Bob Hawke College Library: Year 10 Reading Responses - No Planet B

Terra Nullius by Claire G. Coleman The Natives of the Colony are restless. The Settlers are eager to have a nation of peace, and to bring the savages into line. Families are torn apart, reeducation is enforced. This rich land will provide for all. This is not Australia as we know it. This is not the Australia of our history. This Terra Nullius is something new, but all too familiar.

Children of the Wild by Michael Grey To Matthew, the village he lives in, his friends, their families and the jungle which surrounds it is the entire world. What's beyond that great green canopy with its host of dangerous animals is a mystery, but a mystery only he has any interest in solving. Then one day a stranger walks out of the forest, bringing with her questions and a deadly virus, and the village elders are forced to reveal their knowledge for the outside world. When the first expedition to find a cure doesn't return, Matthew and his friends must journey into the unknown wilderness before the virus kills everyone he loves. But what he finds out there changes everything he thought he knew about his home.

The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf by Ambelin Kwaymullina Join the Rebellion! The Reckoning that destroyed civilisation and humanity has had to rise from the ashes. But there are now people with abilities - Flyers, Firestarters, Rumblers ... and society is scared of them. The government calls them Illegals. Ashala Wolf protects a group of Illegals. They hide together in the Firstwood and she'll do anything to keep them safe. When Ashala is captured, she realises she has been betrayed by someone she trusted. Now she only has herself. But when Neville starts digging in her memories for information, she doubts she can protect her people forever ... will the Tribe survive the interrogation of Ashala Wolf?

We by Yevgeny Zamyatin We is a dystopian novel, written in 1921-22, which describes a world of harmony and conformity within a united totalitarian state. It takes place in a distant future, where humans are forced to submit their wills to the requirements of the state, under the rule of the all-powerful Benefactor, and dreams are regarded as a sign of mental illness. In a city of straight lines, protected by green walls and a glass dome, a spaceship is being built in order to spearhead the conquest of new planets. Its chief engineer, a man called D-503, keeps a journal of his life and activities: to his mathematical mind everything seems to make sense and proceed as it should, until a chance encounter with a woman threatens to shatter the very foundations of the world he lives in.

Children of the Wild by Michael Grey To Matthew, the village he lives in, his friends, their families and the jungle which surrounds it is the entire world. What's beyond that great green canopy with its host of dangerous animals is a mystery, but a mystery only he has any interest in solving. Then one day a stranger walks out of the forest, bringing with her questions and a deadly virus, and the village elders are forced to reveal their knowledge for the outside world. When the first expedition to find a cure doesn't return, Matthew and his friends must journey into the unknown wilderness before the virus kills everyone he loves. But what he finds out there changes everything he thought he knew about his home.

Gone by Michael Grant In a small town on the coast of California, everyone over the age of fourteen suddenly disappears, setting up a battle between the remaining town residents and the students from a local private school, as well as those who have "The Power" and are able to perform supernatural feats and those who do not.

Self/less by Aviva A world where self-expression is banned. A world where survival is everything. A girl who will be heard. Seventeen-year-old Teddy lives in the walled-in city Metropolis. Radical laws condemn all forms of self-expression and creativity, and the lives of the people are carefully constructed and controlled by the City Council: We watch because We care. When Teddy finds out the truth behind one of the City's biggest lies, she slips out into the darkness of the City after curfew. She is captured by a stranger and held prisoner in an old bomb shelter that lies beneath the City. Here, Teddy discovers that there is a world beneath Metropolis, a world where a growing web of clans are fighting to keep their humanity alive, and waiting for a leader to unite them and lead them back up into the light. (

Waste Tide by Chen Quifan Mimi is drowning in the world's trash. She's a 'waste girl', a scavenger picking through towering heaps of hazardous electronic detritus. Along with thousands of other migrant workers, she was lured to Silicon Isle, off the southern coast of China, by the promise of steady work and a better life. But Silicon Isle is where the rotten fruits of capitalism and consumer culture come to their toxic end. The land is hopelessly polluted, the workers utterly at the mercy of those in power. And now a storm is gathering, as ruthless local gangs skirmish for control, eco-terrorists conspire, investors hunger for profit, and a Chinese-American interpreter searches for his roots. As these forces collide, conflict erupts - a war between rich and poor, a battle between past and future. Mimi must decide if she will remain a pawn... or change the rules of the game altogether.

Collisions: Fictions of the Future xperimental, genre-bending, lucid stories of the future from the inaugural LIMINAL Fiction Prize longlist. What does the future hold? A tense dinner party is held amid an impending climate catastrophe. A father leases his backyard out to a cemetery. Activists plan an attack on ASIO drones in a shock-jock run government. A voyeur finds herself caught in time. Features both emerging and established writers of colour.

