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lizbeeName an Australian YA novel whose protagonist attends a state school.
I put this out there on Twitter this morning. So far, the suggestions include:
- Tomorrow When The War Began and sequels by John Marsden (apparently I'm not allowed to exclude books just because I hated them and didn't finish them)
- Mandragora by David McRobbie (I think -- my copy is missing, and it's out of print. THIS IS SACRILEGE, BY THE WAY.)
- Prices by David McRobbie
- All the Sea Between by Sally Odgers (possibly)
- Loving Richard Feynman by Penny Tangey (possibly)
- Most of Ruth Park's YA
- Likewise Robin Klein
- Thunderwith by Libby Hathorn
-
Pls contribute more! Especially ones written after 2000, since there is only one on this list, and it is a maybe. Bonus points if the book (a) has a protagonist who attends a state school; (b) was published in this century; (c) is set in any state that's not Victoria or New South Wales.
(I think a lot of David McRobbie's books are set in South Australia, the exception to the rule.)
Here is the train of thought that led to this question:
I was sitting on the tram this morning, glowering at the high school students with bags and feet all over the seats. (Kids today, etc.) A bunch, aged maybe 15ish, were reading identical copies of Saving Francesca by Melina Marchetta.
This reminded me of an incident about which I'm still JUSTIFIABLY BITTER, in which my 12th grade English class (the supposed advanced class) were assigned Looking for Alibrandi by the same author. It's a coming of age story which does absolutely nothing new or remarkable, but has considerable charm despite the tense changes and POV problems.
I would have been about 13 or 14 when I first read it. For a class of 17 year olds, it was a really unchallenging and inappropriate choice. (It was apparently chosen because it was RELEVANT and TRENDY. Which, if that's what you're going for? Maybe you shouldn't choose the novel where a nun freaks out because one of her students is vogueing in public.)
From there I got to thinking about how weird the portrayal of the state school system is in that book (state school students are DANGEROUS and POSSIBLY VIOLENT, but also RUGGED and GENUINE), and that reminded me of On the Jellicoe Road by the same author is quite a good book, only it's set around this 16-year-old territory war between groups of rival teenagers, with kidnappings and arsons, and every time I read it, I struggle to suspend my disbelief. I mean, even in New South Wales, that ends in outraged town meetings, police interventions, juvenile courts and SHOCKING EXPOSES in the Fairfax press.
From there I got to thinking how I had never actually had an assigned novel in high school whose protagonists attended a state school in Australia. Granted, a lot of our class novels were American, but it seemed like every title I tried to think of, as I racked my brains for novels set in and around the public school system, was either concentrated on a private school, or was aimed at younger readers.
So now we're coming up with titles, to see if this is an actual thing, or just faulty memory coupled with the fact that so far, everyone who has answered was a teenager in the late '90s, and thus isn't necessarily up on the finer points of YA lit (that doesn't involve vampires).
(If this ends with someone writing a novel about vampires attending a Queensland state high school, I will award some kind of prize.)
Additions to the list
- Deadly, Unna and its sequel by Philip Gwynne
I put this out there on Twitter this morning. So far, the suggestions include:
- Tomorrow When The War Began and sequels by John Marsden (apparently I'm not allowed to exclude books just because I hated them and didn't finish them)
- Mandragora by David McRobbie (I think -- my copy is missing, and it's out of print. THIS IS SACRILEGE, BY THE WAY.)
- Prices by David McRobbie
- All the Sea Between by Sally Odgers (possibly)
- Loving Richard Feynman by Penny Tangey (possibly)
- Most of Ruth Park's YA
- Likewise Robin Klein
- Thunderwith by Libby Hathorn
-
Pls contribute more! Especially ones written after 2000, since there is only one on this list, and it is a maybe. Bonus points if the book (a) has a protagonist who attends a state school; (b) was published in this century; (c) is set in any state that's not Victoria or New South Wales.
(I think a lot of David McRobbie's books are set in South Australia, the exception to the rule.)
Here is the train of thought that led to this question:
I was sitting on the tram this morning, glowering at the high school students with bags and feet all over the seats. (Kids today, etc.) A bunch, aged maybe 15ish, were reading identical copies of Saving Francesca by Melina Marchetta.
This reminded me of an incident about which I'm still JUSTIFIABLY BITTER, in which my 12th grade English class (the supposed advanced class) were assigned Looking for Alibrandi by the same author. It's a coming of age story which does absolutely nothing new or remarkable, but has considerable charm despite the tense changes and POV problems.
I would have been about 13 or 14 when I first read it. For a class of 17 year olds, it was a really unchallenging and inappropriate choice. (It was apparently chosen because it was RELEVANT and TRENDY. Which, if that's what you're going for? Maybe you shouldn't choose the novel where a nun freaks out because one of her students is vogueing in public.)
From there I got to thinking about how weird the portrayal of the state school system is in that book (state school students are DANGEROUS and POSSIBLY VIOLENT, but also RUGGED and GENUINE), and that reminded me of On the Jellicoe Road by the same author is quite a good book, only it's set around this 16-year-old territory war between groups of rival teenagers, with kidnappings and arsons, and every time I read it, I struggle to suspend my disbelief. I mean, even in New South Wales, that ends in outraged town meetings, police interventions, juvenile courts and SHOCKING EXPOSES in the Fairfax press.
