Language and Literature / English: Middle School Novel Sets

When Willy Wonka's famous chocolate factory is about to open at last, young Charlie Bucket, a next door neighbour, hopes that he will be one of the five lucky children chosen to be allowed inside.

Abel Jackson has lived by the sea at Longboat Bay ever since he could remember. He helps his mother each day and loves to dive. One day he meets Blueback, the biggest and most beautiful fish he's ever seen.

When Abel's mother is approached by developers she decides she must do something to protect their fragile piece of coastline, But can Abel and his mother save Blueback and Longboat Bay in time?

An achingly beautiful story about family, belonging and living a life in tune with the environment, from one of Australia's best-loved authors.

Best friends Dale and Tomias live in the outback of Australia's Northern Territory. They have a deep love for the wild, ancient land that is their home, and move easily between their two cultures - Aboriginal and white. Both for both boys, growing up is neither easy nor safe. Ages 11+.

"There's a shadow behind him, a huge dark cloud, loose like smoke. But it doesn't drift away; it tightens, rising up tall and thin. It draws back into an S shape. It's a snake! A death adder!" Dale's dream tells him that his brother Sean is in danger. But he cannot know that what happens to Sean will have a devastating effect on all the people at Long Hole community, both white and Aboriginal. After their trip to Barrumbi, everything will change.

Since her father left Lebanon to find work and her mother tragically died in a shell attack, ten-year-old Ayesha has been living in the bomb-ravaged city of Beirut with her granny and her two younger brothers. The city has been torn in half by civil war and a desolate, dangerous no man's land divides the two sides. Only militiamen and tanks dare enter this deadly zone, but when Granny falls desperately ill, Ayesha sets off on a terrifying journey to reach a doctor living in enemy territory.

The story of how an enterprising teenager in Malawi built a windmill from scraps he found around his village and brought electricity, and a future, to his family, after his Malawi village was hit by a drought and everyone's crops began to fail.

Previously published under title: The breadwinner
Based closely on real life, this is the exciting and inspiring story of Parvana, a young girl growing up in Afghanistan, as she struggles to make a life for herself and her family under the harsh rule of the Taliban. There are many types of battle in Afghanistan. Imagine living in a country where
women and girls are not allowed to leave the house without a man. Imagine having to wear clothes that cover every part of your body, including your face, whenever you go out. This is the life of Parvana, a young girl growing up in Afghanistan under the control of an extreme religious military group.
When soldiers burst into her home and drag her father off to prison, Parvana is forced to take responsibility for her whole family, dressing as a boy to make a living in the marketplace of Kabul, risking her life in the dangerous and volatile city. By turns exciting and touching, Parvana is a story of courage in the face of overwhelming fear and repression.

Graphic Novel Information available: http://library.goodshepherd.nt.edu.au?serviceId=ExternalEvent&brSn=47964&brKey=1984605619

When Adeline Yen Mah's mother died giving birth to her, the family considered Adeline bad luck and she was made to feel unwanted all her life. Chinese Cinderella is the true story of her struggle for acceptance and her triumph against almost overwhelming odds.

Summary: Xiomara Batista feels unheard and unable to hide in her Harlem neighborhood. Ever since her body grew into curves, she has learned to let her fists and her fierceness do the talking. But Xiomara has plenty she wants to say, and she pours all her frustration and passion onto the pages of a leather notebook, reciting the words to herself like prayers - especially after she catches feelings for a boy in her bio class named Aman, who her family can never know about. With Mami's determination to force her daughter to obey the laws of the church, Xiomara understands that her thoughts are best kept to herself. So when she is invited to join her school's slam poetry club, she doesn't know how she could ever attend without her mami finding out. But she still can't stop thinking about performing her poems.

Jess Aarons has been practicing all summer so he can be the fastest runner in the fifth grade. And he almost is, until the new girl in school, Leslie Burke, outpaces him. The two become fast friends and spend most days in the woods behind Leslie's house, where they invent an enchanted land called Terabithia. One morning, Leslie goes to Terabithia without Jess and a tragedy occurs. It will take the love of his family and the strength that Leslie has given him for Jess to be able to deal with his grief.

Winner of the Newbery Medal and the National Book Award! This #1 New York Times bestselling, modern classic in which boys are forced to dig holes day in and day out is now available with a splashy new look.

