Thursday, 14 October 2010

Review - Front and Center / Catherine Gilbert Murdock

After five months of sheer absolute craziness I was going back to being plain old background D.J. In photographs of course I'm always in the background—it's a family joke, actually, that us Schwenk kids could go to school naked on picture day, we're all so crazy tall. But I mean I was returning to the background of life. Where no one would really notice me or talk about me or even talk to me much except to say things like "Nice shot," and I could just hang out without too many worries at all.

But it turns out other folks have big plans for D.J. Like her coach. College scouts. All the town hoops fans. A certain Red Bend High School junior who's keen for romance and karaoke. Not to mention Brian Nelson, who she should not be thinking about! Who she is done with, thank you very much. But who keeps showing up anyway...

What's going to happen if she lets these people down? What's going to happen when she does? Because let's face it: there's no way, on the court or off, that awkward, tongue-tied D.J. Schwenk can manage all this attention. No way at all. Not without a brain transplant. Not without breaking her heart. Goodreads.


Review -Whereas the first two novels in the Dairy Queen series beautifully articulated the life of a female athlete, Front and Center felt lazy in comparison.  The stakes were higher in the previous titles, or the urgency seemed greater.  This title chose to represent DJ's struggles in an introspective, self deliberating style that failed to match the movement and pace of its predecessors.

Tuesday, 12 October 2010

2010 Inkys Short List

Last year I was extremely fortunate to be a member of the Inky judging panel. The Inkys are the only Australian YA award to be awarded by the targeted audience - teens. Now you might be wondering how the heck I managed to manoeuvre my way onto the panel then - along with the Golden Inky winner from the previous year and four Aussie teen readers, I was chosen as the additional adult ring in. That panel reads ten international and ten Australian young adult literature releases deemed by the Centre of Youth Literature to be best for that year in publishing. The panel narrows it down, after copious discussion, to five international and five Australian titles. Then voting is opened up to teen readers on the Inside a Dog website.

Review - Rules of Attraction / Simone Elkeles

When Carlos Fuentes returns to America after living in Mexico for a year, he doesn’t want any part of the life his older brother, Alex, has laid out for him at a high school in Colorado . Carlos likes living his life on the edge and wants to carve his own path—just like Alex did. Then he meets Kiara Westford. She doesn’t talk much and is completely intimidated by Carlos’ wild ways. As they get to know one another, Carlos assumes Kiara thinks she’s too good for him, and refuses to admit that she might be getting to him. But he soon realizes that being himself is exactly what Kiara needs right now.  Goodreads


Review - Rules of Attraction starts off badly when the list (of which the title originates from) is ill fittingly named and nonsensical in the context of what is being discussed.  It further burrows a hole for itself when it chooses to tell another Fuentes family member's story about having their lives turned around by an affluent white girl.  Again, really?  Why she have to be white and rich?  What is Elkeles really trying to say?