My TBR pile has reached alarming levels at the moment, as I read as frantically as I can, trying to keep up with all the amazing books coming out for our Children and Young Adults in the last few months. Extremely fortunate for me, I have several delightful students who are more than willing to [...]
I believe we live in possibly the most narcissistic age of human history. No generation has been photographed or filmed more than this one. We have cameras everywhere. On our phones, on our laptops, on our desktop computers and the truth of the matter is, our teens are so used to documenting everything they do on film, [...]
Adrian Stirling’s second novel, The Comet Box, is secretly a time machine. The very act of reading it will transport you instantly back to 1986. The sights, sounds and scents of a typical Australian summer are but a page turn away…except for one thing. Most of us (I hope) did not have the added emotional [...]
Recently I was lucky enough to be a part of the Penguin Secondary Professional Development day, at which Dr Susan LaMarca spoke about units of work for the classroom. One of the novels she mentioned was The Reluctant Fundamentalist- Mohsin Hamid. I had never heard of this particular novel, but listening to Dr LaMarca, I [...]
Recently, my dear friend Nicole of The Uncommon Nonsense recommended I read My Sister Lives On The Mantelpiece- Annabel Pitcher. So I did. She warned me it would make me cry. She warned me it would break my heart. She warned me I would struggle to cope with the subject matter, as a human and [...]
Tis a brave thing indeed to attempt to address a subject as close to the bone, (NO pun intended), as Anorexia. To do so through the medium of a graphic novel, is perhaps, even braver still. Tyranny- Lesley Fairfield, is a masterful and delicate approach to a subject that is all too often whispered about, [...]
Ohgoodlord did this book hurt me. Which, considering how I felt after reading If I Stay, should not have come as a surprise. At the time, I found myself so terribly devastated by If I Stay, I was truly incapable of writing a review. Where She Went, has left me feeling much the same. Gayle [...]
Eerily prescient. The entire time I was reading The Unidentified- Rae Mariz, my subconscious was exploring what I already know to be true of the teenagers I interact with daily and how media and advertising affects their lives. I pondered the premise Mariz explores in this novel, a world where Education has become a Game, [...]
This is beautiful…and so powerful. Wonder what a classroom full of Year 8′s would make of it… Creep (Radiohead) – Scala & Kolacny Brothers from Alex Heller on Vimeo.
Religion has always been fascinating to me. I have been known to spend hours researching different religions, just to satisfy my own curiosity. It is not just the fundamental beliefs of a particular religion either. What truly fascinates me is faith. Absolute, (some would call it blind), FAITH. Long have I pondered over and wondered [...]
