Showing results by publisher "Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd" in Teen & Young Adult

Izzie is cool, bright and sassy. And when she meets gorgeous Mark, she's on a real high. He's divine. And he likes her! But why doesn't he call when he says he will? Desperate to make sense of things, Izzie spends her time checking her horoscope. And stays at home, just in case he calls. When Izzie loses her perspective and her sense of fun, best friends Lucy and Nesta try to give her a reality check. But there are some things you'd rather not hear.

Everything is changing around her, and suddenly she is required to make all sorts of decisions. Everyone else knows who and what they want to be except her. zzy has become friends with the glamorous Nesta and Lucy isn't certain she likes this new threesome. Nesta and Izzy look 16, but Lucy, at 14, can easily pass for a 12-year-old. But then the day Lucy sees the most wonderful boy crossing the street, things start to change – in all areas of her life.

Seventeen-year-old Alba is an aspiring comic-book artist, pastry enthusiast and eternal optimist. She thinks life in her tiny town is awesome (if predictable) and she never wants it to change. Unfortunately Alba's just finished Year 12 - so the only thing she can predict is that everything's going to change. Even so, Alba didn't see the end of the world coming. Apart from a questionable television psychic, no one did. And for some reason, the world seems to be taking this guy seriously.

David Piper has always been an outsider. His parents think he's gay. The school bully thinks he's a freak. Only his two best friends know the real truth - David wants to be a girl. On the first day at his new school, Leo Denton has one goal - to be invisible. Attracting the attention of the most beautiful girl in Year 11 is definitely not part of that plan. When Leo stands up for David in a fight, an unlikely friendship forms. But things are about to get messy. Because at Eden Park School secrets have a funny habit of not staying secret for long....

With the tide turned against the Dead, Peter and the remaining community on Wranglestone prepare to leave for town, where the comforts of the world before await them. Could this be the home that finally brings both safety and unity for all? Cooper isn’t so sure. He harbours feelings from that terrible night on the lake and worse, a secret … codename, Timberdark. With Cooper’s new found connection to the Dead, Peter’s suspicions about what he might do next grow.

When Dougy's sister, Gracey, is picked for the state athletics championships, not everybody in their small bush town in pleased. 'Aborigines get special treatment', some of the angry white people say. The championships change everything for Gracey and trigger dramatic events in the town too: Black and white relations reach explosion point. The time is ripe for the mysterious Moodagudda to seek a victim. In the end, it's up to Dougy to save his family - and to prove himself.

Hundreds of kilometres without a car, a house, or a person in sight. The dome of clear blue above and the occasional group of roos startling off into the scrub. Then emus, bolting off in a mad panic on the other side. I was finding something that had been lost inside me and I wanted to weave in and out on that straight white ribbon of road for the joy of having found it again. Cross My Heart is the story of Mick and Michelle, chasing a dream, crossing their hearts for the future; a vibrant, passionate, sprawling novel set in outback Australia.

The arrival of Federico Lampo and his travelling circus brings a new threat to Drabville when the children are kidnapped and transported to the grim world of the Conjuors' Realm. Lord Aldor, assisted by Ringmaster Lampo and the vicious Contessa Bombasta, is plotting to conquer the fairy province of Mirth.... The children embark on a quest to warn the Queen of Mirth, encountering some fearsome obstacles, not least the ferocious Grin Bandits and their tooth-extracting apparatus.

Here is a gripping, chilling, beautifully observed tale of what a teenage girl will do to keep her friends, by one of Australia's finest writers. Growing up during the 1980s in the safe complacency of the Australian suburbs, Plum Coyle should be happy. But on the cusp of her 14th birthday - and on the fringe of her peer group - she lives in terror of the disapproval of her cruel and fickle girlfriends and, most of all, she hates her awkward, changing body with a passion.

