KYD YA Championship

Here at the Younger Sun we are continuing the Kate O'D love*, so check this out!

Kill Your Darlings is holding a YA Championship: 

From Monday 30 July until 17 August, contributors will be championing their favourite Australian YA classic from the last 30 years. At the end of each post, you will have the chance to vote to determine the winner...

One of those contributors is our very own Kate! And she is championing the John Marsden classic Tomorrow When the War Began. 

Go Kate!

Other wonderful books to be championed (not by Kate but by other excellent folk) include: 

Came Back to Show You I Could Fly (Robin Klein)

Space Demons by Gillian Rubenstein

Looking for Alibrandi by Melina Marchetta

and Deadly Unna? by Phillip Gwynne

If you would like to hear more about it all, check this out. 

HOW EXCITING!

*or possibly stalking, depending on your point of view. Kate, we hope you view it as the former. 

John Marden writes to the Teen Bookclub

Dear Teen Bookclubbers -

John Marsden read everything we wrote about Tomorrow, When the War Began.

He wrote to say:

"I read the comments and love them. They use some pretty powerful words. And needless to say I was pretty happy with the number of points they assigned the book."


Isn't that great? Thanks for being great bookclubbers, guys. And thank you John for being brilliant.



If anyone is interested in joining the bookclub, please call 9689 0661 or email info@sunbookshop.com

Teen Bookclub on Tomorrow, When the War Began

We met to talk about Tomorrow, When the War Began (by John Marsden, published by Pan Macmillan) on Saturday.

Disturbing, but 4 and a half stars - Isabella
Gut-wrenching - Clare
Gory, and 4 stars - Pele
Explosive! - Alexandra
Sad, 4 and three quarter stars - Charlotte
Julian was only 10 pages in but LOVING IT.
Kate's read it over and over again and still loves it, 5 stars.

We talked about how real the story felt, like it could have been happening to us. It was really frightening to read, but so interesting and we couldn't put the book down. Most of us thought Homer was fantastic and funny and our favourite (although Corrie and Fi and Lee also got some votes). We thought that John Marsden is amazing at writing teenagers and that he got their voices completely right. We were all sad about the dogs. Pele wondered if Robyn could have been so innocent if she wasn't so religious. We discussed the moral dilemmas of fighting in a war, and what "good" and "evil" actually means.

It was a great bookclub, thank you to everyone who came. You are all now free to go and see the movie!

Next month we're reading This is Shyness by Leanne Hall. There are signed copies at the Younger Sun, available this month at 20% off!