Broader Reading | Contemporary fiction

From the wild and wonderful mind of Gibby Haynes-world famous Butthole Surfers front man/lyricist and self-proclaimed eternal Texan adolescent-comes the surreal tale of seventeen-year-old Oscar Lester and his trusted dog, Mr. Cigar.

When Aideen agrees to help ambitious class swot deal with her crazy workload, she doesn’t expect to end up becoming the school ‘fixer’: any problem a student has, Aideen will sort it out. All she asks for is a favour in return. But Aideen’s own life is a mess and she starts to wonder: can every problem be solved?

Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards 2021, Prize for Young Adult Writing

When her mother dies, Dylan struggles to find her identity. An outback road-trip with her mum's grieving boyfriend sees an unlikely bond develop. But it won't last... Dylan dreams of sailing across the ocean to France with her mother. Paris, Dylan imagines, is a place where her black skin won't make her stand out, a place where she might feel she belongs. When she loses her mother in a freak accident, Dylan finds herself on a very different journey: a road trip across the Australian outback in the care of her mother's grieving boyfriend, Pat. As they pass through remote towns further and further from the water Dylan longs for, she and Pat form an unlikely bond: a bond that will be broken when Pat leaves Dylan with a family she has never known. Metal Fish, Falling Snow is about a young girl's search for an identity as she navigates unthinkable grief. A warm, funny, and original look at families lost and found, this Own Voices novel celebrates the resilience of the human heart and the meaning of home.

Author Nic Stone unflinchingly explores the impact of racism and inequality on young Black lives. Vernell LaQuan Banks and Justyce McAllister grew up a block apart in the Southwest Atlanta neighborhood of Wynwood Heights. Years later, Justyce walks the illustrious halls of Yale University . . . and Quan sits behind bars at the Fulton Regional Youth Detention Center. Through a series of flashbacks and letters to Justyce, Quan's story takes form. Troubles at home and misunderstandings at school give rise to police encounters and tough decisions. But then there's a dead cop and a weapon with Quan's prints on it. What leads a bright kid down a road to a murder charge? Not even Quan is sure...

Willowdean Dickson (Dumplin', to her mum) has always been at home in her own skin. Her thoughts on having the ultimate bikini body? Really, the criteria is simple. Do you have a body? Put a swimsuit on it. But life as Willow knows it is about to change, and when this happens she suffers an unaccustomed, and unwelcome, attack of self-doubt. In an effort to take back her confidence, she enters into the local Miss Teen Blue Bonnet beauty pageant.