beyond his imagination. Along with his older brother he finds himself thrown into a truck when the soldiers leave, to be shaped into an agent of horror – a child soldier. Marched...