Stanley Yelnats is under a curse. A curse that began with his no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather and has since followed generations of Yelnatses. Now Stanley has been unjustly sent to a boys' detention center, Camp Green Lake, where the boys build character by spending all day, every day digging holes exactly five feet wide and five feet deep. There is no lake at Camp Green Lake. But there are an awful lot of holes.

It doesn't take long for Stanley to realize there's more than character improvement going on at Camp Green Lake. The boys are digging holes because the warden is looking for something. But what could be buried under a dried-up lake? Stanley tries to dig up the truth in this inventive and darkly humorous tale of crime and punishment--and redemption. Includes a double bonus: an excerpt from Small Steps, the follow-up to Holes, as well as an excerpt from Louis Sachar's new middle-grade novel, Fuzzy Mud. "A smart jigsaw puzzle of a novel." --The New York Times WINNER OF THE BOSTON GLOBE-HORN BOOK AWARD
A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW NOTABLE CHILDREN'S BOOK
SELECTED FOR NUMEROUS BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR AND ALA HONORS

DVD information available: http://library.goodshepherd.nt.edu.au?serviceId=ExternalEvent&brSn=20184&brKey=620499387

Clickview film information available (PG): https://clickv.ie/w/K0ck

Summary: Conor has the same dream every night, ever since his mother first fell ill, ever since she started the treatments that don't quite seem to be working. But tonight is different. Tonight, when he wakes, there's a visitor at his window. It's ancient, elemental, a force of nature. And it wants the most dangerous thing of all from Conor. It wants the truth. (Publisher)

Unfortunately, Roy's first acquaintance in Florida is Dana Matherson, a well-known bully. Then again, if Dana hadn't been sinking his thumbs into Roy's temples and mashing his face against the school-bus window, Roy might never have spotted the running boy. And the running boy is intriguing: he was running away from the school bus, carried no books, and–here's the odd part–wore no shoes.Sensing a mystery, Roy sets himself on the boy's trail. The chase introduces him to potty-trained alligators, a fake-fart champion, some burrowing owls, a renegade eco-avenger, and several extremely poisonous snakes with unnaturally sparkling tails.Roy has most definitely arrived in Carl Hiaasen's Florida.

'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland' is the world's first surrealist book, written in 1865, at a time when the word surrealism had not yet been invented. The author of this dream-like fantasy, full of puns and ironic comments on adult life, was Lewis Carroll (real name Charles Dodgson), who devised the story for three young girls during a boat trip on the river Isis in Oxford. Since its publication, 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland' has been a firm favourite with children of all ages, and adults too can find deeper layers of meaning beneath the madcap adventures of Alice and her outlandish army of comic characters. The story has been translated into 125 different languages.

The story of how an enterprising teenager in Malawi built a windmill from scraps he found around his village and brought electricity, and a future, to his family, after his Malawi village was hit by a drought and everyone's crops began to fail.

"More bombs exploded and within seconds several ships were on fire. Japanese planes flew so close to me that I could not only see the red circles painted under their wings, but I could see the pilots' faces. It only took a moment." It was a moment that Tom would always remember - that morning of 19 February 1942, when everything changed...changed from peace to war.

This book "is Sally Morgan's rich, zesty and moving story of her childhood and growing up in Perth, Western Australia. It tells how she gradually came to realise the truth about her family and their heritage."

The film Rabbit-Proof Fence is based on this true account of Doris Pilkington's mother Molly, who as a young girl led her two sisters on an extraordinary 1,600 kilometre walk home. Under Western Australia's invidious removal policy of the 1930s, the girls were taken from their Aboriginal families at Jigalong on the edge of the Little Sandy Desert, and transported halfway across the state to the Native Settlement at Moore River, north of Perth. Here Aboriginal children were instructed in the ways of white society and forbidden to speak their native tongue. The three girls - aged 8, 11 and 14 - managed to escape from the settlement's repressive conditions and brutal treatment. Barefoot, without provisions or maps, they set out to find the rabbit-proof fence, knowing it passed near their home in the north. Tracked by Native Police and search planes, they hid in terror, surviving on bush tucker, desperate to return to the world they knew.

See information about accompanying DVD (rated PG) here: http://library.goodshepherd.nt.edu.au?serviceId=ExternalEvent&brSn=19685&brKey=700527158

See information about accompanying Clickview film here (rated PG): https://clickv.ie/w/Dzck

Martin lives in the city with his mum. He's come to walk the boundaries of the farm that's been in his family for generations. It sounds easy, especially as he'll own the land when he gets back. Martin's great-grandfather, Ted, doesn't even want him to walk around the farm's fences, just up the gorge and along the hills.

