LIBRARY: LITERATURE PROMOTION [Lower School]: Terrific Reads . . .

Aria has lived her whole life in the protected dome of Reverie. Her entire world confined to its spaces, she's never thought to dream of what lies beyond its doors. So when her mother goes missing, Aria knows her chances of surviving in the outer wasteland long enough to find her are slim.

Then Aria meets an outsider named Perry. He's searching for someone too. He's also wild - a savage - but might be her best hope at staying alive.

If they can survive, they are each other's best hope for finding answers.

If you ain’t scared, you ain’t human.

When Thomas wakes up in the lift, the only thing he can remember is his name. He’s surrounded by strangers—boys whose memories are also gone.Nice to meet ya, shank. Welcome to the Glade.Outside the towering stone walls that surround the Glade is a limitless, ever-changing maze. It’s the only way out—and no one’s ever made it through alive.Everything is going to change.Then a girl arrives. The first girl ever. And the message she delivers is terrifying.

Remember. Survive. Run.

For as long as she can remember, Clare and her family have had a dream: Someday Clare will be a dancer in City Ballet Company. For ten long years Clare has been taking ballet lessons, watching what she eats, giving up friends and a social life, and practicing until her feet bleed -- all for the sake of that dream. And now, with the audition for City Ballet Company right around the corner, the dream feels so close.

"Full of nonstop action, political tension, suspense and romance!"

Uploaded Friday 25th November, 2014

Day is a "Legend"...

June is a "Prodigy"...

Who will be the "Champion?"...

Our two heroes will be brought together, however, in order to save so many people, June will have to make a desperately hard and difficult decision...

So what is a verse novel?

Click on this book cover to find out:

Kek comes from Africa where he lived with his mother, father, and brother. But only he and his mother have survived. Now she’s missing, and Kek has been sent to a new home. In America, he sees snow for the first time, and feels its sting. He wonders if the people in this new place will be like the winter—cold and unkind. But slowly he makes friends: a girl in foster care, an old woman with a rundown farm, and a sweet, sad cow that reminds Kek of home.

Sherryl Clark

Author

Sherryl Clark writes stories for all ages – from picture books to verse novels and novels for middle/older readers. She loves inventing characters and doing research, and then weaving the amazing things she discovers into all kinds of stories.

Where were you born?

I was born in New Zealand and spent the first 16 years of my life on a farm. I always wanted to get away from it and travel!

What other jobs have you had?

I started my working life as a librarian, but since then I’ve been a waitress, a secretary, a typesetter, a community arts worker and a writing teacher. Most jobs seem to have been about books and writing in some way.

What themes are recurring in your work?

I write a lot about characters who start out being powerless and then find a way to change their lives. I guess I believe in the possibility of transformation and change, and I like to write stories where that happens to my characters. I also have discovered a love of research, and using it in all kinds of historical stories (like pirates).

What have been the highlights of your career?

In 2005, my book Farm Kid won the NSW Premier’s Literary Award – Patricia Wrightson Prize, and it was a wonderful surprise to receive a letter from her afterwards. Sixth Grade Style Queen (Not!) was a CBCA Honour Book in 2008, and that was very special, too.

Where have your works been published?

Most of my children’s books have been published in Australia, but some have also been published in the UK and the USA. My YA novel Bone Song was published in the UK. I’ve also had a lot of poems and some short stories published in journals.

What are you passionate about?

I’m passionate about getting kids to read. It’s not just that I have always been an avid reader myself, and love that sense of entering another world, it’s also that I see reading as fundamental to nearly everything we do or can achieve.

Hannah's world is in pieces and she doesn't need the school counsellor to tell her she has deep-seated psychological issues. With a seriously depressed mum, an injured dad and a dead sister, who wouldn't have problems?