Welcome to the FableCroft blog! I’ve been working away on this for a while now and think this website is ready (enough) to share with the world. To celebrate, I’m giving away a book!
Liar by Justine Larbalestier
ISBN: 9781741758726
Published in Australia by Allen & Unwin
Secrets, lies, murder and betrayal.
Micah Wilkins is a liar. But when her boyfriend, Zach, dies under brutal circumstances, the shock might be enough to set her straight. Or maybe not. Especially when lying comes as naturally to her as breathing. Was Micah dating Zach? Did they kiss? Did she see him the night he died? And is she really hiding a family secret? Where does the actual truth lie?
Liar is a breathtaking roller-coaster read that will have you up all night, desperately seeking for something true.
One of my favourite books of 2009, Liar is so cleverly written that it needs to be read at least twice! If you don’t already have a copy (or do, but would like to give one away as a gift, or to your local library!), now is your chance to get your hands on it, free!
THE RULES:
1. In the comments, tell us your favourite Young Adult book ever, and why you loved it so much. (I have a fairly broad definition of what is YA)
2. All eligible comments will be entered into the competition, which will be a random draw.
3. If we get more than 50 entries, I’ll throw a second (probably different) YA prize book on the table.
4. Open to individuals (of all ages) and libraries only.
5. Open internationally – we’ll post anywhere in the world.
6. Competition closes on Monday May 31, 2010.
Please feel free to link to the competition. And have a look around at FableCroft while you’re here! We have Twitter, a Facebook group and a baby website for our first book, the anthology Worlds Next Door (due out in June). Nice to meet you!
FableCroft 
Louise Cusack’s trilogy – Shadow Through Time. My dad bought it for me for my birthday..and it started my love for fantasy stories. Exciting from book one to three, with twists and turns I enjoyed the female ‘hero’ character in it and also the male ‘assistant’ characters. The fact that all the different lives/situations all worked together and came together at the end was fantastic. Loved it.
There was no YA when I was a YA. My favourite book when I was 15 was “Xenocide” by Orson Scott Card, because it nicely illustrated my pessimistic teenage view that people might pretend to tolerate those who are different, but if it looks like any of them are actually being threatened, well, forget altruism, kill the aliens!
It also seemed to illustrate Mr Card’s sentiment that some religions are made-up baloney, which I find a bit hilarious.
“The White Mountains” by John Christopher has to be it for me. I’m a bit sentimental about it I guess because it is probably the first spec fiction I remember reading but what I loved about it then, was how alien it made my life feel. It was the first book I read that positioned me, as the reader, as something exotic.
And big metal robots / robot vehicles… love those too.
Face by Benjamin Zephaniah. My mother bought it for me when I was younger. It tells the story of a young adult named Martin who one night is offered a ride home by someone he knows vaguely from school. He accepts the offer unaware that the car is stolen and is involved in a serious crash which leaves his face disfigured. The book is about him coming to terms with his new face, how his friends react towards him after his injury and how the ordinary people on the street treat him. It is a novel that preaches to those who read it to not judge anybody based on appearance and this is a valuable lesson that should be thought to everyone. If the book was a true story Oprah would be all over it and this beautiful novel would be made into a movie.
This is going to sound really bizarre, and possibly doesn’t qualify as a YA novel, but probably sowed the seeds for me wanting to be a librarian, which is going to sound even weirder when I actually get to the book. The book is The Abortion: An Historical Romance 1966 by Richard Brautigan. The book centres around the librarian of an unusual library which accepts unpublished manuscripts from anyone. One day a young woman comes to the library and falls in love with the librarian. She falls pregnant, and they go to Mexico to get an abortion.
This is one of the most surreal books I have ever read, and it really intrigued me, this idea that any writer deserves to be in a library, and that the filing system was random, and yet totally logical. It also introduced me to abortion, which I hadn’t really come across before. I think I read this book when I was about 13 or 14, and it really stayed with me for a long time, even though I couldn’t remember the title or find the book until I was in my late twenties. The year I was born is in the title, and I think that the whole package really drew me to it.
I love this book, and am amazed that it was in my school library in the late 70s. Kudos to that librarian, whoever she was!
“A Candle for Saint Anthony” by Eleanor Spence is one of the books that I remember reading as an 11 or 12 year old and not wanting it to end. I lived in a mining town in the Pilbara where the houses were one of 3 types and the furnishing were supplied by the mining company so everyone was pretty much the same. Reading a book that detailed the vast differences in two boys lives was fascinating. Rudi and Justin have stayed with me reminding me to never judge a book by its cover.
When I was nine years old I read The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge.(1900 – 1984) It had won the Carnegie Medal for Children’s Lit in 1946. I randomly chose this book from the mobile library that regularly visited our small country town. At the time my mother was ill and I was staying with my great aunt and I would read it to her each night before we went to bed. Her enjoyment of the story and her eagerness to have me read the next chapter made it all the more fun. It was a fantasy story about a young girl who travels to a magical place full of wonderful characters and animals including a white unicorn. I fell in love with Elizabeth Goudge and have read many more of her novels since. How wonderful it would have been to be able to speak with her via the internet as we are able to do now.
