We’re making a list
Before Lili jumped on a plane we workshopped a list of the twelve books of Christmas. This list represents, in our occasionally humble opinions, the best reading of 2007 and some of the books that would be great reading over summer. We have included two from the the previous year: The Arrival by Shaun Tan and Notes from the Teenage Underground by Simmone Howell in recognition of the Golden Inky win.
So, let’s unwrap them.
1. Snakehead
Anthony Horowitz (UK) Walker Books
Relentless action, wit, seat-of-the-pants escapes and a bomb big enough to blow up an entire island: Snakehead is the seventh in the Alex Rider books and the best yet. Do the grown-ups have any idea how good the series is? A wicked page-turner!
2. Notes from the Teenage Underground
Simmone Howell (AUS) Pan Macmillan
Winner of the Golden Inky Award, voted by teenagers!
It’s the end of Year 11 for Melbourne girls Gem, Mira and Lo, and they need a summer project. After a visit to the National Gallery, they decide on ‘Underground’, inspired by Andy Warhol and Germaine Greer. The girls set out to make their summer extreme, anti-establishment and avant-garde. This is a great, edgy, funny, crazy read.
3. Starfish Sisters
JC Burke (AUS) Random House
Hitting the beach this summer? Don’t leave home without this tightly-packed novel of four teenage girls, Micki, Kia, Georgia and Ace, brought together at surf training camp. Can they all make the cut? Who will fall by the wayside? What fears could hold them back? Like a wave, Starfish Sisters builds to a spine-tingling conclusion. It’s a thrilling ride!
4. Do Not Open An encyclopaedia of the world’s best kept secrets
John Farndon (UK) Dorling Kindersley
Arcane, weird and just plain interesting stuff to know. ‘The truth behind the known and the unknown’, is the kicker. From Stonehenge to everyday surveillance, DNA to Lord Lucan, this is a book to feed the mind and the imagination. It’s like holding some the wildest page of the web in your hands.
5. The Arrival
Shaun Tan (AUS) Lothian
If you have somehow managed to miss this masterpiece, don’t let it slip by this time. Tan’s 128 page vision of a migrant’s epic journey into a strange (though sometimes strangely familiar land has already won numerous awards in Australia and is set to be an international sensation.
6. Michael Sweeney’s Method
Sean Condon (Penguin Books)
Michael Sweeney lives on the wrong side of town and attends a flash private school and lives in the margins. When an American student, Tom Booth comes to the school and Michael gets involved in the school play, life begins to get interesting. Michael Sweeney’s Method is a story of how outsiders can triumph, or at least put a damn good fight, wrapped up in some of the funniest lines of the year.
7. Before I Die
Jenny Downham (UK) David Fickling Books
Sixteen-year-old Tessa is dying and makes a list of the ten things she will do while she lives. Before I Die is a beautiful, moving and unforgettable novel.
8. The Ghost Child
Sonya Hartnett (AUS) Viking
The Ghost’s Child entwines two time lines as it maps out a woman’s life: Matilda as a seventy five year old woman looking back on her life, and the younger Matilda, whose passionate being is the heart of the book The Ghost’s Child explores their lives in beguiling and beautiful ways.
9. Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist
David Levithan and Rachel Cohn (USA) Allen & Unwin
Be the first on your block with this too-cool-for-school New York adventure about a teenage rock musician and the girl he meets for one unforgettable night in New York. Currently being filmed for release in 2008, Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist is loud and proud!
10. Red Spikes
Margo Lanagan (AUS) Allen & Unwin
Margo Lanagan is a genius when it comes to short stories. This award winning collection is no exception. The stories are impossible to categorise. The only thing that can be said about them is that they are full of an earthiness that you can practically smell and feel. They are bizarre, enigmatic and utterly unique.
11. Hero
Perry Moore (US) Random House
Have you seen The Incredibles, the Pixar movie about superheroes? Imagine that. But imagine that the father has done something terrible, was kicked out of the League of Heroes and is now a public disgrace. And a son has superpowers. But he doesn’t know how to tell his dad. And worse, he doesn’t know how to tell anyone that he’s gay. Surprising and clever.
12. Life as We Knew It
Susan Beth Pfeffer (US) Harcourt
Put this one with Tomorrow When the War Began and How I Live Now in the “teens surviving extraordinary circumstances†box. When Miranda first learns that a meteor is going to hit the moon, it barely rates a mention in her diary. But when a meteor that is bigger and denser than astronomers predicted pushes the moon closer to the earth tides go crazy (Australia is mostly underwater) and chaos ensues. This is a fabulous achievement that will hold the attention of any reader.
