A story about school, community, family and friendship that will make your heart melt, just like the chocolate of Laura's crisp and sweet chocolate cackles (recipe at the end of the book). Written in verse and told from the perspective of the various children and adults in the story, I could imag...
I'm not proud. I'm sixteen, and soon to be homeless. Weary of his life with his alcoholic, abusive father, sixteen-year-old Billy packs a few belongings and hits the road, hoping for something better than what he left behind. He finds a home in an abandoned freight train outside a small town, wh...
"I hate that wall Everytime I go for a bike-ride Mum says, "Stay within the walls." So I ride around in circles, Like a circus animal. It's a prison. A prison for kids." Dumb things become important when you're old. At least that's what Tom reckons like living in a guarded gate community, filling...
Sophie is asleep on the single bed, her fists tight under her chin, her long legs like flowing caramel, the sheet bunched at the foot of the bed. As quietly as I can, I roll over to face the window, leaning across to pull the curtain closed. From outside comes the sound of...
I follow a few paces behind. I’m not going back. Not until I’ve proved Dad right, or wrong. I’m too old for wolf stories now. It’s time I found out the truth. The land gets steeper and rockier. Lucy and I walk slowly, scrambling over huge boulders on our hands and knees. We don’t talk, aware of e...
There’s a standing joke that half the kids in school were conceived down there. The soft sand and grassy bank make a perfect lovers’ lane. If I catch the ratbags at it I’ll give them both a tongue lashing for keeping me out all night and putting up with the likes of Holding. I whistle as I walk d...
She looks at the pear. ‘You first,’ she offers. I take a bite and the juice dribbles on my pants. ‘Lucky we’re in the sun,’ Ella says, ‘so it’ll dry before Science, or it could look awkward.’ ‘Everything I do is embarrassing,’ I say. She takes a bite, cupping her hand under the pear to catch the ...