| 12+/YA FICTION Individual titles |
© 2011, VeroK.Agency
Page 1/2
Fiction Series on PAGE 1
| THE BIG DRY (12+) Tony Davis - Little Hare, Australia It is some time in the future, and it hasn't rained for a long time. Dust storms rage through the city, society is at breaking point, and George's mum has been missing for years. Now his dad hasn't come home. It is time for George to take control and protect his younger brother. But it isn't so easy, and tragedy lurks in every breath of wind... |
| BIG RIVER LITTLE FISH (YA) Belinda Jeffrey - University of Queensland Press, Australia “If I had words, I would tell Tom that all is not lost. But all I can do is let time take us to that moment. Because if a backwards birth can be a boy’s beginning then it is possible that death is not the end but a way of flowing forward. All the rest is between the little and the fish” Set in South Australia during the 1956 Murray River flood, it tells the story of Tom Downs; a boy trapped between his way of seeing the world and the world’s way of viewing him. He lives in the town of Swan Reach but likes it best down by the river, listening to Old Mother Murray and talking to Sarah, the only person who understands him as much as the river. But a big river is coming and it takes strength for a backwards boy to figure out a way through the dark and murky water. |
| OBSESSION (12+) Catherine Kalengula - Hachette, France Gisèle, A 19 years old French dancer moves to New York in the hope of starting a career in Broadway. When she fails her audition, her dream crumbles. But the owner of the Theater notices her and offers her a job as a maid, allowing her to use the stage to practice off-hours and watch the rehearsals. Soon, strange phenomenons start occurring around Gisele. She is told that a young dancer has committed suicide in the theatre 40 years ago. Could the presence enlacing her and the voice she hears while she dances on stage be the one of a ghost? |
IN SEARCH OF MY FATHER (Cross over - 272 pp + photo section) Paul Drexler - Jojo Publishing, Australia Only 7% of children caught up in the tragedy of the Holocaust, survived. The author, Paul Drexler is one of them. After being liberated in Theresienstadt by the red army, six year old Paul struggles to come to terms with his father’s mysterious disappearance. He migrates to Australia with his heart broken mother and begins a new life, but memories of his father are never far from his mind. Fifty years later, he begins searching for him. His journey takes him from Australia to Slovakia, Germany and other foreign lands that he never thought he would ever return to. His desperate search to unveil the circumstance surrounding his father’s brutal killing in the last days of World War II finally comes to an end, with the most unexpected evidence uncovered. |
| YELLOWCAKE SPRINGS (Cross-over - 240pp) Guy Salvidge - Interactive Publications, Australia A Dystopian novel in the tradition of Brave New World and 1984. Yellowcake Springs is set fifty years from now in a world where corporations, nuclear energy and secret societies are the real powers that be. Yellowcake Springs, a city owned and controlled by the company CIQ Sinocorp, is surrounded by a crumbling region spiralling into lawlessness as climate change forces outcast inhabitants to fend for themselves. With a population subject to fascist corporate law, violent militia groups and the sword of environmental collapse hanging over their heads, the nuclear reactor of Yellowcake Springs is targeted by organised saboteurs who have had enough. Sylvia Baron, a CIQ Sinocorp employee with a fracturing marriage and an addiction to technology which allows people to dream - with assistance - is about to wake up. Rion, a man Sylvia meets through the dream technology, lives in the wasteland and just wants in to Yellowcake Springs. Jiang Wei has relocated from China to take up a promotion, but he can’t seem to shake his relentless sense of doom. |
| SHIFT (YA - 288pp) Meredith Badger Hardie Grant Egmont, Australia Exploring identity, copying and fitting in, Shift is a complex sinister and creepy YA thriller. Everyone knew two things about Miranda before she’d even started at school. The first was that She had no parents – they were dead. And the second that she’d killed them. Olive and her best friend Ami love to mock the cool group and their boring jock boyfriends. And it’s particularly entertaining watching the new girl Miranda – a forgettable waif, with eyes so pale they’re like mirrors – try to get in with them. Entertaining, that is, until things start to get creepy. Olive becomes convinced that Miranda is leeching the beauty from the most popular girl in school. Miranda seems to be growing stronger and glossier as her victim gets so weak she ends up in hospital. Either Olive is losing her grip on reality, or those crazy rumours are true. Maybe Miranda is a killer. But who would believe Olive? She has her own dark past, and sometimes she sees things that aren’t there... Rights sold in the UK, US, Canada (English language) and Germany |