But up in the gorge Martin meets Meg from almost a century ago and Wullamudulla from thousands of years in the past. Despite their differences they discover that they're all on the same journey ... and that walking the boundaries means more than following lines on a map.

Jamie wants to be the real thing. From the roots of her dyed blonde hair...

There are a lot of things Jamie hates about her life: her dark hair, her dad's Stone Age Charter of Curfew Rights, her real name – Jamilah Towfeek.

For the past three years Jamie has hidden her Lebanese background from everyone at school. It's only with her email friend John that she can really be herself. But now things are getting complicated: the most popular boy in school is interested in her, but there's no way he would be if he knew the truth. Then there's Timothy, the school loner, who for some reason Jamie just can't stop thinking about. As for John, he seems to have a pretty big secret of his own...

To top it all off, Jamie's school formal is coming up. The only way she'll be allowed to attend is by revealing her true identity. Will she risk it all? And does she know who she is... Jamie or Jamilah?

Audio CD information available: http://library.goodshepherd.nt.edu.au?serviceId=ExternalEvent&brSn=35606&brKey=50133270

Nine stories of mischief and crazy happenings. But is this the right book for you? Take the DOOMED TEST and find out.

Rafe Kane is in his first year of middle school. He has a survival plan - to break every rule in his school's Code of Conduct. But Rafe's game starts to catch up with him.

Lockie Leonard's survived the worst year on record. His first year of high school, settling into a new town, his first mad love affair – it's all behind him. He's about to turn fourteen and things are looking up.

But the world of weirdness hasn't finished with him yet. His little brother's hormones have kicked in and that's not a pretty sight. His lino-munching baby sister refuses to walk or talk. His dad starts arresting farm animals for a hobby and his poor mum suddenly won't stop crying.
Right in the middle of this family shambles, an old flame comes scorching back into his life. Ouch!

Okay, what gives? Please explain.

As his whole world goes down the gurgler, Lockie discovers things are never as simple as they seem. Not even for grommets.

Lockie Leonard, hot surf-rat, is in love. The human torpedo is barely settled into his new school, and already he's got a girl on his mind. And not just any girl: it has to be Vicki Streeton, the smartest, prettiest, richest girl in class.

What chance have you got when your dad's a cop, your mum's a frighteningly understanding parent, your brother wets the bed and the teachers take an instant dislike to you and then you fall in love at twelve-and-three-quarter years old? It can only mean trouble, worry, mega-embarrassment and some wild, wild times.

'The Binna Binna man is a big fulla and he stinks like a goat. He can be good and heal you, but if you poke fun at him then you can get into big trouble, like die.'

In Binna Binna country you should watch where you go, even on a night when life is so stuffed up that nothing matters any more. You go wandering too far and you might come face to face with your worst nightmare - the Binna Binna man.

Filled with laughter and affection, this is the powerful story of a boy who is learning that if you forget where you come from you get weak. That to stay strong you must listen to the old people with your eyes and your ears - and your heart. A companion to My Girragundji.

Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood. I never asked to be the son of a Greek God.

I was just a normal kid, going to school, playing basketball, skateboarding. The usual. Until I accidentally vaporized my maths teacher. Now I spend my time battling monsters and generally trying to stay alive.

This is the one where Zeus, God of the Sky, thinks I've stolen his lightning bolt - and making Zeus angry is a very bad idea.

'It's Buffy meets Artemis Fowl. Thumbs up.' Sunday Times

In the time of the Han Dynasty in ancient China, the last remaining dragon is in danger of being killed by the cruel Emperor. A nameless orphan with no past and an uncertain future becomes his unlikely ally. The young orphan soon discovers that it is her destiny to protect the aging dragon and his mysterious purple stone. Chased by an evil dragon hunter and a powerful sorcerer, their adventure is not easy. Each must learn to help and understand the other if they are to survive. To succeed in her task, the young orphan must reach deep within herself to find courage she never knew existed. No longer can she be the timid, shy orphan she once was. She is now the one, true Dragon Keeper.

