**Middle Grade Readers

As a mother of four who is keen to do everything within her most humble power to ensure that her children grow up with a love of reading, happening upon a book like Anyone But Ivy Pocket is something akin to discovering a jewel-filled treasure chest in the backyard.

It’s unexpected and, to borrow a phrase from Ivy Pocket herself, monstrously exciting.

Ivy is wrong in all the right kind of ways. A 12 year-old maid with next-to-no tact and a very big opinion of herself, she’s an unlikely heroine who you just know is going to get herself into lots of trouble.

And she does. When the dying Duchess of Trinity summons Ivy to her bedside and offers her 500 pounds if she will deliver the very rare and rather magical Clock Diamond to England and put it around the neck of the revolting Matilda Butterfield on her twelfth birthday, how can Ivy refuse?

From here Ivy is swept up into an adventure of mystery, intrigue and the odd raw potato. Her Clock Diamond quest involves funny little men in flowing brown cloaks and a shriveled up Governess who is not quite what she seems. Then there’s that revolting Matilda Butterfield…

There’s lots to love about Anyone But Ivy Pocket. For a start it’s enchantingly illustrated hard-back cover instantly makes you want to open it up and dive on in. Once you have, Ivy and her quirky narration of the story place you right in the centre of all the madcap mayhem.

I note comparisons are already being made between this and Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events, a series that stretched to 13 books. Indeed, at the end of Anyone But Ivy Pocket there is no doubt left in the reader’s mind that Ivy has many more adventures in her. My guess is she’s set to win a legion of dedicated fans.

Anyone But Ivy Pocket is recommended for ages 9-11. My 10 year-old began reading it last night and continued to do so over breakfast this morning. Just quietly, I think Ivy might already have won her.

It’s a while since a book has pulled me into its pages with the kind of urgency I felt as soon as I began reading Stay With Me. The cover and blurb give a strong enough impression of what the book is about, but I don’t think I expected to be taken on such a frightening – and yet thrilling – journey with the title character Tess.

When we meet 21 year-old Tess, she is embarking on a carefully-timed but incredibly risky escape from her abusive partner. In the dark early hours of morning Tess bundles her sleeping three-year-old daughter into a stroller and flees the remote farm where she’s been living captive, cut-off from family and friends. From this moment on Tess will be relying on her wits and the kindness of a stranger in order to survive.

Author Maureen McCarthy is a much-loved Aussie YA writer. Her books, including The Convent, Somebody’s Crying, Rose By Any Other Name, Flash Jack and Queen Kat, Carmel & St Jude Get A Life have been endearing her to readers since the early 90s. She has a reputation for creating “gutsy and believeable characters caught at the cusp of adulthood” and although Stay With Me is the first of McCarthy’s books that I have read, her reputation appears well-earned.

Tess is raw and real. And her plight is, sadly, all too believable. Though it often goes un-reported domestic violence is an issue that affects large numbers of Australian women. Recent statistics suggest that every week, on average, one Australian woman is killed by a current or former partner.

McCarthy has handled this subject matter with sensitivity and skill. It isn’t hard to champion Tess’ courage to leave, but as the book progresses the reader also gets to understand just how the abusive relationship managed to build its walls high around her.

The bond that Tess and her daughter Nellie forge with Harry, the young man who offers to drive them to safety, is both poignant and uplifting. It was perhaps my favourite part of the book.

Meantime, the journey Tess makes to re-connect with her estranged family members – where old hurts are refreshed – adds another compelling dimension to the story.

This is a well-paced book with a powerful story that both upper YA and New Adult readers are likely to devour.

Stay With Me – Maureen McCarthy

Allen & Unwin (2015)

IBSN 978 1 74331 688 7

** For older readers

Meet one of our awesome new reviewers, Sarah Todman.

Sarah Todman is a contemporary fiction writer who lives in Brisbane. She loves books that deliver a gritty punch of realism. And ones that make her cry. Sarah blogs atsayanythingsare.

