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AustLit

Best Young Adult Book
Subcategory of Davitt Award
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Latest Winners / Recipients

Year: 2021

winner y separately published work icon Where We Begin Christie Nieman , Sydney : Pan Macmillan Australia , 2020 19895277 2020 single work novel young adult

'Seventeen-year-old Anna is running into the night. Fleeing her boyfriend, her mother, and everything she has known.

'She is travelling into the country, to the land and the grandparents she has never met, looking for answers to questions that have never been asked.

'For every family has secrets.

'But some secrets - once laid bare - can never be forgiven.

'A dark, deeply compelling, coming-of-age YA novel from the author of As Stars Fall.' (Publication summary)

Year: 2020

winner y separately published work icon Four Dead Queens Astrid Scholte , Crows Nest : Allen and Unwin , 2019 15075135 2019 single work novel fantasy young adult

'Seventeen-year-old Keralie Corrington is one of Quadara's most skilled thieves, but when she steals an unexpectedly valuable package from a messenger she is soon entangled in a conspiracy that leads to all four of Quadara's queens being murdered. With no other choices and on the run from her former employer, Keralie teams up with Varin Bollt, the Eonist messenger she stole from, and together they race to discover who has killed the queens. But when dark secrets threaten their reluctant partnership and put everything at stake, Keralie and Varin must use all their daring to stay alive and untangle the mysteries behind the nation's four dead queens.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

Year: 2019

winner y separately published work icon Small Spaces Sarah Epstein , Glebe : Walker Books Australia , 2018 13957629 2018 single work novel young adult thriller

'We don’t pick and choose what to be afraid of. Our fears pick us.”

'Tash Carmody has been traumatised since childhood, when she witnessed her gruesome imaginary friend Sparrow lure young Mallory Fisher away from a carnival. At the time nobody believed Tash, and she has since come to accept that Sparrow wasn’t real. Now fifteen and mute, Mallory’s never spoken about the week she went missing. As disturbing memories resurface, Tash starts to see Sparrow again. And she realises Mallory is the key to unlocking the truth about a dark secret connecting them. Does Sparrow exist after all? Or is Tash more dangerous to others than she thinks?'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

Year: 2018

winner y separately published work icon Ballad for a Mad Girl Vikki Wakefield , Melbourne : Text Publishing , 2017 10605233 2017 single work novel young adult fantasy horror

'Everyone knows seventeen-year-old Grace Foley is a bit mad. She’s a prankster and a risk-taker, and she’s not afraid of anything—except losing. As part of the long-running feud between two local schools in Swanston, Grace accepts a challenge to walk the pipe. That night she experiences something she can’t explain. The funny girl isn’t laughing anymore. She’s haunted by voices and visions—but nobody believes a girl who cries wolf.

As she’s drawn deeper into a twenty-year-old mystery surrounding missing girl Hannah Holt, the thin veil between this world and the next begins to slip. She can no longer tell what’s real or imagined—all she knows is the ghosts of Swanston, including that of her own mother, are restless. It seems one of them has granted her an extraordinary gift at a terrible price. Everything about her is changing—her body, her thoughts, even her actions seem to belong to a stranger. Grace is losing herself, and her friends don’t understand. Is she moving closer to the truth? Or is she heading for madness?' (Publication summary)

Year: 2017

winner y separately published work icon Frankie Shivaun Plozza , Melbourne : Penguin , 2016 9339864 2016 single work novel young adult

'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.' (Publication summary)

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