| WHISPER (12+ - 240pp) Chrissie Keighery Hardie Grant Egmont, Australia Imagine you can’t chat on the phone. You can’ t listen to your iPod on the way to school. You can’t whisper to your friends about your crush. Demi used to do all those things. Then she went deaf. Now she lives in silence, caught between the deaf and the hearing worlds. And finding a way to navigate between them is harder than she could have imagined. |
| THE CHILDREN OF THE TITANIC (Cross-over - 320pp + archives section) Elisabeth Navratil - Hachette, France 10th April 1912, Michel Navratil boards the Titanic in Southampton with his two boys, 2 and 4 years old, whom he snatched from their mother. Travelling under false identities, they hope to begin a new life in America. When the ship sinks, father and children are separated. The boys survive the tragedy but no-one knows who they are. What will happen to them and will they ever be reunited with their mother? Elizabeth Navratil tells the true story of her grandfather, father and uncle, their voyage aboard the Titanic and the events surrounding that fateful night of the 14th April 1912. Originally published in 1998, to coincide with the launch of the Titanic movie, over 100,000 copies of “The children of the Titanic” were sold in France at the time. Updated edition be republished in spring 2012 to commemorate the 100th Anniversary of the disaster. |
| LOLLI’S APPLE (Cross-over - 144pp) www.lollisapple.com Tomas Fleischmann - AKA Publishing, Australia 2011 Gold medal at the Australian Independent Publisher’s Book Award (non-fiction section) Six year old Tomas likes to play games, even amid the horror and devastation of the ghetto sand concentration camps. But can his pregnant mother protect Tomas and her unborn child from annihilation? Far from being a tale of woe this true and unheard account of the Holocaust reveals a child’s profound innocence and the extraordinary resilience of the human spirit. Rights sold in Korea |
| TOWN (YA - 312pp) James Roy - UQP, Australia Nominated for the 2011 German Youth Literature Prize Thirteen linked stories, spanning a year in the lives of thirteen young people. You’ll live their love and loss, grief, humour and passion; feel their hope and hopelessness. From the serendipity of an unexpected moment of connection to the sadness of leaving home and the pain of the desperate decisions we make, these stories take a personal and uncompromising look at life. This town doesn’t have a name. But if it seems familiar, it’s because we recognise the people who walk the streets. Rights sold in German & Korean |
| CLARA IN WASHINGTON (YA - 264pp) Penny Tangey University of Queensland Press, Australia Living in Washington DC is meant to be all politics, glamour and intelligent conversations but what do you do when you don’t have the words to join in, or something funny to say for your Facebook update, or the knowledge to ride the subway, or you’re scared someone will mug you and a million other disasters could be just around the corner? For Clara, joining her mother on a three-month stint in Washington is meant to be a way to find her way, a fun adventure. Her year twelve results are looming and the answer to what next year holds seems buried in a place where Clara can’t find it. But Clara didn’t count on meeting Campbell and his anarchist group and she didn’t count on her insecurities and new discoveries threatening to unravel all her plans. |
| THE INVISIBLE HERO (YA - 252pp) Elizabeth Fensham University of Queensland Press, Australia Philip has spent his whole life at school either being invisible or being called stupid. He’s used to being the loner, the odd one out, the boy who lives with his nan. So when Philip’s class is given a school assignment to write about heroes and villains, the project causes conflict in the classroom as everyone weighs in on the debate. For the first time, Philip has the opportunity to shine in school but can he convince the class that being different is not necessarily a bad thing and that heroes are made when you think outside the square? |
| LITTLE STORIES... (Cross-over - 72pp) Manfred Schlüter & Alexandra Junge 30 little stories for big thoughts Mixtvision Verlag, Germany (colour illustrated) 30 short stories that reflect life precious moments and big questions. From the day a child comes to the world to an island falling in love, a flower scared at opening up to the world and a city that holds its breath for a moment. Magical… |
