Just as authors create books, books create authors — and these essays by thirty-one writers for young people offer a fascinating glimpse at the books that inspired them the most.What if you could look inside your favorite authors’ heads and see the book that led them to become who they are today? What was the book that made them fall in love, or made them understand something for the first time? What was the book that made them feel challenged in ways they never kn...

Adventure, danger and mystery from the award-winning Ted Dawe. ‘The year mum died and Dad went mad I was packed off to a farm for a while.’ The first sentence sets the scene for this tender and dramatic story. But this is no ordinary farm: our narrator’s Aunt Lorna, Uncle Frank and five cousins belong to the Jerusalem League, a William Blake cult. Their house is unusual, in that the rooms are hexagons – six-sided – as are the doors and windows, the dinner table and plates....

A gripping, gritty and award-winning coming-of-age novel for young adult readers. When Te Arepa Santos is dragged into the river by a giant eel, something happens that will change the course of his whole life. The boy who struggles to the bank is not the same one who plunged in, moments earlier. He has brushed against the spirit world, and there is a price to be paid; an utu (revenge) to be exacted. Years later, far from the protection of whanau (family) and ancestral land...

Which street racer really controls the strip? An award-winning YA novel full of fast cars, burn-offs and an unwritten code of loyalty. 'Thunder Road' . You find it in any city after the cops are in bed. It's where street racers go to test their machines - and their nerve. For me it was … the steep rising pitch of the turbo, the screaming tyres and curtain of white smoke hanging behind me: all the stuff that spells street racing.' Trace is 19 and has grown out of small-tow...

A collection of 32 personal stories.The Book That Made Me is a celebration of the books that influenced some of the most acclaimed authors from Australia and the world. Edited by Judith Ridge, it features non-fiction stories from 32 inspiring and award-winning authors including Markus Zusak, Jaclyn Moriarty, Shaun Tan, Mal Peet, Ambelin Kwaymullina, Simon French, Alison Croggon, Fiona Wood, Bernard Beckett, Ursula Dubosarsky, Rachael Craw, Sue Lawson, Benj...

Meet Jazz and Roxy and their mates, kids living on the edge, in a gritty YA novel by the author of the New Zealand Post Award-winning Thunder Road. In K Road we’re introduced to a scattering of marginalised, demi-underworld characters whose lives connect and collide in a gripping narrative. K Road is peopled by transients, surfies, gang members, street kids, P-heads, kids on the run: an ever-expanding,jostling urban tribe. Dawe’s...

This new edition of the bestselling guide contains a supplementary chapter, plus fully updated booklists.'No matter where they go, children lost in books will always find their way home.'Your child deserves the best reading teacher in the world. And the one person who will read more than anyone else to help your child learn to read... is you.In this clear and humour-filled guide, Paul Jennings cuts through the jargon and the controversies to show every parent ...

Shiraz Bailey Wood is back! Having just about recovered from her stint in London with Carrie Draper, Shiraz is prepared to overlook Carrie's totally out of order flaky behaviour because Carrie's just talked her dad into paying for two flights to Ibiza in the summer and no one needs a holiday more than Shiraz BW!Or so she thought.... Put it this way, the sleepy town of San Antonio, Ibiza, ain't gonna know what's hit it once a few other randoms from Goodmayes have pitched up and caus...

It's back to Goodmayes and the cast and characters of the very first Diary of a Chav (Trainers V Tiaras) for this 6th diary from Shiraz, for whom life is about to get just a little bit darker...Shiraz is nearly 19 and has been living away from home for the past few months but is now back in Goodmayes, Essex in her old cell-like bedroom plotting her future. She's absolutely determined to get to college and get on her way to being a writer, who ACTUALLY GETS PAID this time! She knows...

Pudsey has it all - a successful career and the city of London at his paws. What more could a dog ask for? Maybe a couple of sausages! So when Molly, Tommy and George promise him a snack, Pudsey's tail wags all the way to their house. But when he hides in the family trailer, he gets more than just sausages. He's taken to the family's new home ... in the middle of the countryside!Miles from the city, Pudsey quickly makes friends on the farm, fights off an evil landlord and sets out t...

**ONE OF TIME MAGAZINE’S 100 BEST YA BOOKS OF ALL TIME • NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A PARADE BEST KIDS BOOK OF ALL TIMEA modern-day classic from Newbery Medalist Jerry Spinelli, this beloved celebration of individuality is now an original movie on Disney+!**Stargirl. From the day she arrives at quiet Mica High in a burst of color and sound, the hallways hum with the murmur of “Stargirl, Stargirl.” She captures Leo Borlock’ s heart with just one s...

The Carnegie Medal and Guardian Fiction Prize-winning classic YA novel reissued for a new generation. With an introduction by Malorie Blackman and all-new material exploring the book's controversial history.It was a love story. Me, Gemma and junk. I thought it was going to last forever.Tar loves Gemma, but Gemma doesn't want to be tied down. She wants to fly. But no one can fly forever. One day, finally, you have to come down. Melvin Burgess’ most ...