It was an excited group of teens who met for the first time in 2018 to catch up and talk about their favourite summer reads (see their picks below) and meet YA author Clare Atkins.

Clare came by to talk about her new novel, Between Us. This is a beautiful story about a friendship between Jono, a lonely Aussie boy of Vietnamese background, and Anahita, an Iranian girl and asylum seeker who lives in Wickham Point Detention Centre with her mother and younger brother. When Anahita is allowed out to go to school during the days it is an opportunity for her to forget the trouble within the detention centre and be a ‘normal Australian girl’ for a while, and it is here that her friendship with Jono flourishes.

Clare talked to us about her passion for telling stories about many different kinds of Australians and cultures that make up our diverse population. We were fans of Clare’s first book, Nona & Me, which featured Indigenous Australians, and you can read a bit more about how she approached this story in this blog post.

As well as writing, Clare volunteers with refugees and also works as a mentor with under-represented Australians to help them write their own stories. Career-wise, she first trained in documentary making but found she was drawn to fictional stories. She told us about her origins as a scriptwriter on Home and Away and how the discipline of writing for TV taught her a great deal about how to tackle novels. Her experience with scriptwriting is evident in Between Us – everything has been tightly plotted, making for an exciting and fast-paced read. Clare also explained why she decided to use a mix of prose and verse for Jono’s voice to represent his depression and frustration with life.

The teens had plenty of questions for Clare. Most had read her book and before the meeting, we had sent her some reviews that the board had written for it. Clare was thrilled about hearing their thoughts and had many of her own questions to pose to the board.

The board members left the meeting with arms filled with new and forthcoming YA novels to devour.

Here are the best books the board read over summer

‘The best book I read over the summer would have to be Take Three Girls. It was relatable, funny and awesome.’

– Mia

‘I read Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch. It was a great mix of crime and realism. The beauty of her language and the way she talks about art and culture is gorgeous. Her characters are three dimensional and well-drawn. An incredible read!’

– Stella

‘ Wolf Summer. Not very well known, this book is a teenage girls dream. Romance and wolves!’

– Kate

‘ Goodbye Perfect. It had an engaging plot, with beautiful and heartbreaking responses by characters. The ending was very realistic and thought-provoking.’

– Dylan

‘I read a few good books, but I’d say my favourites were Between Us and Ketchup Cloud.’

– Kirrily

‘ Zeroes 3: Nexus. It’s the third book of a series about a group of teenagers and their gritty and compelling superpowers. It’s a brilliant conclusion to the series, as it widens the scope even further, developing existing characters and adding new ones. The powers in the world become even more interesting and the climax felt massively impactful, but still triumphant.’

– Joe

Plus, teen picks for sci-fi and fantasy readers…

This month, we asked the board for their best recommendations for teen readers who love fantasy and sci-fi. Their picks includes classics such as The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and new favourites such as Marie Lu’s Warcross.

You can find all their recommendations here.

We also handed out some reading copies of Tomi Adeyemi’s African-inspired fantasy debut, Children of Blood and Bone. This is one of the most hotly-anticipated YA novels of 2018 and we’re excited to hear what our teen readers make of it.