Sue Lawson
July 2015 | Walker Books | $17.95pb
I was born in 1955; Freedom Ride is set in 1965. It concerns the Freedom Ride, headed by Charles Perkins, which trekked around country Victoria to ascertain the living conditions of Aborigines. The situation of Aborigines at the time was nothing short of shameful and hard to credit from this distance in 2015. However, as a glance at any sports page in a newspaper in recent times will show, not a lot has changed. This gripping story is told through the eyes of teenage Robbie (a little like Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird, if you will) and I was alternately shamed and riveted by it. Robbie knows bad things happen in Walgaree. But it's nothing to do with him. That's just the way the Aborigines have always been treated. In the summer of 1965 racial tensions in the town are at boiling point, and something headed Walgaree's way will blow things apart. It's time for Robbie to take a stand. Nothing will ever be the same.
Fiona Wood
Aug 2015 | Macmillan | $19.99pb
Some novelists have a certain way of creating characters and stories that stay with you for days, even weeks after you have finished reading. For us, Fiona Wood is one of those rare and gifted writers. In her latest book, Cloudwish, Fiona revisits characters we met, sometimes fleetingly, in her previous, award-winning books Six Impossible Things and Wildlife. Cloudwish is a moving, insightful and beautifully written story with explorations of the migrant experience and, ultimately, what it means to love, at its core. Cath and Lucy absolutely adored this book for young adults.