The Supreme Lie by Geraldine McCaughrean Fifteen-year-old Gloria is maid to Afalia's tyrannical Head of State, Madame Suprema. When the country is hit by unprecedented flooding, Madame Suprema runs away, fearing she will be blamed for the crisis. To cover up this cowardly act, Gloria is made to step into Madame Suprema's shoes and is thrust into a world of corrupt and desperate politicians. As Gloria becomes aware of the forces toying with her every move, she must take decisions that could save, or end, thousands of lives - including her own...

The Girl with all the Gifts by M.R. Carey Not every gift is a blessing. Every morning, Melanie waits in her cell to be collected for class. When they come for her, Sergeant Parks keeps his gun pointing at her while two of his people strap her into the wheelchair. She thinks they don't like her. She jokes that she won't bite. But they don't laugh. Melanie is a very special girl.

Divergent by Veronica Roth n a future Chicago, sixteen-year-old Beatrice Prior must choose among five predetermined factions to define her identity for the rest of her life, a decision made more difficult when she discovers that she is an anomoly who does not fit into any one group, and that the society she lives in is not perfect after all.

A Single Stone by Meg McKinlay Jena is the leader of the line - strong, respected, reliable. And - as all girls must be - small; her years of training have seen to that. It is the way of things. And so a girls must wrap her limbs, lie still, deny herself a second bowl of stew. Or a first. But what happens when one tiny discovery makes Jena question everything she has ever known? What happens when moving a single stone changes everything.

Hive by A.J. Betts Hayley tends to her bees and follows the rules in the only world she has ever known. Until she witnesses the impossible: a drip from the ceiling. A drip? It doesn't make sense. Yet she hears it, catches it. Tastes it. Curiosity is a hook. What starts as a drip leads to a lie, a death, a boy, a beast, and too many awful questions.

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel One snowy night a famous Hollywood actor slumps over and dies onstage during a production of King Lear. Hours later, the world as we know it begins to dissolve. Moving back and forth in time - from the actor's early days as a film star to fifteen years in the future, when a theater troupe known as the Travelling Symphony roams the wasteland of what remains - this suspenseful, elegiac, spellbinding novel charts the strange twists of fate that connect five people: the actor, the man who tried to save him, the actor's first wife, his oldest friend, and a young actress with the Travelling Symphony, caught in the crosshairs of a dangerous self-proclaimed prophet.

Dust Makers by Penny Jaye Dust makers is a collection of short stories about our impact on the world around us. With a focus on simple sustainability, care for the environment and for each other, these stories consider the impact we have on the spaces we live in and the legacy we leave for the future. We want it to be about our consideration of what is around us and what we leave for the future. We want the stories to be contemporary, historical or futuristic with consideration of the impact we make on our environment and on one another

Growing Up in Flames by Zach Jones Kenna's mother Ava was killed in a bushfire not long ago. Now Kenna's living with her uncle and his young family in the small town where Ava grew up, and she feels like an intruder. Noah's mother has a mental illness that makes him both carer and jailer-constantly watchful, keeping things on an even keel. One night Kenna sees the general store on fire, and a boy standing watching as it burns. It takes her a while to notice he's holding a petrol can, but then things move fast. She's tackled him and run off with his bag before she even knows what's happened. The bag belongs to Noah, and he really wants it back. Kenna wants something too. To make someone else burn the way her mum did. And there's something she doesn't know - how Noah can help her find out the truth about her family.

This One is Ours by Kate O'Donnell Sixteen-year-old Sofie is a dreamer, an artist and a romantic. So when she goes on exchange to Paris, she is expecting magnificent adventures of the heart and mind. Yet France isn't what she imagined. It's cold and grey, and she finds speaking another language exhausting. Sofie's more homesick than lovesick. But then her host sister, Delphine, and fellow artist Olivier show her a different side of Paris, and Sofie starts to question her ideas of art, beauty and meaning. Of everything. There's truth in what her best friend, Crow, has been saying all along: the world is in crisis and people need to take notice. But what can one girl do? Will Sofie be able to find the courage to fight for change?

Below by David Hill When you stood deep inside the tunnel, you could hear the mountain groaning overhead. That's what Liam Geary's father had told him, anyway. It sounded stupid, till you stood inside a big tunnel; felt those billions of tonnes pressing in from above and the sides; heard water dripping from ceilings, or even trickling like something's blood behind the concrete walls; sensed the blackness that lay beyond the TBM's blazing lights as it ground its slow way through the stone ahead. Then you knew that a major tunnel like the Puketapu was a place of power, somehow; that darkness and danger lurked all around. When Liam dares his classmate Imogen to come on a forbidden tour of the railway tunnel being drilled through a nearby mountain, he hopes she'll quit protesting about it damaging the environment - his dad is an engineer working on the tunnel, after all. Just as they reach the huge tunnelling machine everything goes horribly wrong. When the rocks stop falling and the dust settles, they are trapped, kilometres below ground, in the dark. Water is trickling in and beginning to rise. And nobody knows where they are. Can they stop arguing and start working together to escape before time runs out?

Firekeeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulley Eighteen-year-old Daunis's mixed heritage has always made her feel like an outsider, both in her hometown and on the nearby Ojibwe reservation. When she witnesses a shocking murder, she reluctantly agrees to be part of a covert FBI operation into a series of drug-related deaths. In secret, she pursues her own investigation using her knowledge of chemistry and Ojibwe traditional medicine to track down the criminals. However, the deceptions and deaths keep piling up and soon the threat strikes too close to home. Now Daunis must decide what it means to be a strong Anishinaabe kwe (Ojibwe woman) and how far she'll go to protect her community, even if it tears apart the only world she's ever known.

The Bees by Laline Paull orn into the lowest class of her society, Flora 717 is a sanitation bee, only fit to clean her orchard hive. Living to accept, obey and serve, she is prepared to sacrifice everything for her beloved holy mother, the Queen. Flora is not like other bees. Despite her ugliness she has talents that are not typical of her kin. While mutant bees are usually instantly destroyed, Flora is removed from sanitation duty and is allowed to feed the newborns, before becoming a forager, collecting pollen on the wing. She also finds her way into the Queen's inner sanctum, where she discovers secrets both sublime and ominous. But enemies are everywhere, from the fearsome fertility police to the high priestesses who jealously guard the Hive Mind. And when Flora breaks the most sacred law of all her instinct to serve is overshadowed by an even deeper desire, a fierce maternal love that will lead to the unthinkable.

In times of bushfires and billy buttons by Steven Herrick What makes a good family? Love or blood? And what if you have to choose between the two? Ethan’s parents are in jail; his Aunt works too hard; the new kid, Joshua, has a scar on his arm; a fire storm threatens the suburb, while wildflowers bloom along the school fence.For Ethan, Audrey and their friends, it’s time to choose what’s important and what to leave behind.

Eve by Anna Carey The first book in Anna Carey’s chilling Eve trilogy, Eve is perfect for fans of The Handmaiden’s Tale. After a deadly virus wiped out most of Earth's population, the world is a terrifying place. Eighteen-year-old Eve has grown up isolated from the rest of the destroyed world in an all-girls school. But it isn’t until the night before her graduation that she discovers what her duties will be once she graduates.To avoid the horrifying fate that awaits her, Eve flees the only home she’s ever known. On the run, she encounters Caleb, a rough, rebellious boy living in the wild. Eve knows she shouldn’t trust him, but he slowly wins her confidence…and her heart. He promises to protect her, but when soldiers begin hunting them, Eve must choose between true love and her life.Eve is the first book in Anna Carey’s trilogy, full of romance, adventure, sacrifice, all set in a near future that is both wonderfully strange, and chillingly familiar.

Smoke and Iron by Rachel Caine Jess Brightwell and his friends are the rebels trying to free humanity's knowledge from the grasps of the Archivist Magister of the Great Library. Engaged in this deadly game, Jess finds himself in an Alexandrian cell with nothing but his wits and skill to aid him. With every word, written or spoken, meticulously monitored by the Obscurists, Jess has no way to contact his friends and family.When Jess's girlfriend, Morgan, figures out how to hack the Codex, the system by which all language and knowledge is recorded, it takes just one word to spark the fire of rebellion. When the library, thousands of years in the making, is set to smoke and burn, will a group of smugglers, thieves and scholars be enough to save it?

The Sky So Heavy by Claire Zorn This haunting dystopian novel thrillingly and realistically looks at a nuclear winter from an Australian perspective. For Fin it's just like any other day-racing for the school bus, bluffing his way through class, and trying to remain cool in front of the most sophisticated girl in his universe. Only it's not like any other day because, on the other side of the world, nuclear missiles are being detonated. When Fin wakes up the next morning, it's dark, bitterly cold, and snow is falling. There's no internet, no phone, no TV, no power, and no parents. Nothing Fin's learned in school could have prepared him for this. With his parents missing and dwindling food and water supplies, Fin and his younger brother Max must find a way to survive all on their own. When things are at their most desperate, where can you go for help?