Meet 17-year-old Stick, so called because of his stick-like frame. Having grown up within the grim confines of estate life in North Manchester, Stick is on the cusp of manhood and looking for adventure. He and his best mate Mac have pooled their cash, bought a dodgy car on eBay and now they’re going to drive it to Spain. The route is mapped out. Sun, sand, and girls await.

Then, the night before they are due to leave, something terrible happens. Suddenly, the trip is off, and Stick is stuck in Manchester where the life he was so desperate to escape has fractured further than he could ever have imagined.

Sarah Butler’s Before The Fire packs a punch. It’s a Young Adult novel that feels very, very real. Learning that the author also runs a consultancy which ‘develops literature and arts projects that explore and question our relationship to place’ explains why the book’s setting comes through so strongly – in different ways it seems to shape the personalities of each and every character.

The character of Stick is someone who is going to stay with me. Though I finished Before The Fire in just two days, for the time I was reading I was right inside the head of this 18-year-old boy as he tried to make sense of life, and of loss as he tried to get his head around the process of growing up.

You don’t let go of characters like that easily. You don’t want to. In fact, there was a moment about two thirds of the way through the book, that I thought to myself: every single one of these characters has managed to get to me in some way. They all came alive for me.

It’s important to note that the story occurs in 2011 and that it interconnects with the riots which caused chaos and looting in cities and towns across England. This strand of the story is both strong and important but the real journey the reader is taken on is a personal one: it’s Sticks.

Before The Fire is Sarah Butler’s second novel. Now I’m keen to read her first.

It’s 20 years since I was in high school and back then the term ‘bullying’ wasn’t even part of the vernacular. Didn’t mean girls and bad behaviour exist in my day? Of course. They have been around forever.

Rebecca Starford’s memoir Bad Behaviour is an insightful, often confronting read about the year she spent as a 14-year-old at the unique bush campus of a Melbourne boarding school.The book’s blurb quickly introduces us to the school’s rugged approach to education:

‘It was supposed to be a place where teenagers would learn resilience, confidence and    independence, where long hikes and runs in the bush would make their bodies strong and foster a connection with the natural world. Living in bare wooden huts, cut off from the outside world, the students would experience a very different kind of schooling, one  intended to have a strong influence over the adults they would eventually become.’

From here we are thrust into the daily fight for survival of a boarding house where 15 girls are largely left unsupervised. There are the ringleaders; these are mean girls who dictate the state of play. Then there are their targets, selected because of perceived weakness or worse still a will that needs breaking. And finally, we have the inbetweeners who struggle to find a firm place among either. The behaviour of the girls is unfettered, manipulative, and at times very cruel.

Rebecca’s struggle to carve out her own identity in this largely adult-less environment and her attraction to the power players despite herself is something I think many will identify with. I was certainly transported back to moments in my teenage years where conformity overpowered sense.

This book is beautifully written. It cleverly interweaves the story of 14-year-old ‘Bec’ with passages from Rebecca as an adult as she searches for love and self-acceptance.

For me, the structure and workings of the bush campus, known in the book as Silver Creek, felt extraordinary and at times hard to believe (10 kilometre runs most days and a marathon at the end of term; activities every student must complete without exception). The students clearly were not thriving in this tough-love, back-to-basics environment, and it seemed as though the conditions were taking a heavy toll on the teachers too. A quick Google search, however, tells me this innovative year of education is still in practice at the school today.

Rebecca’s relationship with her parents, and in particular, her relationship with her mother, left me with more questions than answers. I desperately wanted insight into why this couple seemed so distant from their daughter and why exactly they saw more merit in her being at the school than at home with them.

Bad Behaviour is an engrossing read. It shines an unfiltered light on just how life-shaping a person’s teenage years have the potential to be.

Sarah Todman is a Brisbane-based fiction writer. You can find her online at sayanythingsare