From there I got to thinking how I had never actually had an assigned novel in high school whose protagonists attended a state school in Australia. Granted, a lot of our class novels were American, but it seemed like every title I tried to think of, as I racked my brains for novels set in and around the public school system, was either concentrated on a private school, or was aimed at younger readers.
So now we're coming up with titles, to see if this is an actual thing, or just faulty memory coupled with the fact that so far, everyone who has answered was a teenager in the late '90s, and thus isn't necessarily up on the finer points of YA lit (that doesn't involve vampires).
(If this ends with someone writing a novel about vampires attending a Queensland state high school, I will award some kind of prize.)
Additions to the list
- Deadly, Unna and its sequel by Philip Gwynne
no subject
Date: 2011-02-14 09:21 am (UTC)i remember reading another beachy one about (oh god) a girl who was FAT AND UGLY AND HAD NO FRIENDS and then got LESS FAT AND PRETTY WITHOUT HER BRACES and got a modelling contract or something??? D: set around bells beach/jan junc. i think that was a state school...
i'll try to think of more. i think most of the books we read in english were about kids in state schools?
no subject
Date: 2011-02-14 11:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-14 10:51 am (UTC)Hating Alison Ashley by Robin Klein
People Might Hear You by Robin Klein (prior to being taken out of school by the freaky fundamentalist stepfather
A lot of Aussie YA occurs during the summer holidays, and thus the type of school doesn't come into it. Meanwhile, all the Caswell I can think of are either set in the future, not in Australia, or with older kids/kids taken out of the system by their parents.
Meanwhile, are you really all that surprised? It makes sense that Marchetta's main characters go to private schools, she's Catholic and went to Catholic schools. Same with Randa Abdel-Fattah. Same with a hell of a lot of people who, you know, actually get anywhere...
no subject
Date: 2011-02-15 05:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-15 10:27 am (UTC)can I come back and be kinda creeped out by this sentence? you don't actually mean to imply that all state school graduates are useless and ambition-free do you?
especially when part of lizbee's point was that Marchetta's writing isn't particularly good?
no subject
Date: 2011-02-14 10:57 am (UTC)I also quickly checked "Trinity Street" and "Translations in Celadon" by Sally Odgers, and the protagonists in both books go to a private school (it's not like public schools get named after saints).
no subject
Date: 2011-02-14 11:41 am (UTC)The Not So Perfect Boyfriend - Lili Wilkinson (actually, I'm pretty sure all the new Girlfriend fiction books I've read have been public school or school holidays so Little Bird, Dear Swoosie, Winter of Grace)
What Are Ya? - Jenny Pausacker
Undine - Penni Russon (and sequels but they finish school between the first and the second. Also, set in Hobart)
I would say My Place by Sally Morgan can be YA. I read it when I was Year 6/7 and re-read a lot in the next couple of years. And it did get split up into three or four smaller volumes - in theory for younger readers.
*ponders*
no subject
Date: 2011-02-14 07:52 pm (UTC)And yeah, My Place totally counts.
no subject
Date: 2011-02-14 01:40 pm (UTC)Buuut... Jaclyn Moriarty's Ashbury books fall into the 'uhoh state school kids are scary' category (I haven't read Feeling Sorry for Celia but I think that's the one where the posh girls are horrified to discover they have to exchange letters with the neighbouring school...wow, that sounds awful and dated and hackneyed, which doesn't represent what I have read of hers at all...), and in Lili Wilkinson's Pink the protagonist pleads to go to private school so she can try out being a straight preppy girl in secret from her girlfriend.
And while I have no clue about, say, Simmone Howells' stuff (which is excellent) I have a feeling the fact I have no idea means that it presmably is a private school environment, and that's such a default that it isn't even analysed.
Hmm.
no subject
Date: 2011-02-14 02:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-14 02:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-14 09:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-15 06:01 am (UTC)Also I found (all after 2001, cause that's what Caity asked):
What Now Tilda B? Kathryn Lomer (tasmania!)
Thai-riffic, Oliver Phommavanh
Beatle Meets Destiny, Gabrielle Williams
Blue Noise, Debra Oswald
Screw Loose, Chris Wheat (and i suspect his other books but they aren't on the shelf atm)
Town, James Roy (and again, likely his other books)
Would you like books that I feel like are probably in a state school but I don't have the time to read them again & check?
Girl Saves Boy, Steph Bowe
Finding Freia Lockhart, Aimee Said
Rude Health & series, Linda Aronson (is the only school in a country town, from memory. The first one isn't on the shelf just now.)
Gracie Faltrain series, Cath Crowley
Three Wishes, Isobelle Merlin, not specified, but it is specified that money is tight, so...
and now I have to shelve these all again tomorrow, bugger!
In regards to being a set text for english, Thai-riffic was on our short list for year 7; and Town for year 10; I don't know that the others would be considered. Possibly Gracie Faltrain? Actually, a few of these are on the literature circles list for year 8 at a (private) school down the road, I believe.
no subject
Date: 2011-02-15 06:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-15 08:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-15 10:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-15 08:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-15 10:22 am (UTC)OMG I FORGOT
Date: 2011-02-15 12:16 pm (UTC)"Send the rest of the children and the women to Seals' Island. Am I right in thinking that some are with child?"
"Several. Heavily so." Zeevanck nodded thoughtfully. "They will be slow..."
Jeronimus stared into the lantern, pulling at his beard. "And swollen with blood."