See information about accomapanying audio files here: http://library.goodshepherd.nt.edu.au?serviceId=ExternalEvent&brSn=40118&brKey=894151252

See information about accompanying CD book here: http://library.goodshepherd.nt.edu.au?serviceId=ExternalEvent&brSn=35602&brKey=51672266

A group of teenagers go camping in a remote area and return to find Australia invaded and themselves in the middle of a war.

It's 2015 and the UK is the first nation to introduce carbon dioxide rations, in a drastic bid to cut greenhouse gas emissions As her family spirals rapidly out of control Laura Brown chronicles the first year of rationing with scathing abandon.

For Elspeth Gordie freedom is-like so much else after the Great White-a memory.

It was a time known as the Age of Chaos. In a final explosive flash everything was destroyed. The few who survived banded together and formed a Council for protection. But people like Elspeth-mysteriously born with powerful mental abilities-are feared by the Council and hunted down like animals...to be destroyed.

Her only hope for survival to is keep her power hidden. But is secrecy enough against the terrible power of the Council?

This is part of a series of 7.

The Socs' idea of having a good time is beating up Greasers like Ponyboy. Ponyboy knows what to expect and knows he can count on his brothers and friends - until the night someone takes things too far. This title tells the original teenage rebel story.

See details for accompanying audiobook here: http://library.goodshepherd.nt.edu.au?serviceId=ExternalEvent&brSn=39621&brKey=519001142

See details for accompanying DVD (rated M - year 10+): http://library.goodshepherd.nt.edu.au?serviceId=ExternalEvent&brSn=42289&brKey=1506764208

See details for accompanying Clickview film (rated M - year 10+): https://clickv.ie/w/3zck

It's the year 2140 and Anna shouldn't be alive. Nor should any of the children she lives with at Grange Hall. The facility is full of kids like her, kids whose parents chose to recklessly abuse Mother Nature and have children despite a law forbidding them from doing so as long as they took longevity drugs. To pay back her parents' debt to Mother Nature, Anna will have to work for the rest of her life. But then Peter appears at the hall, and he tells a very different story about the world outside of the Grange. Peter begs Anna to escape Grange Hall, and to claim a life for herself outside its bleak walls. But even if they get out, they still have to make their way to London, to Anna's parents, and to an underground movement that's determined to bring back children and rid the world of longevity drugs.

It's over a year since her last diary and Laura Brown is now in her first year of university in London, a city still struggling to pull itself together in the new rationing era. Laura's right in the heart of it; her band, the dirty angels, are gigging all over town until a police crackdown on rioting students forces them out of the city. After a brief exile on her
parents' farm, the angels set off in a battered VW bus on a tour of Europe with the fabulous Tiny Chainsaws in the Distance...

The latest work from Australia's bestselling and international-award-winning author for children and young adults.
A lush, romantic fantasy for girls.

"The sky was pitch, and gashed by lightning; loutish waves rose and slumped heavily as mudslides. At a moment when she was filled with desperation, Maddy opened her mouth and yelled for Feather. And half-expected him to appear, because she wanted him to so much." Maddy yearns for her life to be mystifying, to be as magical as a fairy story. And then one day, on the beach, she meets the strangest young man she has ever seen. The Ghost's Child is an enchanting fable about the worth of life, and the power of love.

In a future North America, where the rulers of Panem maintain
control through an annual televised survival competition pitting young
people from each of the twelve districts against one
another,sixteen-year-old Katniss's skills are put to the test when she
volunteers to take her younger sister's place

DVD Available:
http://library.goodshepherd.nt.edu.au?serviceId=ExternalEvent&brSn=19698&brKey=705528894

Shorts is a collection of 16 never-before published short stories. Written to engage the interest of 13-to-16-year-olds, the stories deal with contemporary themes and characters. They can be used to encourage wide reading as well as to explore more deeply the short story form.

Features an introduction to the short story form, including an exemplar, wWriter's note to introduce each story, activities after each story to enhance understanding and provide ideas for students' own writing 'Springboards' section with story starters, endings and visual stimuli

Contents
Sixty minutes / Brian Caswell
A perfectly lovely time / Robin Klein
Eyes knows / Paul Jennings
The boy who wouldn't get out of the pool / Libby Gleeson
Only ten / Allan Baillie
Up Taree way /Libby Hathorn
Foragers / Lee Harding
A husband for Jubilinka / Kate Walker
Making waves / Jenny Pausacker & Nancy Peck
The owl boy and the Goddess Athene /Gillian Rubinstein
A secret place / Victor Kelleher.