Australian

cwilliams1 ssomalley || Red Hill Primary ACT || Dandenong High School Melbourne ||
 * **Title** || **Author** || **Synopsis** || **Recommended** by ... ||
 * **Foal's Bread** || Gillian Mears || This beautifully written story is set near Grafton in northern New South Wales around WWII and tells the story of two generations of the Nancarrow family and the stars of the popular equestrian high-jumping circuit. The story grabs you from the beginning. It opens with 14-year-old Noah droving pigs with her father and pregnant to her old uncle, Nipper. || Janelle M ||
 * **[|Jasper Jones: a novel] ** || Craig Silvey || The first chapter totally sucked me in, when Jasper knocks on Charlie's window one night and takes him to a shocking, baffling scene. It's set in an Australian country town, in the 1960s and has EVERYthing: a mystery, young love, racism, injustice, laugh-out-loud humour, beautiful writing and a well-knit story. Lili Wilkinson told me it was written for an adult audience which is why it wasn't eligible for a Golden Inky award. I reckon it would have won. Great cross-over novel. (see also: Mystery) || Joanna, Barbara
 * **[|Indelible Ink] ** || Fiona McGregor || <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Marie King is a fifty-nine, recently divorced, and has lived a rather conventional life on Sydney's affluent north shore. Now her three children have moved out, the family home is to be sold, and with it will go her beloved garden. On a drunken whim, Marie gets a tattoo - an act that gives way to an unexpected friendship with her tattoo artist, Rhys. Before long, Rhys has introduced Marie to side of the city that clashes with her staid north-shore milieu. Her children are mortified by their mother's transformation, but have their own challenges to deal with: workplace politics; love affairs old and new; and, of course, the real-estate market. Reminded me of The Slap in the way this novel examines the way we live now. || <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Linda M ||
 * **<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">__ A Waltz For Matilda __ ** || <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Jackie French || <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">This is a really gripping story that begins in 1894 in Sydney and follows the life of Matilda through many subsequent important events in history. She flees the slums to find her unknown father and his farm. He has become a swaggie and is wanted by the troopers. He makes a stand by a billabong and is killed in front of Matilda. She is then determined to manage the farm alone. This is a great waltz through the history of early Australia. Many of my Year 5 and 6 students as well as teachers have loved it. || <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Debbie Haddrick ||
 * **<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">The Boyer Lecture 2011 ** || <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Geraldine Brooks || <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Series: The Idea of Home. Available www.abc.net.au/rn/boyerlectures/ to read transcript, download audio or listen now. Her fiction : People of the Book' and 'March' delight. Now she reflects on the concept of home and comes to it with a historical perspective as we would expect. || <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">exsandgroper ||
 * **<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">[|Seeing George] ** || <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Cassandra Austin || <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">I found it difficult to assign this novel to a particular genre - is it fantasy? is it a romance? - so in the end I thought it most useful to put it in this category. The debut novel of Cassandra Austin came to me highly recommended by a good friend and I read it in two sittings (but would have made it one if that had been possible). Violet and Frank have been married for 60 years and for almost the entire duration Violet has been friends with George, who just happens to be a dragon. Well, everybody else sees a rather large man but Violet sees a dragon. The eternal triangle takes on a whole new twist in this delightful novel. It was one of those books that I was sad to finish reading. || Sue Warren
 * === **[|Blood]** === || ====Tony Birch==== || ====This dark and gripping tale set on the back roads of Australia is incredibly powerful and life affirming. Young Jesse the main character/narrator is only twelve years old but finds himself in an increasingly dangerous and dysfunctional adult world. He must dig deep to survive and protect his younger sister. This coming of age novel celebrates the resilience of children and courage of the human spirit. Themes such as dysfunctional families, identity, indigenous identity, childhood and innocence to name a few, make this story perfect for upper secondary. This would be a great story for students in years 11 or 12. If you liked 'Jasper Jones' you might try 'Blood'.==== || Maria Papazoglou
 * **Five bells** || Gail Jones || On a radiant day in Sydney, four adults converge on Circular Quay, site of the iconic Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Each carries a chldhood and a complicated history from elsewhere; each is haunted by past intimacies, secrets and guilt. Ellie is preoccupied by her sexual experiences as a girl, James by a tragedy for which he feels responsible, Catherine by the loss of her beloved brother in Dublin and Pei Xing by her imprisonment during China's Cultural Revolution. All are compelling figures with distinctively fascinating stories. The novel echoes Kenneth Slessor's poem, //Five bells.// It is a powerful novel which I thoroughly enjoyed. || Eileen Dunstone Lake Tuggeranong College. ACT ||
 * ====**[|One\One/Five]**==== || ====Alan Manly====

Graeme Brosnan
|| ====A personal true story that begins over a dispute involving $115 & does not end for nearly 10 years. Two 'unremarkable' men find themselves in Australian courts "battling for their lives". A well written story that is funny in an ironic way. The Australian Legal system will be embarrassed about this one lol!!====

(was not sure which genre to put this one in, happy if someone wants to move it)
(Have copied it to both Legal and Biography- Barbara) || Soula J ||
 * ====** Children of the Earth**==== || Gwen Walton || ====Children of The Earth begins c. 1850. Having bought land from a map, Adam George finds himself on a small farm cut off from Adelaide by the Mount Lofty Range and a landslide, with only his unhappy wife, Hestia, for company. Into their lonely life come the eccentric German prospector, Johannes Menge and newchum, 'Hermes', a former classics teacher, fallen from grace, and now 'a remittance man without a remittance'.====

A beautifully written story that gives so much insight into pioneering life in South Australia as well as the human condition. A sensitive and heartwarming story drenched in history.
|| Sandy Skinner ||
 * ====The lost mother: A story of art and love==== || ====Anne Summers==== || ====Part history, part detective story, part reflection on mothers and daughters. I enjoyed the search for the artist's life, the reflection about the conflict between the artist as wife and mother, the owner of the painting and the 10 year old subject of the painting. See more here:====

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|| exsandgroper ||