This virtual presentation has been created as a recommendation list of books for young adults from the CBCA 2017 book of the year short list.

1. Can’t decide on what to
read next?
Try one of these titles from the CBCA 2017 Book of
the Year Short List!
Recommended for Older Readers 13+

2. What is the CBCA??

3. The Children's Book Council of Australia (CBCA) is a not for profit, volunteer
run organisation which aims to engage the community with literature for
young Australians.The CBCA presents annual awards to books of literary merit,
for outstanding contribution to Australian children's literature.

4. The CBCA Book of the year awards aim to:
- Promote quality literature for young Australians
- Support and encourage a wide range of Australian
writers and illustrators of children’s books
- Celebrate contributions to Australian children’s
Literature.

5. THE CBCA 2017 BOOK OF
THE YEAR SHORT LIST

6. When Lowell Sencha finds the strange girl lying as if dead
on the riverbank, he is startled to find that she is like
them: waer. Human, but able to assume the form of a
wolf. The Sencha family's small community has kept itself
sequestered and unnoticed, free from persecution. The
arrival of a fellow traveller, and a hunted one at that,
threatens their very survival.
Sure enough, the soldiers of the blood-purist Daeman
Leldh soon descend on the village searching for her,
burning and slaughtering. Lowell and the mysterious
stranger are among the few to escape. And now they must
find their way to the city of Luthan where, she says, they
will find people to help them bring down Daeman Leldh.
If she can persuade them not to kill her.
Waer By Meg Caddy

7. Words in Deep Blue By Cath
Crowley
Years ago, Rachel had a crush on Henry Jones. The day
before she moved away, she tucked a love letter into his
favorite book in his family’s bookshop. She waited. But
Henry never came.
Now Rachel has returned to the city—and to the
bookshop—to work alongside the boy she’d rather not
see, if at all possible, for the rest of her life. But Rachel
needs the distraction. Her brother drowned months ago,
and she can’t feel anything anymore.
As Henry and Rachel work side by side—surrounded by
books, watching love stories unfold, exchanging letters
between the pages—they find hope in each other. Because
life may be uncontrollable, even unbearable sometimes.
But it’s possible that words, and love, and second chances
are enough.

8. The Bone Sparrow By Zara Fraillon
Subhi is a refugee. Born in an Australian permanent detention
center after his mother and sister fled the violence of a distant
homeland, Subhi has only ever known life behind the fences. But
his world is far bigger than that—every night, the magical Night
Sea from his mother's stories brings him gifts, the faraway
whales sing to him, and the birds tell their stories. And as he
grows, his imagination threatens to burst beyond the limits of his
containment.
The most vivid story of all, however, is the one that arrives one
night in the form of Jimmie—a scruffy, impatient girl who
appears on the other side of the wire fence and brings with her a
notebook written by the mother she lost. Unable to read it herself,
she relies on Subhi to unravel her family's love songs and
tragedies.
Subhi and Jimmie might both find comfort—and maybe even
freedom—as their tales unfold. But not until each has been braver
than ever before.

9. Yellow By Megan Jacobson
If fourteen-year-old Kirra is having a mid-life
crisis now, then it doesn't bode well for her life
expectancy. Her so-called friends bully her,
whatever semblance of a mother she had has been
drowned at the bottom of a gin bottle ever since
her dad left them for another woman, and now a
teenage ghost is speaking to her through a broken
phone booth. Kirra and the ghost make a pact.
She'll prove who murdered him almost twenty
years ago if he does three things for her. He makes
her popular, he gets her parents back together, and
he doesn't haunt her. Things aren't so simple
however, and Kirra realises that people can be
haunted in more ways than one.

10. Frankie By Shivaun Plozza
Frankie Vega is angry. Just ask the guy whose
nose she broke. Or the cop investigating the
burglary she witnessed, or her cheating ex-
boyfriend or her aunt who's tired of giving
second chances...When a kid shows up
claiming to be Frankie's half brother, it opens
the door to a past she doesn't want to
remember. And when that kid goes missing,
the only person willing to help is a boy with
stupidly blue eyes … and secrets of his own.
Frankie's search for the truth might change
her life, or cost her everything.

11. One Would Think The Deep
By Claire Zorn
It’s 1997 and seventeen-year-old Sam is mourning the sudden
loss of his mum …
Sam has always had things going on in his head that no one else
understands, even his mum. And now she’s dead, it’s worse
than ever.
With nothing but his skateboard and a few belongings in a
garbage bag, Sam goes to live with the strangers his mum cut
ties with seven years ago: Aunty Lorraine and his cousins Shane
and Minty.
Despite the suspicion and hostility emanating from their fibro
shack, Sam reverts to his childhood habit of following Minty
around and is soon surfing with Minty to cut through the static
fuzz in his head. But as the days slowly meld into one another,
and ghosts from the past reappear, Sam has to make the
ultimate decision … will he sink or will he swim.

12. Bibliography
● Slide 3: https://cbca.org.au/about
● Slide 4: https://cbca.org.au/about-the-awards
● Slide 5: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27803778-waer
● Slide 6: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31952703-words-in-
deep-blue
● Slide 7: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29223495-the-
bone-sparrow
● Slide 8: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25698127-yellow
● Slide 9: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27193294-frankie
● Slide 10: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27803883-one-
would-think-the-deep