SHORTLIST POSTER AND LINKS FOR YEARS 7-9 2018
Monday, July 30, 2018 at 8:52AM 
Are you seeing me? By Darren Groth
Twins Justine and Perry are about to embark on the road trip of a lifetime in the Pacific Northwest.
It’s been a year since they watched their dad lose his battle with cancer. Now, at only nineteen, Justine is the sole carer for her disabled brother. But with Perry having been accepted into an assisted-living residence, their reliance on each other is set to shift. Before they go their separate ways, they’re seeking to create the perfect memory.
For Perry, the trip is a glorious celebration of his favourite things: mythical sea monsters, Jackie Chan movies and the study of earthquakes.
For Justine, it’s a chance to reconcile the decision to ‘free’ her twin, to see who she is without her boyfriend, Marc – and to offer their mother the chance to atone for past wrongs.
But the instability that has shaped their lives will not subside, and the seismic event that Perry forewarned threatens to reduce their worlds to rubble . . .
Are you seeing me? Teaching notes from Penguin
Every word by Ellie Marney
Rachel is still getting used to the idea of Mycroft being her boyfriend when he disappears to London with Professor Walsh. They're investigating the carjacking death of the rare books conservator, which appears to be linked to the theft of a Shakespeare First Folio from the Bodleian Library. Worried about similarities between the conservator's accident and the death of Mycroft's own parents, Rachel follows Mycroft to London and straight into a whole storm of trouble.
Book launch (Video) for Every Word
Game theory by Barry Jonsberg
Jamie is a sixteen year old maths whiz. His wild, older sister, Summerlee, has dropped out of school. Tensions at home run high. With Jamie's help, Summerlee wins millions in a lottery and cuts all ties with the family. But, money can cause big trouble. When their younger sister is kidnapped for a ransom, Jamie thinks he can use game theory, the strategy of predicting an opponent's actions, to outfox the kidnapper and get Phoebe back. It's a very risky strategy.
Game theory book trailer (Video)
Game theory teaching notes from Allen and Unwin
Graffiti moon by Cath Crowley
'We've got at least seven hours to get what we want before the sun comes up.'
School is over, and Lucy has the perfect way to celebrate: tonight she's going to find Shadow, the mysterious graffiti artist whose work appears all over the city. Somewhere in the glassy darkness, he's out there, spraying colour, birds and blue sky on the night. And Lucy knows that a guy who paints like Shadow is someone she could fall for - really fall for.
The last person Lucy wants to spend this night with is Ed, the guy she's managed to avoid since punching him in the nose on the most awkward date of her life. But when Ed tells Lucy he knows where to find Shadow, the two of them are suddenly on an all-night search to places where Shadow's pieces of heartbreak and escape echo off the city walls. And what Lucy can't see is the one thing that's right before her eyes.
Cath Crowley interview (Video)
Graffiti moon teaching notes from Cath Crowley
Maybe by Morris Gleitzman
A powerfully moving addition to Morris Gleitzman's bestselling series about Felix and Zelda which takes place in 1945, following directly on from the story told in Soon. This intensely affecting story will move readers of all ages. It will be welcomed by the many Holocaust educators who use Once, Now, Then, After and Soon to teach upper primary and lower secondary children and embraced by any reader who loves passionate, moving and brilliant stories.
Maybe teaching notes from Penguin
Morris Gleitzman Website – read chpt 1 of Maybe
Nona & Me by Clare Atkins
Rosie and Nona are sisters. Yapas. They are also best friends. It doesn't matter that Rosie is white and Nona is Aboriginal- their family connections tie them together for life. Born just five days apart in a remote corner of the Northern Territory, the girls are inseperable, until Nona moves away at the age of nine. By the time she returns, they're in Year 10 and things have changed. Rosie has lost interest in the community, preferring to hang out in the nearby mining town, where she goes to school with the glamorous Selena, and Selena's gorgeous older brother Nick. When a political announcement highlights divisions between the Aboriginal community and the mining town, Rosie is put in a difficult position- will she be forced to choose between her first love and her oldest friend?
Clare Atkins interview (Video) about Nona & Me
Video tour of the locations in Nona & Me
Nona & Me teaching notes from Black Inc.
The fall by Tristan Bancks
In the middle of the night, Sam is woken by angry voices from the apartment above. He goes to the window to see what's happening - only to hear a struggle, and see a body fall from the sixth-floor balcony. Pushed, Sam thinks. Sam goes to wake his father, Harry, a crime reporter, but Harry is gone. And when Sam goes downstairs, the body is gone, too. But someone has seen Sam, and knows what he's witnessed. The next twenty-four hours could be his last.
Tristan Bancks talks (Video) about The fall
The fall teaching notes by Penguin
The protected by Claire Zorn
I have three months left to call Katie my older sister. Then the gap will close and I will pass her. I will get older. But Katie will always be fifteen, eleven months and twenty-one days old. Hannah's world is in pieces and she doesn't need the school counsellor to tell her she has deep-seated psychological issues. With a seriously depressed mum, an injured dad and a dead sister, who wouldn't have problems? Hannah should feel terrible but for the first time in ages, she feels a glimmer of hope and isn't afraid anymore. Is it because the elusive Josh is taking an interest in her? Or does it run deeper than that? In a family torn apart by grief and guilt, one girl's struggle to come to terms with years of torment shows just how long old wounds can take to heal.
The protected book trailer (Video)
The protected teaching notes from UQP
The secrets we keep by Nova Weetman
Clem Timmins has lost it all, her house, her possessions and her clothes. Now living in a tiny flat with her dad, she has to go to a new school, far from what she knows. On Clem's first day, she meets Ellie and, to fit in, Clem reveals a secret she immediately regrets sharing. When Clem receives a letter she doesn't want to read, it becomes clear that she can't run from her past forever, especially when the truth appears right in front of her face.
The secrets we keep teaching notes from UQP
Yellow by Megan Jacobson
Kirra's so-called friends bully her, her mother has taken to alcohol ever since her dad left them for another woman and, now, a teenage ghost is speaking to her through a broken phone booth. Kirra and the ghost make a pact. She'll prove who murdered him almost twenty years ago if he makes her popular, gets her parents back together, and promises not to haunt her. But, things aren't so simple and Kirra realises that people can be haunted in more ways than one.
Megan Jacobson talks (Video) Yellow
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