https://c1.staticflickr.com/8/7225/6854184762_35825a88a8_b.jpg
Nona & me by
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 inseparable, 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?
Hard Time by
Debbie and Rocket have been in trouble before. But not like this. A stolen car, two people dead, and now they're doing time. Do it hard, or do it easy. That's the only choice they've got left.
Digger J. Jones by
Digger is keeping a diary about the things that matter to him: piffing yonnies at the meatwords, fishing with his cousins and brawling with the school bully.
But it's 1967, and bigger things keep getting in the way. Digger is finding out who he is, what he believes, and what's worth fighting for.
Nanberry : black brother white by
Two brothers - one black, one white - and a colony at the end of the world It's 1789, and as the new colony in Sydney Cove is established, Surgeon John White defies convention and adopts Nanberry, an Aboriginal boy, to raise as his son. Nanberry is clever and uses his unique gifts as an interpreter to bridge the two worlds he lives in. With his white brother, Andrew, he witnesses the struggles of the colonists to keep their precarious grip on a hostile wilderness. And yet he is haunted by the memories of the Cadigal warriors who will one day come to claim him as one of their own. This true story follows the brothers as they make their way in the world - one as a sailor, serving in the Royal Navy, the other a hero of the Battle of Waterloo.
Dingo :the dog who conquered a continent by
A boy, a dog and the strange, wild world of ancient Australia.Summary: All of Australia's dingoes may be descended from one south-east Asian 'rubbish dog' who arrived here over 5,000 years ago. This is a story about the first dingo. It is also the story of Loa, who heads off across the sea in his canoe when the girl he loves marries another. He takes only his spears and a 'rubbish dog', one of the scavengers from around the camp to eat if he gets hungry, or to throw to threatening sharks or crocodiles. But when a storm blows boy and dog out to sea, both must learn to survive in a strange new world as partners - and even as friends.
The Fringe Dwellers by
First published in 1961. Summary: Set in a remote area of Western Australia, The Fringe Dwellers is the story of two part-Aboriginal sisters, Noonah and Trilby, who live in a family camp on the fringe of white society. Noonah accepts her position - but Trilby refuses to.
Deadly unna? by
Fourteen-year-old Gary Black's life in Australia centers around his large family and footy (Australian football), until he becomes friends with an Aborigine boy and realizes how horrible prejudice can be.
Barefoot kids by
When the Jirroo kids - Janey, Jimmy, Tich, Buddy and Dancer form their band, they're just looking for fun. But as their special place, Eagle Beach comes under threat things start getting serious. The rumble of bulldozers begins to drown out their music, as the mystery of a fortune in missing diamonds, hidden graves, old murders, new dangers and ancient secrets collide. The kids will need to draw on everything they've got to make it through.
Who am I? : the diary of Mary Talence by
The Diary of Mary Talence, Sydney, 1937. "I woke up this morning and I couldn't stop crying cos this place is not my home, even though everyone says it is. I miss Matron Rose and all the kids and now I miss my real mum more than ever. When I was a little girl Mum would always hug me when I cried and tell me everything would be all right. Who's gunna hug me here?" Mary was taken to Bomaderry Aboriginal Children's Home when she was only five years old. Now she's ten years old and living with a white family in Sydney. She doesn't fit in and starts to question why.
Freedom ride by
It’s the summer of 1965 in the small country town of Walgaree. Teenager Robbie knows that things are difficult for local Aboriginal families, but that’s the way it has always been and it’s nothing to do with him. His life is hard enough as he tries to avoid annoying his stern and unforgiving grandmother who finds fault with everything he does and says.
Robbie’s plan to simply stay in the background goes awry when he gets a part time job at the local caravan park and meets Barry Gregory, returned to Walgaree to run the park after his father’s death. Barry doesn’t subscribe to the racist opinions of most of the townspeople and his comments and attitude starts to affect how Robbie views the things happening around him.
As racial tensions build with the news that the Freedom Ride protesters will be stopping over in Walgaree to promote their message of equality, Robbie will have to choose between quietly accepting the views of his father and grandmother and making a stand against injustice.
Either way, nothing will ever be the same again.
Freedom Ride is a powerful portrait of a significant event in Australia’s history – the Freedom Ride through a series of regional Australian towns protesting racism and mistreatment of Australian Aboriginals. This novel is an important reminder for Australian teens (and adults) that the images of racial segregation and intolerance we so readily associated with America in the 1950s and 60s are just as applicable to Australia at that time.
Freedom Ride is an important reminder that we still need people brave enough to make a stand against injustice if we wish to have a respectful, tolerant and inclusive society.
