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Victorian Premiers Reading Challenge LibGuide
Every year, Readings shortlists a selection of YA novels, judged by four staff at Readings stores. Click here for further information.
Future Girl by 
The F Team by
Meet Tariq Nader, leader of ‘The Wolf Pack' at Punchbowl High, who has been commanded by the new principal to join a football competition with his mates in order to rehabilitate the public image of their school. When the team is formed, Tariq learns there’s a major catch - half of the team is made up of white boys from Cronulla, aka enemy territory - and he must compete with their strongest player for captaincy of the team.
At school Tariq thinks he has life all figured out until he falls for a new girl called Jamila, who challenges everything he thought he knew. At home, his outspoken ways have brought him into conflict with his family. Now, with complications on all fronts, he has to dig deep to control his anger, and find what it takes to be a leader.
In confronting and often hilarious situations, Tariq’s relationships with his extended Lebanese family and his friends are tested like never before, and he comes to learn that his choices can have serious consequences. (Readings)
The End of the World Is Bigger Than Love by
She said we didn’t know what the world out there had become. We had been alone there so long on that tiny island, in that tiny church. But in the night, I couldn’t bear it. My chest beat like wings. Identical twin sisters Summer and Winter live alone on a remote island, sheltered from a destroyed world. They survive on rations stockpiled by their father and spend their days deep in their mother’s collection of classic literature—until a mysterious stranger upends their carefully constructed reality. At first, Edward is a welcome distraction. But who is he really, and why has he come? As love blooms and the world stops spinning, the secrets of the girls’ past begin to unravel and escape is the only option. A sumptuously written novel of love and grief; of sisterly affection and the ultimate sacrifice; of technological progress and climate catastrophe; of an enigmatic bear and a talking whale—The End of the World Is Bigger than Love is unlike anything you’ve read before. Davina Bell is an award-winning author of books for young readers of many ages. She writes picture books (including All the Ways to be Smart and Under the Love Umbrella), junior fiction (Lemonade Jones) and middle-grade fiction (the Corner Park Clubhouse series). Davina lives in Melbourne, where she works as a children’s book editor. (Readings)
The Boy from the Mish by
'I don't paint so much anymore,' I say, looking to my feet. 'Oh. Well, I got a boy who needs to do some art. You can help him out,' Aunty Pam says, like I have no say in the matter, like she didn't hear what I just said about not painting so much anymore. 'Jackson, this is Tomas. He's living with me for a little while.' It's a hot summer, and life's going all right for Jackson and his family on the Mish. It's almost Christmas, school's out, and he's hanging with his mates, teasing the visiting tourists, avoiding the racist boys in town. Just like every year, Jackson's Aunty and annoying little cousins visit from the city - but this time a mysterious boy with a troubled past comes with them... As their friendship evolves, Jackson must confront the changing shapes of his relationships with his friends, family and community. And he must face his darkest secret - a secret he thought he'd locked away for good. Compelling, honest and beautifully written, The Boy from the Mish is about first love, identity, and the superpower of self-belief. 'The Boy from the Mish is an extraordinary debut novel, and I loved this tender, beautiful story with all my heart. Jackson and Tomas stole my heart, and I'll be thinking about them for a long time.' NINA KENWOOD 'A lightning bolt to the soul. The Boy from the Mish announces a bold, necessary new talent.' WILL KOSTAKIS 'How I wish I had this big-hearted book when I was a teenager. It would've changed my life. Let it change yours.' BENJAMIN LAW 'It is, honestly, a book I've been searching for over my whole career as an editor, as well as all my years as a (queer) reader. I'm not ashamed to say that it made me cry (repeatedly) and awed me with the power of its storytelling.' DAVID LEVITHAN, Scholastic US Editorial Director 'A deftly woven tale that is both a raw, unflinching look at the experience of growing up gay and Aboriginal, and a sweet, truly endearing love story you just can't turn away from. This is Own Voices storytelling at its best.' HOLDEN SHEPPARD 'Honest. Funny. Beautiful. This book is all the things.' GABBIE STROUD
(Readings)
Metal Fish, Falling Snow by
Dylan and her adored French mother dream of one day sailing across the ocean to France. Paris, Dylan imagines, is a place where her black skin won’t make her stand out, a place where she might feel she belongs.
But when she loses her mother in a freak accident, Dylan finds herself on a very different journey- a road trip across outback Australia in the care of her mother’s grieving boyfriend, Pat. As they travel through remote towns further and further from the water that Dylan longs for, she and Pat form an unlikely bond. One that will be broken when he leaves her with the family she has never known.
Metal Fish, Falling Snow is a warm, funny and highly original portrait of a young girl’s search for identity and her struggle to deal with grief. Through families lost and found, this own-voices story celebrates the resilience of the human heart and our need to know who we truly are. (Readings)
Where We Begin by
Seventeen-year-old Anna is running into the night. Fleeing her boyfriend, her mother, and everything she has known.
She is travelling into the country, to the land and the grandparents, she has never met, looking for answers to questions that have never been asked.
Every family has secrets.
But some secrets - once laid bare - can never be forgiven.
A dark, deeply compelling, coming-of-age YA novel from the author of As Stars Fall. (Readings)
STUDY OF POETRY 
LITERARY CONTEXTS: BRITISH POETRY
Episodes include: Romantic poetry in context, Victorian poetry in context, WW1 poetry in context. Each episode around 10 mins. PDF teacher notes under the resources tab.
POEMS BY LUKA LESSON
Luka Lesson is a poetry and Hip-hop artist of Greek heritage from Australia. Luka is a former Australian Poetry Slam Champion.
3 new poems have been added to this series.
Spot and Stripe are two characters who ponder life's philosophical and ethical questions, in a series of short discussion starters.
Can Science solve all our problems? Is Chess a sport? Do human beings have to be part of a society to flourish and be happy? Do all art forms have anything in common? Are there some things that are wrong, whatever people think? Can you know something without thinking about it? If a bad person has made some good art, should that art still be celebrated and enjoyed? Is happiness the most important thing in life? ..and many others. 20 videos in the series.
The End of Men by Would you like to tell us about the book you are currently reading? Contact the LRC team. We'd love to hear from you.
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There are 8 new series but episodes are super short, clocking in at under 5 minutes
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Designing Online learning experiences.
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Journals and Periodicals now available through the LRC. Contact LRCSupport to be put on the distribution list.
I seem to have collected a lot of horror and crime anthologies over the years and I like to dip into a short story from them every now and then.
The blurb for this one, SCOTTISH TALES OF TERROR, reads.
Scotland - land of mists and monsters, bogles and beasties - where phantom pipers roam the glens, and kelpies lure travelers to the night-black lochs...
Great late night reading. Glen
Would you like to tell us about the book you are currently reading? Contact the LRC team. We'd love to hear from you.
Have you been watching Ms Represented on the ABC? Did you know that it was also a series of podcasts? One hundred years after Australia elected its very first female parliamentarian, journalist Annabel Crabb and comedian Steph Tisdell chart the rise of female politicians in Australian politics and the unbelievable things they got up to along the way.