The Prize for Young Adult Fiction: Winner 2003

Judges report

Wildlight: A journey by David Metzenthen (Penguin)

Wildlight is a dramatic novel at the edge of history, fable and adventure. In Dirk Wildlight, a foundling boy who sets out to find a better life, Metzenthen has created a memorable hero whose journey across Victoria's unmapped landscapes also challenges the founding myth of the lost child. Wildlight offers scenes of rough and ready Melbourne, of the construction of the Airey's Inlet lighthouse, of shipwreck survivors and brutal landowners in the western district.

David Metzenthen creates a vivid portrait of colonial Victoria; presents adventure as a central part of the male experience; captures the teenagers' strong sense of justice; re-creates the robust dialogue of working men and the importance of work for young men. But most importantly, Wildlight does this and more inside a story that pulses with energy, action and feeling. Wildlight is a fully realised historical novel written with great heart.