The Binna Binna man by
The powerful story of an Aboriginal teenage boy who is caught between the attractions of city life and the ways of his people. After a terrifying encounter with the Binna Binna man he knows what he must do in order to be true to himself.
Ubby's underdogs : the legend of the phoenix dragon - G by
Set in Broome, a dusty pearling town in the north-west of Western Australia. Ubby, a young ruffian leads a rag-tag gang known as the Underdogs. When Ubby meets Sai Fong, a Chinese girl just off the boat from Shanghai, she finds herself thrown into a mysterious world of ancient legends and secrets never before exposed.
The Barrumbi kids by
Dale and Tomias are best mates. Tomias's ancestors have lived at Long Hole since the Dreaming. Dale's grandfather was the first white man to settle here.
This is their country.
An exciting, funny first novel about children moving between Aboriginal and white cultures.
The spirit of Barrumbi by
There's a shadow behind him, a huge dark cloud, loose like smoke. But it doesn't drift away; it tightens, rising up tall and thin. It draws back into an S shape. It's a snake! A death adder!" Dale's dream tells him that his brother Sean is in danger. But he cannot know that what happens to Sean will have a devastating effect on all the people at Long Hole community, both white and Aboriginal. After their trip to Barrumbi, everything will change.
Leaving Barrumbi by
Leaving Barrumbi is an inspirational tale of two boys’ friendship as they continue their journeys into adulthood.
The nine-hour trip to his new school is just the beginning of the worst time in Dale Murphy’s life. He has to deal with assemblies and detentions, strange food, new enemies, and more white kids than he's ever seen in his life. He feels caught between two cultures and he struggles to make the school staff understand that he belongs with the Aboriginal kids.
Then his best mate, Tomias Andjurika, a high achiever, good at everything, starts to be interested in girls! Dale’s left behind. He doesn’t know who he is any more.
An insightful, humourous and moving tale of adolescence, friendship and finding out how to belong.
Fog a Dox by
Summary: Albert Cutts is a tree feller. A fella who cuts down trees. Fog is a fox cub raised by a dingo. Hes called a dox because people are suspicious of foxes and Albert Cutts owns the dingo and now the dox. Albert is a bushman and lives a remote life surrounded by animals and birds. All goes well until Albert has an accident. This is a story of courage, acceptance and respect.
Jasper Jones by
Late on a hot summer night in 1965, Charlie Bucktin, a precocious and bookish boy of thirteen, is startled by an urgent knock on the window of his sleep-out. His visitor is Jasper Jones, an outcast in the regional mining town of Corrigan.
Rebellious, mixed-race and solitary, Jasper is a distant figure of danger and intrigue for Charlie. So when Jasper begs for his help, Charlie eagerly steals into the night by his side, terribly afraid but desperate to impress. Jasper takes him to his secret glade in the bush, and it's here that Charlie bears witness to Jasper's horrible discovery.
With his secret like a brick in his belly, Charlie is pushed and pulled by a town closing in on itself in fear and suspicion as he locks horns with his tempestuous mother; falls nervously in love and battles to keep a lid on his zealous best friend, Jeffrey Lu.
And in vainly attempting to restore the parts that have been shaken loose, Charlie learns to discern the truth from the myth, and why white lies creep like a curse.
In the simmering summer where everything changes, Charlie learns why the truth of things is so hard to know, and even harder to hold in his heart.
Wraith : James Locke and the Azuriens by
James, a young Darug teen, can fly, although his landings need some work. However, this is the least of his problems as he crash lands into a city in the clouds. Soon James is drawn into a race against time to find the SAFFIRE, a new technology designed to save the city from the effects of climate change. Finding his way home seems impossible but with the help of Aureole, a young girl determined to save her city and the daughter of the ruler, James just might be able to fly away and help save the city in the process.
Us Mob Walawurru by
A unique collaboration between non-Indigenous Queensland author David Spillman and Northern TerritoryAboriginal woman Lisa Wilyuka. Us Mob Walawurru explores cultural difference and untold history through the eyes of Ruby, a young Aboriginal girl. Set in Central Australia in the 1960's, Ruby's journey is a a heart-warming tale that focuses on the importance of family, culture, education, friendship, and self-respect.
Calypso Summer by
Calypso is a young Nukunu man, fresh out of high school in Rastafarian guise. He finds work at the Henley Beach Health Food shop where his boss pressures him to gather Aboriginal plants for natural remedies. Growing up in urban Adelaide and with little understanding of his mother's traditional background, Calypso endeavors to find the appropriate native plants. The support of a sassy, smart, young Ngadjuri girl helps Calypso to reconsider his Rastafarian facade and understand how to take charge of his future.