Breath by
Winner of the Miles Franklin Literary Award 2009More than once since then I've wondered whether the life-threatening high jinks that Loonie and I and Sando and Eva got up to in the years of my adolescence were anything more than a rebellion against the monotony of drawing breath.Breath is a story about the wildness of youth - the lust for excitement and terror, the determination to be extraordinary, the wounds that heal and those that don't - and about learning to live with its passing.In his first novel for seven years, Tim Winton has achieved a new level of mastery. Breath confirms him as one of the world's finest storytellers, a writer of novels that are at the same time simple and profound, relentlessly gripping and deeply moving.
Deadly Unna? by
Fourteen-year-old Gary Black's life in Australia centers around his large family and footy (Australian football), until he becomes friends with an Aborigine boy and realizes how horrible prejudice can be.
Down the rabbit hole by
Welcome to Echo Falls.Home of a thousand secrets, where Ingrid Levin-Hill, super sleuth, never knows what will happen next. Ingrid is in the wrong place at the wrong time. Or at least her shoes are. Getting them back means getting involved in a murder investigation rivaling those solved by her idol, Sherlock Holmes, and Ingrid has enough on her plate with club soccer, school, and the plum role of Alice in the Echo Falls production of Alice in Wonderland. But much as in Alice's adventures down the rabbit hole, things in Ingrid's small town keep getting curiouser and curiouser. Her favorite director has a serious accident onstage (but is it an accident?), and the police chief is on Ingrid's tail, grilling her about everything from bike-helmet law to the color of her cleats. Echo Falls has turned into a nightmare, and Ingrid is determined to wake up. Edgar Award nominated novelist Peter Abrahams builds suspense as a smart young girl finds that her small town isn't nearly as safe as it seems.
The Kite Runner by
Amir is the son of a wealthy Kabul merchant, a member of the ruling caste of Pashums. Hassan, his servant and constant companion, is a Hazara, a despised and impoverished caste. Their uncommon bond is torn by Amir's choice to abandon his friend amidst the increasing ethnic, religious, and political tensions of the dying years of the Afghan monarchy, wrenching them far apart. But so strong is the bond between the two boys that Amir journeys back to a distant world, to try to right past wrongs against the only true friend he ever had.
The unforgettable, heartbreaking story of the unlikely friendship between a wealthy boy and the son of his father’s servant, The Kite Runner is a beautifully crafted novel set in a country that is in the process of being destroyed. It is about the power of reading, the price of betrayal, and the possibility of redemption; and an exploration of the power of fathers over sons—their love, their sacrifices, their lies.
A sweeping story of family, love, and friendship told against the devastating backdrop of the history of Afghanistan over the last thirty years, The Kite Runner is an unusual and powerful novel that has become a beloved, one-of-a-kind classic.
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Lockie Leonard by
Novel for older children about the problems of a 13-year-old surfer, Lockie Leonard, who befriends a heavy metal fan, falls in love with an 11-year-old girl and tries to save his town from industrial pollution. As well as his award-winning adult novels, Tim Winton has written several novels for adolescents, including 'Lockie Leonard, Human Torpedo' (1990), which introduced the novel's protagonist.
The Power of One by
No stranger to the injustice of racial hatred, five-year-old Peekay learns the hard way the first secret of survival and self-preservation - the power of one. An encounter with amateur boxer Hoppie Groenewald inspires in Peekay a fiery ambition - to be welterweight champion of the world.
Unstoppable by
Secrets and lies . . . secrets and lies . . .
Fourteen-year-old twins, Kaine and Roxy, used to be close, but now they can hardly bear to be in the same room.
Roxy hates the way her brother behaves - Kaine might be brilliant at football but he's always in trouble and cares nothing about his family.
And Kaine despises the way his supposedly-perfect sister, dominates their parents in her ambition to reach Wimbledon.
But the twins are both hiding dangerous secrets of their own, secrets that could destroy everything they are working towards - and both Roxy and Kaine's survival hangs precariously in the balance.
Gripping, twisting, and real, this book is UNSTOPPABLE.