Pin-up Post: Great Books with Happy endings

in that horrible Wall Street Journal article is was suggested by Meghan Cox Gurdon that all YA novels were about "vampires and suicide and self-mutilation, this dark, dark stuff" i felt it would be good to remind people that this is far from the truth. so this Pin-up post is just to show a few Australian books which have no dark content and happy endings.

Blueback by Tim Winton
this book is set in a beautiful deserted beach town. Able grows up spending almost as much time in the water as out of it, even though his father was the victim of a fatal shark attack when able was a little boy. he lives alone with his mother as they run their farm and sustainable house. things intervene with this idyllic life of course, like school, developers, fishermen and growing up. no matter what happens though Able never forgets his friend Blueback, a giant fish.
a sweet, simple tale. short and well written, like all winton's work.

Triple Ripple by Brigid Lowry
this a stories rolled into one. the fairytale of Glory who is sent to work in the castle and uncovers some big secrets, the life of Nov as she battles through high school, and the writer who has to pull the story together. the stories blend together, giving us a great books as yummy as ice cream. it's a book that most girls would enjoy, mixing fantasy and contemporary together.
Ten things i hate about me by Randa Abdel-Fattah
as far as i can remember this book has nothing dark in it, the few mentions of death, racism and other things aren't described, but from the point of view of Jamie. Jamie is fighting to understand her father and his sexist over-protective rules. her brother doesn't have to be home before dark, why does she? through the book Jamie fights with her Muslim identity, and her identity as a person regardless of everyone Else's views. set in a typical Australian school. gives a good cultural insight (at least for me) and as far as i remember mainly very friendly to read.

this is just a small selection of great books, which i see as having nothing that would scare a 13 year old. people should actually read YA before they judge it. I've never found a community like ours :)

Pin-Up Post: Aussie books for ANZAC day

today is ANZAC day, so I'm posting fabulous war stories by Australian authors (of course). this is our first pin-up post. each Pin-Up post is a list of books fitting a theme, all as Australian as i can manage.


A rose for the ANZAC boys by Jackie French
The 'War to end all Wars', as seen through the eyes of three young women It is 1915. War is being fought on a horrific scale in the trenches of France, but it might as well be a world away from sixteen–year–old New Zealander Midge Macpherson, at school in England learning to be a young lady. But the war is coming closer: Midge's brothers are in the army, and her twin, Tim, is listed as 'missing' in the devastating defeat of the Anzac forces at Gallipoli . Desperate to do their bit – and avoid the boredom of school and the restrictions of Society – Midge and her friends Ethel and Anne start a canteen in France, caring for the endless flow of wounded soldiers returning from the front. Midge, recruited by the over–stretched ambulance service, is thrust into carnage and scenes of courage she could never have imagined. And when the war is over, all three girls – and their Anzac boys as well – discover that even going 'home' can be both strange and wonderful. <



Soldier Boy by Anthony Hill 28 June 1915, young James Martin sailed from Melbourne aboard the troopship Berrima – bound, ultimately, for Gallipoli. He was just fourteen years old.
Soldier Boy is Jim's extraordinary true story, the story of a young and enthusiastic school boy who became Australia's youngest known Anzac.
Four months after leaving his home country he would be numbered among the dead, just one of so many soldier boys who travelled halfway around the world for the chance of adventure.
This is, however, just as much the story of Jim's mother, Amelia Martin. It is the heartbreaking tale of the mother who had to let him go, of his family who lost a son, a brother, an uncle, a friend.
It is about Amelia's boy who, like so many others, just wanted to be in on the action.

Once by Morris Gleitzman
Once I escaped from an orphanage to find Mum and Dad.
Once I saved a girl called Zelda from a burning house.
Once I made a Nazi with toothache laugh.
My name is Felix.
This is my story.
Everybody deserves to have something good in their life.
At least once.
this is my favourite war story, the perfect balance between emotion, action and facts. the sense of understanding gained is incredible, and it's beautifully written.

Hitler's Daughter by Jackie French
Four kids tell a story at a bus stop in country Australia on a rainy Monday. But the story seems to have a life of it's own. It's the story of a girl in another time and another country. her name was Heide, and she was Hitler's daughter.
Could- just possibly- the story be true?
this was the 1st story i really read about war, i read it in year 6 for our reading groups, and though the protagonist doesn't have a clue what's going on it was an enlightening read, i loved it.

the blurbs to these are from the author's website or penguin, for more details check those websites or our reviews.
I'm planning to do more of these posts, they're quite fun :)
what do you guys think of the name Pin-up posts? like a list of books you plan to read. I'm still working on it.