| SILHOUETTE (14+ / 300pp) Thalia Kalkipsakis (Hardie Grant Egmont) Scarlett is ambitious. She loves the blisters, the hard work and the strict regime of her final year at the dance academy. But when she gains an illicit role in a music clip and meets charismatic musician Moss, she is exposed to another world; a world without restrictions. As she becomes more entangled in Moss’s world, Scarlett begins to lose her control, and a dark secret from the past threatens to her destroy her completely. Scarlett must find herself, or lose everything. |
New! |
| A NEW KIND OF DREAMING (YA - 276pp) Anthony Eaton University of Queensland Press A special reissue of an Australian classic ten years since first published. “To live here, you have to learn that life is a balance between being a wanderer and being a lost one” Jamie Riley has hit rock bottom. Busted for stealing cars, he’s been shipped off to serve time in Port Barren, a stinking hot town stuck between the desert and the sea. The minute he gets off the bus, he can feel something is not quite right - the town has a past it doesn’t want to share. After being warned that this is his last chance before jail, Jamie resolves to serve his time and get out. But when he discovers an old, wrecked boat on the beach and starts asking questions, it becomes obvious that local cop Elliot Butcher has it in for him. As Jamie gets closer to the truth, things start going wrong around town. With no one else to blame, he realises surviving Port Barren is going to be way harder than he thought. A powerful mystery from award-winning author Anthony Eaton. |
| I’LL TELL YOU MINE (YA - 264pp) Pip Harry University of Queensland Press Kate Elliot isn’t trying to fit in - that’s the whole point of being a goth, isn’t it? Everything about her - from her hair to her clothes - screams different and the girls at her school give her a wide berth. How can Kate be herself, really herself, when she’s hiding her big secret? The one that landed her in boarding school in the first place. She’s buried it down deep but it always seems to surface. But then sometimes new friends can sneak up on you in the most unlikely of places. Like Norris Grammar Boarding School for Girls, where’s she’s serving a life sentence, no parole, because her parents kicked her out. So, how do you take that first step and reveal your secrets when you’re not sure that people want to see the real you? |
| THE MESSENGER BIRD (YA - 264pp) Rosanne Hawke University of Queensland Press A haunting, lyrical and moving tale about the past and the present colliding. “When you first realise the unfairness and randomness of death it eats into your thoughts like acid” Never before has Tamar felt so alone. Her older brother is dead, her mum’s gone away and her dad’s so wrapped up in restoring their ancient farmhouse he avoids talking about the things that really matter. With no interest in school or friends, and plagued by nightmares about her brother, she wanders around her life in a daze. Even friendly new neighbour Gavin can’t get through to her, despite his eager attempts. When Tamar discovers an old handwritten sheet of music and allows herself to play piano again, she meets gifted violinist Nathaniel, a man from her house’s past who may just hold the key to her future. With no one else to turn to, Tamar is unwittingly drawn into a journey through time and music. An elegant mystery from award-winning author Rosanne Hawke. |
| ONE LONG THREAD (YA - 252pp) Elinda Jeffrey University of Queensland Press To produce one long thread of silk, a weaver must never allow the silkworm to fully transform or ever emerge from the cocoon into the light. Ruby and Sally Moon are twins, cut from the same cloth but as different as night and day. While Sally is bold and adventurous, Ruby is quiet and creative. When divorce splits their family in two, and Sally moves with their mother to the Northern Territory, Ruby holds onto the thought that one day her family will be complete again. But when tragedy strikes, wrapping Sally in a cocoon from which she might never escape, Ruby learns that love is never simple but one of the many tangled branches in her family tree. |
New! |
New! |
New! |
New! |
| ENIGMAE DIARIES (12+/289pp) Lynda A Calder Little Steps Books, Australia Fourteen year old Cassandra Jessica Reid is friendless and hates school. She enjoys mathematical problem solving and keeps a diary with a secret code that she created herself. Transported to another world through a time portal in her school playground, she finds herself in a futuristic world that has survived atomic wars and where the population is divided between the rich and modern rulers and the populous living a more primitive existence. The head of the rebellion of the populous is a woman who knows all about Cassandra and prophesies that she will save the world. Soon Cassandra will discover that she is in fact her future self. |
New! |