On Monday I had the privilege of chairing our second #LoveOzYA panel of the year. This time we narrowed the discussion slightly to the topic of Heroes.

Panellists included authors Nicole Hayes (One True Thing and The Whole of My World) and David Burton (How To Be Happy), and teenagers Chris (former Inky Awards judge and teen panellist extraordinaire) and Chami (booktuber at Reads Like Wild Fire).

We talked at first about defining heroes, and the panel agreed that the best heroes are flawed, full characters who make mistakes but continue through them. The panel also agreed that to make a hero characteristically Australian, they should possess a degree of humour about themselves and about their situation. As David Burton put it: ‘Have a certain amount of dagginess.’ Chami and Chris also mentioned that as teen readers they would both rather read about flawed characters.

The topic of the antihero came up, with examples such as Erica from Hating Alison Ashley and Justine Larbalestier’s characters. All of the panel (particularly Chami!) are antihero enthusiasts and feel like there need to be more in OzYA.

This did lead to an interesting discussion with Nicole, who admitted she self-censors to a degree, and has her characters choose the ‘responsible’ action, rather than the action that might be more realistic now that she herself has teenagers, whereas when they were younger she followed the character’s will more freely. She did, however, agree with David when he said “If your teenage audience sniffs the slightest whiff of being lectured to, forget about it.” Which both Chami and Chris wholeheartedly agreed with! Ultimately though, the importance of hope was really emphasised with Nicole saying, “I’m mindful of my responsibility to my readership. Write about anything but offer an out, some hope. Give readers release from darker issues.”

A lighter aspect to the discussion concerned the panel picking the type of YA hero that they would like to be. Chris felt that he would be the everyman in a contemporary novel, whilst Chami felt that she would be the silent brooding type, swooping in to (accidentally) save the day. David wanted to be that girl in year twelve, with the perfect shoes and hair, who has it all together, and in a simple choice that we can all relate to, Nicole just wanted to be able to fly.

Each of the panellists recommended their favourite hero:

• Chami: Watts from Ellie Marney’s Every Breath, as a crime-fighting murder mystery-solving country girl because she’s strong and interesting.

• Chris: Jack from Vikki Wakefield’s Inbetween Days because she’s complex and interesting and the book is amazing.

• David: Clair from Sean William’s Twinmaker series, because it’s a great OzYA genre book.

• Nicole: Avicenna from Rebecca Lim’s The Astrologer’s Daughter. Another crime read, with a complex interesting lead, and beautifully written.

• And I recommended Kady from Amie Kauffman and Jay Kristoff’s Illuminae because it’s an amazing read and she handles everything thrown at her in a manner akin to Sarah Connor.

Isobel Moore