Austlit

'Pizza for breakfast, no bedtime, skateboarding encouraged and ... no parents!

Welcome to Verdada.

When Edsel takes an unexpected voyage to a parallel dimension, Verdada, his life is transformed overnight. Suddenly, his over-protective parents are nowhere to be seen and rules are a thing of the past.

Or so he thinks.

Everything seems perfect.

Everything is not what it seems.

Edsel needs to decide between the world he knows or being forever young in a place of forever fun. 'But time is running out.

Will Edsel be stuck in Verdada forever?' (From the publisher's website.)

'Once, in a street not very far from yours, there lived a girl called Anonymity Jones.

'Anonymity's life is falling apart. Her father has left to have a mid-life crisis, her mother's new boyfriend is a definite worry, her Europe-bound sister has changed her name (just to make a point) and all her girl friends are now girlfriends, with boyfriends.

'And then there's the art teacher.

'Anonymity is losing control, and it's decision time. Does she hang on, get out, or get even?' (From the publisher's website.)

'In Town, James Roy turns his hand to the short story, using it to explore the lives of the young residents of an Australian town. This town doesn't have a name. But if it seems familiar, it's because we recognise the people who walk its streets.

'From the serendipity of an unexpected moment of connection, to the sadness of leaving home, and the pain of the desperate decisions we make, these stories take a personal and uncompromising look at life. Love and loss, grief, humour and passion. Hope and hopelessness. Thirteen linked short stories, spanning a year in the lives of thirteen young people, from a town near you.' (Publisher's blurb)