These journal accounts of life as a trauma specialist in Kenya, Eritrea and Uganda present poignant, engrossing yet disturbing view of African life. In shocking detail, HIV/AIDS deaths, inhuman treatment of the mentally ill, forced military conscription, brutal attacks by warring insurgencies, the fate of AIDS orphans and government control of the people are all noted in detail.In contrast to the horrors witnessed, the descriptions of the beautiful scenery, flowers, and animals dep...

With echoes of such classic wish-gone-wrong books as Freaky Friday, Half Magic, and Coraline, this terrific novel has the potential to become a middle-grade staple.Eleven-year-old Ruth Craze is pretty sure she's stuck in the wrong life. With an absentminded inventor for a father and a flighty artist for a mother, it's always reliable Ruth who ends up doing the dishes, paying the bills, and finding lost socks. Her brothers are no help (the...

Try to leave and I'll find you.Tess is trapped in a desperate situation - her violent partner now threatening not just Tess, but their daughter as well.A chance meeting offers a way out, and a road trip back to the heart of Tess's past, and the family she's left behind. But can she ever trust again?

Don'tcha just hate the way you get caught up in stuff without really wanting to? Then it goes a bit further, and suddenly you're one of those jerks you hate because . . . you can't be trusted.ROSE WANTS NOTHING MORE THAN TO GET AWAY. Last year she'd had it all: pre-law in the fall, a budding romance, and her best friend, Zoe. Now Zoe will never forgive her, her family is crumbling, and the secret that's been boiling up inside her is bubbling a little too close to the surfac...

'There is no real risk as long as you're careful,' Rodney said to Ruth. 'You'll have three chances to create your perfect life. If for some reason you don't like where you've ended up, you can return. But if you choose to stay longer than one day, you'll stay in your new life for ever.'Ruth Craze thinks life can't get any worse. She fights with her brothers, her parents driver her mad and no one ever listens to her. So when Rodney the Rat suggests a way out, Ruth is ready ...

At seventeen, Sophie is a mess. Her best friend is dead and her boyfriend has gone. She's dropped out of school, sleeps through the day, eats all night and refuses to see anyone. Her family has had enough. But Sophie is about to embark on the strangest journey of her life. It will take her back into her family's past, back to the origins of the bitter rift between her mother and her Aunt Fran, to her Uncle Jimmy and the Vietnam War, and finally to the girl in the painting and the story hau...

*Hundreds of kilometres without a car, a house or a person in sight. The dome of clear blue above and the occasional group of roos startling off into the scrub. Then emus, bolting off in a mad panic on the other side. I was finding something that had been lost inside me and I wanted to weave in and out on that straight white ribbon of road for the joy of having found it again.*Cross my Heart is the story of Mick and Michelle, chasing a dream, crossing their hearts for the future. ...

'Sometimes your life changes and you don't know why. A kind of shift happens. I remember thinking, well, that's over: eighteen years, three months and fifteen days. From now on it will be different.'Carmel, Jude and Katerina come from the same country town, but they couldn't be more different. Carmel is a talented musician, but awkward and painfully shy. Jude is a passionate idealist still coming to terms with the death of her revolutionary father. And Katerina, well, let's just sa...

Don'tcha just hate the way you get caught up in stuff without really wanting to? You make a wrong move, and before you know it you're in some weird scene that isn't you but . how do you get out of it? Maybe you lied, maybe you stole, maybe you betrayed your closest friend. It happens. Yeah. Then it goes a bit further, and suddenly you're one of those jerks you hate because . you can't be trusted.Rose is all packed up. She's got a van full of petrol and a stack of CDs. She'...

Kelly is seventeen. She's a scholarship girl, her dad drinks too much and her mum lives in another city. Her house isn't renovated like those of her friends. But Kelly has one thing her friends are envious of – Phil. Rich, devoted, handsome Phil. And it looks like their future together is all mapped out. Then, on a hot afternoon in a dingy little pizza shop, Kelly meets Con. He's unlike anyone she's ever known before. It's a dramatic meeting, a chance encounter that changes everything . . ...

When burglars break into Jack's house, they take all his stuff. Now he's got no skateboard, no TV, no music, nothing. All his brothers do is fight, his mum thinks they all need counselling, his dad's trying to set an example, but hey, who's interested? Jack just wants to get out of that house. So he does. And he meets Diana. And her dog. And her grandma, who wears tiger-skin bikinis. They're all pretty vicious. And suddenly, life is anything but boring.

When Alice looks up and sees Tom staring at her, everything closes down around them and becomes very still. No one is breathing. No one else is in the room. Tom feels as if he can see right into the soul of Alice Wishart. It lies open before him, like a wide, long pane of glittering glass. So delicate and beautiful and . ready to break.Three years have passed since the murder of Alice's mother, but still the killer is unknown. Alice, her cousin Jonty and his friend Tom are...