When sixteen-year-old Tuesday wakes in Madam Marisol’s Unreality House, she has no idea who she is. And no clue about the fantastic world she is about to be flung into. With the charming but self-serving Quintalion as her reluctant chaperone and a letter from her unremembered self, she ventures out in search of her past.

With a war looming between those who practice the old ways and the daybreakers, and one particularly dangerous daybreaker who seems to have a vendetta against her, Tuesday’s quest will be more difficult than she could imagine. And it will take her to more places than she would have dreamed possible. From the purple-grassed Whispering Plains to the Silk Sea, Tuesday’s journey to find out who she was may just cement who she is now.

Book of Days is Brisbane author, K.A. Barker’s debut novel, and John Marsden probably said it best when he lauded the novel for being ‘dazzlingly different’. It is: both in style and content.

Usually it’s characters that make a fantasy journey memorable for me. There are some amazing characters in Book of Days, but here even they take a back seat to the world built within these pages. From the paper-burning traditions of Beggars End to Lady Fortuna’s Court in the heart of a magnificent floating city, the places in Book of Days are spectacularly sprawling landscapes that I’d love to explore.

The one main weakness in an otherwise enchanting novel is the main character, Tuesday. She has a tendency to make bad decisions, ignore solid advice from people who know the world better than her, and then crumple when her decisions get her in trouble. Her companions are amazing, but I don’t know why they stay by her when they have no reason to offer her loyalty and when her actions often wilfully endanger them.

As I’ve mentioned, the cast of supporting characters are fantastic. Quintalion might be self-serving but he’s also charming; and who doesn’t appreciate someone with such immaculate dress-sense? Hester, a warrior from the North, is as sharp as her sword, and fearless. She is a good foil for Quintalion, keeping him in check where Tuesday can’t. And Jack, the blind assistant librarian is sweet and funny. All together these characters have a dynamic that makes the book a more wondrous place.

Anyone who likes quirky fantasy worlds will devour this novel. Fans of Terry Pratchett or Garth Nix should try it out for the sheer imagination it exudes.

The Book of Days – K.A. Barker

Pan Macmillan (September 1, 2014)

ISBN: 9781742614175

Lost and Found: LGBTQ Youth Crisis.

Many people believe now that marriage equality has been achieved that Gay Rights Movement is essentially over. That there is no longer a need for one. These folks couldn’t be more wrong. There are still many issues still facing LGBTQ+ persons in the western world. I’d like to bring your attention to what I consider the most urgent need in the community: Queer and Trans Youth homelessness. 

Did you know that 40 percent of homeless youth in America identify as LGBTQ? Further 68% of these youth were kicked out of their homes due to their sexual and gender identities. And a heart breaking 54% reported having experienced abuse at the hands of their families. Coming out is a really difficult and scary process, imagine on top of fear of bullying and peer rejection that you didn’t have the protection and support of your family?!

LGBTQ+ homeless youth are extremely vulnerable. They not only are more likely to experience depression and post traumatic stress disorders than their heterosexual peers but have an increased risk of exploitation and HIV. Most alarming of all is 62 percent of LGBTQ+ youth attempt suicide.

LGBTQ+ youth face real dangers and challenges in the communities and cultures which they are apart of due to homophobic beliefs systems. Regardless of new LGBTQ+ rights and laws, homophobic culture still exists and continues to oppress and discriminate against LGBTQ+ persons. It takes much longer to change beliefs systems and cultures then it does legislation. Establishing legal framework is just the first step, enforcing it and making the legal principals a part of culture can take generations. This is why the LGBTQ movement is still so very important.

So what can you to help fight LGBTQ+ homelessness? Here are a few easy things you can do.

• Promote Love: Be an ambassador at school, home and among your peers. Talk about and promote LGBTQ+ equality and acceptance. Get others involved too.
• Support LGBTQ+ youth at school and in your community. You never know who could be at risk of homelessness or homeless. Be-friend and be a good friend to Queer youth. Kindness goes a long way.
• If someone you know is having problems at home, or has been kicked out. Encourage them to go to school support staff. Many shelters and programs exist that can help. Help them find resources to stay safe and warm.
• Donate gently used clothes to shelters and organizations that house and care for LGBTQ+ youth.

Stay safe and love one another.

This book made me want to plant strawberries in my garden.

To take a packet of unassuming little black seeds and nurture them with mulch and sunlight and water and LOVE until they become a collection of beautiful bright red, juicy hearts scattered among green leaves ready for me to pick off and eat.

How do you give a YA rom-com novel an environmentally conscious edge and have it come off as funspirational rather than preachy? Enter Lili Wilkinson’s book Green Valentine.

High schooler Astrid Katy Smythe is kind of perfect. She’s pretty, popular and smart. She’s also the most committed teenage eco-warrior Melbourne’s fictional industrial suburb of Valentine has got.

When Astrid, dressed as a lobster and gathering signatures for her petition to save a soon-to-be extinct Australian crayfish, gets chatting to the supermarket trolley boy down at her local shopping centre one afternoon sparks fly.

The two soon give each other super-hero names: Lobster Girl and Shopping Trolley Boy.

But there’s a problem. Of course!

Shopping Trolley Boy is Hiro Silverstri, a kid who kind of embodies everything Astrid is not. He’s generally rude, resentful and a regular at school detention. Astrid quickly realises that she and Hiro both go to the same school, it’s just they just move in very different circles.

