It’s finally winter and the days are so cold that the best thing we can do - if we can get away with it - is dive into bed with a cuppa and a good book! Well, we have some fantastic young adult novels that will have you enthralled and keep you warm and cosy from the inside out.

Find our June kids round-up here.

YA BOOK OF THE MONTH

My Spare Heart by Jared Thomas

Phoebe’s non-Indigenous mother, a busy event manager, and her father, an Aboriginal man and uni lecturer, have split up and she’s moved to sleepy old Willunga with him and his new health-obsessed girlfriend. Before long Phoebe’s fitting in. But as her mum becomes increasingly unreliable, Phoebe’s grades begin to suffer, her place on the basketball team is under threat and her worries spiral out of control.

Phoebe can’t tell her friends and is worried her dad will get angry, but pretending everything is fine is breaking her heart. How can she help her mum without tearing her family apart?

Suitable for ages 13 and up.

FIVE GREAT BOOKS TO GET COSY WITH THIS MONTH

The Museum of Broken Things by Lauren Draper

Reece still isn’t used to living in the small beachside town of Hamilton - she misses her old school, her old friends and her old life. She can’t go back and she can’t move forward. Not that she’s trying very hard - she hasn’t even unpacked yet.

But when Reece inherits a strange artefact that belonged to her beloved grandmother, she begins to unravel a mystery that might change the way she feels about everything around her, including her charismatic classmate Gideon…

Our staff reviewer, Alexa, says ‘it is a story with a lot of heart and some great humour’.

Suitable for ages 13 and up.

Libby Lawrence is Good at Pretending by Jodi McAllister

Nineteen-year-old Libby Lawrence is good at pretending. Problem is, she’s not entirely sure how to stop. Which is good for her role in the campus production of Much Ado About Nothing … but poses problems in her personal life. Especially when the list of things she can’t admit to starts to build.

Jodi McAlister’s sparkling campus novel is a rom-com about friendship, authenticity, and all the ways we perform ourselves… and the preciousness of those moments when all artifice falls away. Dramatic and wise, it combines arch wit and sharp banter with a knowing heart.

Suitable for ages 13 and up.

When Only One by Meg Gatland-Veness

Sam lives with his mum, dad and four brothers in a small farming town and life is pretty good. Then, five years since they last spoke, Emily Burrow climbs through his bedroom window and back into Sam’s life. Emily’s life couldn’t be more different. She lives with her mother, who struggles with mental health, and sometimes her alcoholic father.

When tragedy strikes one sunny afternoon, everything they thought they knew will change and they will be forced to face adulthood head on. Our reviewer, Aurelia, says ‘When Only One is a testament to the teens who wake up each day and face the world with courage, and the strength it takes to fight to hold onto every precious moment.’

Suitable for ages 13 and up.

Wayward by Hannah Matheson

In a London not like our own, as granddaughter of the High Sorcerer, Cassia Sims should be a powerful magician, but she’s never been able to make her magic work properly, and is therefore denied entry to The Society of Young Gifted Sorcerers.

Desperate to prove herself, she’s drawn into a plot by her brother, Ollivan, to make himself head of the society, and on the way she finds a trap he set for his enemies: a cursed doll that absorbs any magic that is thrown at it.

The doll escapes, rampaging through the streets of London, and Cassia must learn to work with her magic and her brother to prevent the destruction of the city.

Suitable for ages 13 and up.

What We All Saw by Mike Lucas

Witches only exist in stories. Everyone knows that. But what if the stories are real?

FOUR FRIENDS. FOUR TRUTHS. ONE NIGHTMARE.

If you wander into the wood …If you hear scratching sounds from the Old Quarry …If you go too close to the edge …

WATCH. OUT.

This horror story set in the 1970s features ancient legends of witches and all things spooky.

Suitable for readers aged 12 and up.

NEWS AND EVENTS

• Our Teen Advisory Board is excited to share some of their recent favourite reads with you here.
• We recommend the novels of one of our favourite, most exciting YA writers, Neal Shusterman, depending on what genre of story you like best here.
• For those interested in developing their practice as a writer or just hearing from exciting, new voices, the Emerging Writers Festival is on in Melbourne and online from June 15-25. You can browse the program here.
• The debut YA novel from author Biffy James is being launched at Readings Kids on July 7. All are welcome! More information is here.