Young Adult

Finn’s Folly

by Ivan Southall
Ligature untapped
genre Young Adult

It’s dark, it’s cold, and the fog has come down. Alison and her dad are in the truck. They’re on the way to a place called Finn’s Folly but they’re lost. The road’s getting worse and the truck’s loaded with chemicals…

Fifteen-year-old Max’s mother has gone out to collect his father from the train, leaving Max and the other kids—Brenda, Tony and David—alone in their isolated holiday shack two hundred kilometres from Melbourne. It’s after midnight and they should all be asleep, but one by one, they wake up. And hear it. What sounds like a car accident. Since their parents are the only people likely to be on the road, Max and Brenda go out into the night to investigate…

A gripping story about an accident that changes everyone’s lives by bestselling children’s author Ivan Southall. 

First published in 1996, Finn’s Folly was commended in the CBCA Book of the Year Awards.

Ivan Southall AM (1921–2008) is best known for his award-winning, bestselling children’s books such as Hill’s End (1962), Ash Road (1965), To the Wild Sky (1967), Bread and Honey (1970 – also in the Untapped Collection), Josh (1971) and The Night Watch (1983). In 2003 he was awarded the Dromkeen Medal, an award given annually to an Australian resident for outstanding achievement in the creation of Australian children’s and young adult literature.

Dodger

by Libby Gleeson
Ligature untapped
genre Young Adult

It’s the 1980s and thirteen-year-old Mick Jamieson is at school in suburban Sydney. He hates it and can’t wait till he’s old enough to leave. Home life isn’t much better: his mum’s dead, his dad’s a truck driver based in Queensland, and Mick’s stuck living with his elderly nan. When his new history teacher puts on a production of the musical ‘Oliver’, Mick auditions. Will this be one of the worst decisions he’s ever made—or maybe the best?

Critic Agnes Nieuwenhuizen, writing for The Age, called Dodger, ‘compulsive and moving reading’.

First published in 1990, Dodger won the Australian Children’s Peace Literature Award in 1991.

Children’s author Libby Gleeson has written 40 books and has received multiple awards, including the Children’s Book Council of Australia’s Lady Cutler Award in 1997, given for distinguished service to children’s literature in NSW, the 2011 Dromkeen Medal, and the 2013 Prime Minister’s Award for Red (2012). Visit her website at libbygleeson.com.au.

Bread and Honey

by Ivan Southall
Ligature untapped
genre Young Adult

It’s ANZAC day in a coastal town in the late 1960s. 13-year-old Michael Cameron, who lives with his grandma and his scientist father, would normally go to the march and the service, just like everyone else—except his father, who’d been a fighter pilot. But this year is different. Quite a few things are different. For a start, Michael’s growing up. Apparently that means you’re supposed to wear clothes all the time. And for some reason, his grandma hasn’t got up yet. What he doesn’t expect is that going to the march by himself will lead him into danger and that running away will force him to deal his enemies, a girl called Margaret—and himself.

First published in 1970, it won the CBCA Book of the Year Award for Older Readers the following year.

Ivan Southall AM (1921–2008) is best known for his award-winning, bestselling children’s books such as Hill’s End (1962), Ash Road (1965), To the Wild Sky (1967), Bread and Honey (1970), Josh (1971) and The Night Watch (1983). In 2003 he was awarded the Dromkeen Medal, given annually to an Australian resident for outstanding achievement in the creation of Australian children’s and young adult literature.

Augustine’s Lunch

by Laura Bloom
Ligature untapped
genre Young Adult

Fourteen-year-old Gus goes from being one of popular kids to a victim on the lowest rung, all thanks to the new boy Steve. And as if that’s not bad enough, Gus’s big brother Luke develops an interest in the one girl Gus has his heart set on—and expects Gus to help him get her! What’s a tender-hearted, budding gourmet to do? Lie down and take it—or take action?

‘Augustine’s Lunch may not do much for sausage rolls, but as a novel about friendship, it’s funny, breezy, wise and satisfying, and goes down a treat.’ Garry Disher

‘This is a funny, gentle, mischievous book, and it made me very hungry.’ Jaclyn Moriarty

Helen Sykes, writing for English in Australia, called Augustine’s Lunch ‘fresh, original and lots of fun’, a book that ‘begs for a place in your reading list for Years 7 and 8.’

Originally published under the name Laura Budd in 2001, Augustine’s Lunch was shortlisted for the Ethel Turner Prize for Young People’s Literature, Runner Up in the Younger Australian Reader’s Awards, and was once said to be one of the most borrowed books in school libraries. Past readers will be keen to revisit it—and even ready to share it with their children.

Laura Bloom is an acclaimed, bestselling author. Her work includes The Dream Riders series with Jessie Blackadder for younger readers, and, most recently, the adult novel The Women and the Girls (2020). The reviewer for Better Reading was more than impressed by The Women and the Girls. ‘To say that Laura is a literary powerhouse is an understatement—she really is one of Australia’s most interesting and yet underrated authors. With the release of The Women and the Girls, I predict this will change. This novel has everything from bestseller to Netflix series written all over it.’ For more information visit laurabloom.com.au