Here’s what the blurb says:

Astrid wants to change the world, Hiro wants to survive it. But ultimately both believe that the world needs to be saved from itself. Can they find enough in common to right all the  wrongs between them? A romantic comedy about life and love and trying to make the planet a better place, with a little heartbreak, and a whole lot of hilarity.

I enjoyed getting to know Astrid and Hiro. Travelling the journey of their bumpy teenage romance was engaging and fun, though I do feel Hiro loses a bit of shine as the book progresses. I wanted more from his character. His set-up as something of a thinking-kid’s rebel is great and his distaste for conformity provides the perfect foil for the subtle elitism in which Astrid has become entrenched. As I said, I just found myself wishing he’d stayed as engaging as he was in the beginning. Astrid, meantime, is an appealing central protagonist who proves ‘good girls’ don’t have to be one-dimensional.

Astrid and Hiro’s quest to prove that Valentine can transcend its industrial dullness sees them become guerilla gardeners. They spend their nights planting seedlings among the suburbs streets and ultimately get themselves into strife.

As well as environmental issues the book also touches on teen-relevant material such as family breakdown and navigating end-of-school choices.

The book’s dialogue is snappy and the footnotes from Astrid are a cute, quirky element that I really enjoyed.

Now, if like me you’re a sucker for a lovely book cover, this one is both pretty and eco-friendly. It gets double points for this.

Green Valentine is a great YA read for readers aged 14 and up.

ON INTERNMENT you can be anything you dream – a novelist or a singer, a florist or a factory worker… Your life is yours to embrace or to squander. There’s only one rule: you don’t approach THE EDGE. If you do, it’s already over.

Perfect Ruin is the first book in Lauren DeStefano’s riveting new series, the Internment Chronicles.

Paperback, 356 pages

Published March 10th 2015 by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

Internment is a city in the clouds ruled by a monarchy. The population is restricted; all citizens’ life records are closely watched and medication is strictly controlled. Morgan’s brother is one who went too close to the edge, and now her whole family is on the watch list. When a girl is found murdered, their small protective community begins to feel claustrophobic and secrets long held unfold everything Morgan thought she knew.

One day, a body is found on the train tracks, murdered. Such crimes do not exist on Interment, and it causes a panic among the people. They are confused and terrified. The deceased’s partner is on the run, accused of the act. Morgan is curious about the accused and soon finds out there is a underground group of citizens who see the darker side of Internment and want to escape. Morgan’s curiosity in the murder and why it happened, along with her family’s history, brings unwanted attention from the leaders. It soon becomes a game of cat and mouse when secrets are finally revealed to Morgan.

The writing is pretty fast-paced and the world building is creative and imaginative.  I really enjoy reading books by Lauren DeStefano. I find her stories fun reads, and a bit dark with very memorable and strong characters. If you are a fan of her Chemical Garden series as I am, you’ll enjoy this new series as well. Science fiction, romance, and mystery all in one.

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In a departure from his usual style, multi award-winning science fiction and fantasy author, Garth Nix, has penned a brisk and playful regency romance in Newt’s Emerald. When a precious family heirloom, the Newington Emerald, is stolen, young Lady Truthful Newington determines to set off in pursuit of the culprit. This chase will take her to London, where she must assume the guise of a young French nobleman in order to discover further clues to aid her in unravelling the mystery. With the help of a wonderfully drawn great aunt, Lady Badgery, Truthful finds herself enmeshed in a world of rogues, dashing gentlemen, high society, and dastardly sorcery.

Fittingly, Nix has peppered this romantic comedy of errors and intrigue with a substantial and clever sprinkling of the highbrow vocab of yesteryear. I, for one, learned a range of historical terms and turns of phrase, and Nix even helpfully includes a glossary of terms at the back of the book. It comes as no surprise to find that he cites Georgette Heyer, Jane Austen, and Patrick O’Brien as influences, having discovered their work as a teen. Newt’s Emerald, in fact, is the final incarnation of a manuscript Nix had first started writing all the way back in 1990.

And it’s good news for his readership that he returned to that earlier manuscript and crafted it into this rollicking, entertaining story. As a central character, Truthful is charming and vivid, and is possessed of a lively wit and impressive independence, despite her tender age. When she encounters the dashing and courageous Major Hartnett (‘of his Britannic Majesty’s Ninety-Fifth Regiment of Rifles’, no less), you bet you’ll be hoping for sparks to start flying. But Nix cleverly weaves the romantic element in with the fantasy and adventure – this isn’t your run-of-the-mill, teen romance. There are conniving characters to outwit, sleights of hand to perform, and a number of surprises that will delight you as they are revealed.

Although I loved earnest and principled Truthful, determined Hartnett, and even the evil sorceress, it was Lady Badgery who really stole my heart – a dry, acerbic, yet wise woman who suffers no fools and does whatever it takes to protect her great-niece, however frustrating that task sometimes proves to be. An eccentric character, she gads about dressed in robes and a favourite fez – sleeping when it suits her and dispensing with any censorship in her often caustic exchanges with visitors who irritate her. Essentially, she’s that unabashedly dotty, unapologetic old great aunt we all secretly hope to become one day.

Newt’s Emerald is a light-hearted, easy-to-read little jewel of a book and one which is sure to lift your spirits with its delightful characters and sense of downright fun. Grab a copy, settle in, and lose yourself in the ornate prose, exciting adventure, and, of course, romance.

http://www.garthnix.com/

Paperback, 232 pages

Published August 23rd 2015 by Allen & Unwin

ISBN: 9781760112653.