Children's Books for Older Readers
Skychasers 1: Glow
Amy Kathleen Ryan (author)
Pan Macmillan, Australia: 2011; 385pp
ISBN: 9781742610320
Genres: adventure, science fiction, speculative fiction
Issues: community, ethics, leadership, religion
A ship heading for New Earth is halfway through its journey – a journey that will take generations. Sixteen year olds Waverley and Kieran are the first of the space-born generation. In love and destined by duty to marry young and create the next generation, Waverley and Kieran's carefully planned lives are violently disrupted when another spaceship appears on the monitors.
Rosie Black Chronicles 1: Genesis
Lara Morgan (author)
Walker Books, USA: 2010; 455pp
ISBN: 9781921529399
Genres: adventure, science fiction, speculative fiction
Issues: corruption, ethics, family, friendship
In her spare time, sixteen-year-old Rosie hunts for ancient objects from before the Melt. But when she finds a mysterious, ancient box, Rosie finds that her life has just taken a sudden turn towards dangerous. Why are people pursuing her – and threatening to kill her?
Rosie Black Chronicles 2: Equinox
Lara Morgan (author)
Walker Books, USA: 2011; 380pp
ISBN: 9781921529405
Genres: adventure, science fiction, speculative fiction
Issues: corruption, ethics, family, friendship
Rosie thought that exposing the Helios Corporation would bring her problems to an end – that government corruption would be exposed and weeded out, that medical research would be back in the hands of the virtuous, that Rosie herself would be able to go back to a 'normal' life. But Helios has simply been driven even further underground and it still has tentacles in the pockets of those in power.
The Song of the Quarkbeast
Jasper Fforde (author)
Hodder & Stoughton, UK: 2011; 290pp
ISBN: 9781444707236
Genres: adventure, fantasy, humour
Issues: values
Jennifer Strange is the foundling manager of Kazam, the biggest House of Enchantment in the World. So when one of the few wizards at Kazam is turned to alabaster right before a serious bridge building project, Jennifer is concerned. But then the Amazing Blix is appointed Court Mystician and it becomes evident that there is a plot to control Magic. Can she outmanoeuvre Blix and the King? And why is there a Quarkbeast in town? And most importantly of all, will the Great Zambini reappear in time to save the day?
Beka Cooper: Mastiff
Tamora Pierce (author)
Scholastic, USA: January 2012; 580pp
ISBN: 9781862918986
Genres: adventure, crime, fantasy
Issues: courage, crime, friendship, honour, loyalty, politics
Beka Cooper is now a fourth-year Dog. Her fiancé has just been killed on a slave raid. When Lord Gersham knocks on her door late one night Beka knows it's serious. It isn't until Beka and her Dog partner, Tunstall, find themselves investigating in the Summer Palace itself that the girl with the 'ghost eyes' and a touch of magic realises just how much is at stake.
Recon Team Angel Bk1: Assault
Brian Faulkner (author)
Walker Books, Australia: November, 2011; 365pp
ISBN: 9781921720543
Genre: action, adventure, science fiction
Issues: migration
The year is 2030 and the world is at war – again. This time the enemy is from a different planet. The Bzadians started arriving in 2012, claiming refugee status because their world was dying. They only wanted to live in the desert inland of Australia, to rebuild their lives. It was only when the massive extra-terrestrial vehicles kept arriving that humans began to realise that this wasn't so much an escape from a dying planet as an invasion of a new one.
A Pocketful of Eyes
Lili Wilkinson (author)
Allen&Unwin, Australia: May 2011; 311pp
ISBN: 9781742376196
Genres: adventure, crime, mystery, realistic fiction
Issues: friendship, identity
When Bee lands a job in the taxidermy department at the Museum of Natural History she is delighted. Her quiet, scientific job seems a different world to her mother's obsession with fantasy and role-playing games. But a dead man in the Red Rotunda, an unpleasant conservator, a mysterious recluse and the museum being short of funding set of Bee's internal alarm.
Pig Boy
J. C. Burke (author)
Woolshed Press, Australia: May 2011; 322pp
ISBN: 9781741663129
Genres: realistic fiction, young adult
Issues: bullying, crime, community, family, identity, justice
When Damon Styles is expelled from school on his 18th birthday, six weeks before his HSC exams, he realises that he really cannot trust anybody. A lock on his wardrobe, renewing his firearms licence, a job with the Pigman. These are all part of Damon's plans for survival.
The Scorpio Races
Maggie Stiefvater (author)
Scholastic Press, USA: Australian release November 2011
ISBN: 9780545224901
Genres: adventure, fantasy
Issues: family, friendship, identity, love
It is the time of the Scorpio Races, where riders battle wills with the unpredictable water horses, the mythical carnivorous horses that live in the sea. Some riders live; some die; only one can win.
Forever
Maggie Stiefvater (author)
Scholastic Press, USA: Australian release August 2011; 386pp
ISBN: 9780545259088
Genres: adventure, fantasy, romance
Issues: environment, friendship, family, identity
Sam spends his days waiting for summer and the heat that will bring Grace back to him. When she sheds her lupine form Grace finds that life has become even more complicated.
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