Shoovy Jed by Maureen Stewart

This hard hitting book is aimed at the middle high school age group and carries a poignant message about helplessness and suicide. Fourteen year old Jed is obsessed with Kurt Cobain and Pearl Jam and feels he has nothing to offer anyone. It doesn't help that his parents are too wrapped up in their own marital issues to notice or spend any time with their very anxious and  emotionally fragile son. He can't understand how they ever got together in the first place, such is the constant discord in the family. His younger, eleven year old sister, India, is the exact opposite, outgoing funny and able to water down  or dismiss the caustic arguments her parents have by singing songs out loud which encapsulate the topic of the argument. For example, if her parents are embroiled in an argument about mail, India sings Return to Sender, or if her father is feeling bleak, she will spout  off Don't Cry Daddy or Such a Night. She coins her brother's name, Shoovy Jed,  and devotes a great deal of time in trying to lighten him up.  Jed loves and appreciates India, and also desperately to make a connection and  to confide in Skye, a young girl who is equally troubled. He also attends sessions with a couple of his teachers, but it is just proves to be too difficult. So the book grinds its way onto its inevitable and shocking conclusion. But it is certainly not the end you are expecting. Time for a wake up call. 

The Puberty Book by Wendy Darvill and Kelsey Powell

I think just about every student in my grade 5/6 class at Illawarra read this book or a later edition of it in 2011. Both books were hardly ever on the shelf in our little library. Its a great book to read before you go to high school. It has indepth chapters on changes which happen to your body when you are going through puberty, it explains the differences between male and female bodies, and it also has chapters on how to keep yourself healthy, and also on how to get along with others. The last part of the book focuses on fertilisation, pregnancy and birth. There is also a chapter on where to get help if you need some advice on things that are in the book or things that are bothering you. It is an excellent resource for teenagers or students approaching their teens and it is recommended by Family Planning Australia.

Pizza Features by John Larkin

This novel continues the story of loser and westie Eric Underwood, a grade 9 student, whom we first met in Spaghetti Legs. It is followed by Lasagna Brain which can be found in our Little Library of Rescued Books. Eric believes he didn’t get the looks and he has been battling with acne. He is unlucky in love and has just been abandoned by Veronica, whom he’d thought was the love of his life. He has to move out into the shed after his younger brother nearly decapitates him. To top off all his woes he has been told he has to accompany his grandmother to England, just what all teenage boys love to do! To find out more about John Larkin, the author, visit his webpage: http://larkinabout.com.au/