A world where justice and the fate of those accused of murder is decided by the public, but has moved on from the Roman Gladiator 'thumbs up or thumbs down' public vote, to a public vote by telephone. If you are voted innocent you are set free; if you are voted guilty you are committed to death by electric chair. Those awaiting their sentence reside in ever decreasing cells, getting smaller each day, until Day Seven and Cell Seven, where they hear their fate. Sixteen-year-old Martha has confessed to killing a famous celebrity. But has she done it?

Rose, Ella, Marta and Carla. In another life we might all have been friends together. But this was Birchwood. As 14-year-old Ella begins her first day at work she steps into a world of silks, seams, scissors, pins, hems and trimmings. She is a dressmaker, but this is no ordinary sewing workshop. Hers are no ordinary clients. Ella has joined the seamstresses of Birkenau-Auschwitz. Every dress she makes could mean the difference between life and death.

For as long as she can remember, Sabine has lived two lives. Every twenty-four hours she 'Shifts', living each day twice. She has one life in Wellesley, Massachusetts...and another, completely different life in Roxbury, Boston. In one life she's surrounded by glamorous friends and dresses in designer clothes, in the other her family struggles to make ends meet. In one life she’s a straight-A student with the perfect boyfriend, in the other she’s considered a reckless delinquent.

Charmwood High, and Year 8 plans to turn the school play, Romeo and Juliet, into a rock musical. Everything's moving along until someone mentions Equal Opportunity. There aren't enough roles for girls in this production. For the narrator, Peter Nutt, Equal Opportunity means more opportunities for teachers like Poxon and girls like Ravolini to get at him. And then there's Millie Miletic from the Holy Family of the Little Sisters by the Sea: she's in love!

He draws her close, envelops her as if with wings. She does not resist him or the kisses over her face when he tilts her chin up; she lets him, exposing the flesh of her throat. When she goes home that day she will wear the marks of the devil, the clinging smell of oil, the bruising of her neck.

Loosely based on a true story, this is an inspiring and unflinching account of a brave boy's struggle to recover from abuse. Josh is sexually abused in an institution where he goes after his grandmother falsely accuses his father of abusing him. Told from the boy's perspective as a 16 year old looking back, this is a very personal story of triumph over the odds and also a confronting look at some of society's systems and institutions.

Kane will do everything he can to save his mother and little brother Sam from the violence of his father, even if it means becoming a monster himself. Mrs Aslan will protect the boys no matter what – even though her own family is in pieces. Ada wants a family she can count on, while she faces new questions about herself. Mr Bailey is afraid of the refugees next door, but his worst fear will take another form. And Gugulethu is just trying to make a life away from terror.

For as long as Esmerine can remember, she has longed to join her older sister, Dosinia, as a siren - the highest calling a mermaid can have. When Dosinia runs away to the mainland, Esmerine is sent to retrieve her. Using magic to transform her tail into legs, she makes her way unsteadily to the capital city. There she comes upon a friend she hasn’t seen since childhood - a dashing young man named Alandare, who belongs to a winged race of people. As Esmerine and Alandare band together to search for Dosinia, they rekindle a friendship….

One wakeful night in the aftermath of his mother’s death, Jack enters a land devoid of color or scent. Here he meets the tragic laughing beast and Alice, a strange girl with a secret. Will Jack escape before the terrifying wolvers find him? Or is he destined to be trapped in the Greylands forever? Only the cats know.

From the best-selling author of What the Birds See comes a brilliantly told suspense novel. As life slips away, Gabriel looks back over his brief 20 years that have been clouded by frustration and humiliation. A small town and distant parents ensure that he is never allowed to forget the horrific mistake he made as a child. He has only two friends, his dog Surrender, and the unruly wild boy Finnigan, with whom he made a boyhood pact.

"We must be ruthless," Edward snarls, "because we lead ruthless lives: you, of anyone, should understand that. This is our existence, Jordan, this house, this land, that father, that mother - there's no pity, there's no mercy, there's probably no escape. It is hard, Jordan, and we have to be hard to survive it, and the best we can do is fight anything that threatens to make it worse."