AustLit

'When thirteen-year-old Samantha moves to a new town, she decides to reinvent herself. She wants to be called SJ now. She's going to be cool and mysterious. But above all, she's going to pretend to be healthy.

'SJ suffers from chronic eczema and allergies - she's sick of doctors' appointments and tests, sick of itchiness and pain, sick of looking different, feeling different. All SJ wants is to be 'normal'. She'll do whatever it takes to keep her illness a secret. After all, would new friend Livvy or cute boy Sam still want to hang out with her if they knew the truth?'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Justin's back, and wants to put the past behind him.

'Corey's a footy hero and high-school dropout who can't even find work picking fruit.

'Tara wants to be loved. But if her mother doesn't care, why would anyone else?

'Margo wants out, and she has a plan to get there.

'Plans change. Life happens. Some secrets won't stay buried. Peace isn't as simple as laying bones to rest.

'A story about love and loss. About tragic secrets and the lengths people will go to hide them. About intergenerational pain and desperate attempts to break the cycle. And about yearning for love and finding it where you least expect. ' (Publication summary)
 

'Jorge lives in a shanty town on the outskirts of Paris. Bill, a controller, has an army of child thieves at his command—and Jorge is one of them.

'But soon Jorge faces an even bigger threat.

'His home is to be bulldozed. Where will Jorge sleep? What will happen to his friends, Ada and Gino? Could a burgeoning friendship with Australian chef, Sticky-Ricky, help Jorge to stop Bill and save the army of child-thieves? And will he do it before he loses Ada forever?

'Jorge can’t keep fighting to live—now he must live to fight.

'A harrowing, humbling story about one boy’s desperation to escape a life of crippling poverty. ' (Publication summary)