I’m not entering the competition (yet) but just wanted to send out a big “congrats” to Tehani for launching this website. Good stuff!
“Are you there God it’s me Margaret” by Judy Blume. This was banned from my school library when I was in Year Seven so became the book that everyone wanted to read. We had to sneak copies in from the ‘outside’ and on the quiet and eventually each girl in the two classes had read it. This was my first experience of censorship of text and until I was much older did not really understand the significance of this.
So many books to choose from! My first memory of YA (which wasn’t called YA at the time) was Andre Norton’s Beast Master followed by J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit… from here my love of fantasy was assured! I have to say though, after reading Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonflight – I was well and truly hooked on Dragons! I now own over 90 dragons and can trace it all back to the one book!
My favourite YA book at the moment (because I’ve read a LOT of YA) would probably have to be the Vampire Academy series, which is a twist on normal vampire stories in that there are both bad vampires (Strigoi – the undead immortal vampires) and good vampires (Moroi – the mortal vampires), and also a half-breed that are both human and Moroi (dhampirs).
The story follows the experiences of Rose (a dhampir) and Lissa (a Moroi), as they struggle to fight against the Strigoi (cliched, I know), and overcome many problems with their friendship, and their relationships with boys (another cliche).
But despite the cliches, this series by Richelle Mead is really good, and I would recommend it to all female readers. Also, the 5th book, Spirit Cound, has just come out!
To Kill a Mockingbird – one of my favourite books of all time.
A recent YA favourite that has stayed with me is MT Anderson’s Octavian Nothing. My copy is dog-eared from lending it out so much. It’s exquisitely written and utterly haunting.
Playing Beatie Bow by Ruth Park. Every time I read it I fell in love with a different character. (My daughter was not named Abigail by accident!)
The Tripods trilogy of books by John Christopher – “The White Mountains”, “The City of Gold and Lead” and “The Pool of Fire”. I read these as a teen back in the 1980s and loved them. And I’ve just recently re-read them. Still love them. Also love the BBC series based on the first two books. Apparently there is a new film version of the first book in the works, to be shot in Australia.
My favourite recent book is Richard Harland’s “Worldshaker”.
The Blue dress – stories compiled by Libby Hathorn. I was fascinated by the process where the painting of a girl in a blue dress by Brian Dunlop was shown to a number of authors who then responded with a short story of their own. Their stories were so varied but thought provoking that this is a method of storywriting I use with my own class and still am amzed how individuals can respond to a given stimulus in unique and divergent ways. I also gave it to my daughter and she too fell in love with the stories. First dance by Penelope Rowe still haunts me.
There are so many to choose from but To Kill a Mockingbird would have to be my favourite
There are so many favourite books and brilliant authors. Todays favourite is Garth Nix’s Abhorsen Series. These books were very fefreshing to my jaded tastes.
Like others, I have read so many books over the years that finding my favourite comes down to one I have read recently, as it is foremost in my thoughts – “A small free kiss” by Glenda Millard. It has characters you can warm too, challenges to be overcome and a realistic outcome, though sad.
I would have to say any book by Isobelle Carmody. Love her style of writing, love the characters she creates and love the plot lines she comes up with. Obernewtyn would have to be the best.
‘Eat well and stay out of jail’ by Leonie Stevens…Rebellian, love, crime, a road journey…and heaps of mouthwatering references to good food. Went straight out to buy a bottle of seseme oil after reading this one. Highly recommend.
My favourite book was Inkheart (series) by Cornelia Funke. I loved the fantasy and the characters. Loved and enjoyed completely………
“The simple gift” by Steven Herrick. A free verse novel which I re-visit reguarly. A compassionate story about love, friendship and survival. Moves me to tears every time.
There are so many GREAT YA novels available now that it’s hard to say what’ I have most enjoyed & found most intriguing. I love my job because I get to take home so many vivid, thoughtful, quirky and inspiring stories.
But I’d have to vote for Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, even though I have never read it. Why does it get my vote then? Because it revitalised the reading interests of the “almost YA” readers so that you and I can introduce them to the multifaceted world of fiction & “good reads” beyond HP!!
And we have a winner! Congratulations to commenter #9 (which is actually entry #8), Nikki, who has won the random draw! Thank you everyone for your entries – it was wonderful fun reading them and seeing which books have influenced our reading!
For the record, my favourite book when I was a teenager (not necessarily a YA book!) was My Sweet Audrina by Virginia Andrews 🙂 My favourite YA book now – I simply couldn’t say – I love so many (and am currently reading some EXCELLENT ones in my judging for the WA Premier’s Book Awards). I adored Liar, naturally, and LOVED The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (although that could be also because I listened to the audio book, read by Neil himself!). But there’s so many great ones out there, I simply couldn’t say.
I’ll be emailing Nikki for postal details – thanks again everyone who entered!