The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken When Ruby woke up on her tenth birthday, something about her had changed. Something frightening enough to make her parents lock her in the garage and call the police. Something that got her sent to Thurmond, a government 'rehabilitation camp'. Ruby might have survived the mysterious disease that killed most of America's children, but she and the others had emerged with something far worse: frightening abilities they could not control. Now sixteen, Ruby is one of the dangerous ones. When the truth comes out, Ruby barely escapes Thurmond with her life. Now on the run, she is desperate to find East River, the only safe haven left for kids like her, and she joins a group of other runaways who have escaped their own camps. Liam, their brave leader, is falling for Ruby, but she can't risk getting close. Not after what happened to her parents. When they arrive at East River, nothing is as it seems, least of all Liam. But there are also other forces at work, people who will stop at nothing to use Ruby in their fight against the government. Ruby will be faced with a terrible choice - and one that may mean giving up her only chance at having a life worth living.

Earth Girl by Janet Edwards Jarra is stuck on Earth while the rest of humanity portals around the universe. But can she prove to the norms that she’s more than just an Earth Girl?2788. Only the handicapped live on Earth. While everyone else portals between worlds, 18-year-old Jarra is among the one in a thousand people born with an immune system that cannot survive on other planets. Sent to Earth at birth to save her life, she has been abandoned by her parents. She can’t travel to other worlds, but she can watch their vids, and she knows all the jokes they make. She’s an ‘ape’, a ‘throwback’, but this is one ape girl who won’t give in.Jarra invents a fake background for herself – as a normal child of Military parents – and joins a class of norms that is on Earth to excavate the ruins of the old cities. When an ancient skyscraper collapses, burying another research team, Jarra’s role in their rescue puts her in the spotlight. No hiding at back of class now. To make life more complicated, she finds herself falling in love with one of her classmates – a norm from another planet. Somehow, she has to keep the deception going.A freak solar storm strikes the atmosphere, and the class is ordered to portal off-world for safety – no problem for a real child of military parents, but fatal for Jarra. The storm is so bad that the crews of the orbiting solar arrays have to escape to planet below: the first landing from space in 600 years. And one is on collision course with their shelter.

Hotaka by John Heffernan When the tsunami strikes the Japanese coastal town of Omori-wan, the effects are utterly devastating. Three years later, much of what happened on that day is still a mystery. As Hotaka sets about convincing local performers to appear at the town's upcoming Memorial Concert, he finds himself increasingly haunted by memories of his best friend Takeshi.When strong willed Sakura initiates a controversial anti-seawall movement, there is danger at every turn for Hotaka and his friends. As the town and its people struggle to rebuild their lives, can Hotaka help Omori-wan look to the future - and let go of his past?

The Road to Winter by Mark Smith Since a deadly virus and the violence that followed killed his parents and wiped out most of his community, Finn has lived alone on the rugged coast with only his loyal dog Rowdy for company. He has stayed alive for two winters—hunting and fishing and trading food, and keeping out of sight of the Wilders, an armed and dangerous gang that controls the north, led by a ruthless man named Ramage. But Finn’s isolation is shattered when a girl runs onto the beach. Rose is a Siley – an asylum seeker – and she has escaped from Ramage, who had enslaved her and her younger sister, Kas. Rose is desperate, sick, and needs Finn's help. Kas is still missing somewhere out in the bush. And Ramage wants the girls back – at any cost.

Wool by Hugh Howey In a ruined and hostile landscape, in a future few have been unlucky enough to survive, a community exists in a giant underground silo.Inside, men and women live an enclosed life full of rules and regulations, of secrets and lies.To live, you must follow the rules. But some don't. These are the dangerous ones; these are the people who dare to hope and dream, and who infect others with their optimism.Their punishment is simple and deadly. They are allowed outside.

Saltwater Boy by Bradley Christmas When Dad goes to jail, Matthew and his mum move to the coast, so mum – an artist – thinks she can renovate her late father’s old place to sell it to get them back on their feet. Matthew strikes up a friendship with Old Bill, an Indigenous man who becomes a father figure to him, and teaches him how to find and eat pippis, fish (and to make a few dollars from it). Dad gets out on parole and moves back in with the family, but his anger fractures the newfound peace and everything is once again at stake, and in peril.

Bushfire: A story of bravery and survival by Sally Murphy Amy is staying in Marysville with her grandmother, and helping in the garden and cleaning out her gutters. It is, after all, bushfire season. As summer arrives, so do the fires, and Dad is busy helping control the flames in bushfires that have started burning in Victoria. But it is early February 2009, and the Black Saturday bushfire is about to encircle Amy and her family, and teach Amy first-hand about tragedy and survival.

Unlimited Futures: Speculative, visionary Blak and Black fiction by Rafeif Ismail (Editor); Ellen van Neerven (Editor) Unlimited Futures is an anthology of speculative, visionary fiction from 21 emerging and established First Nations writers and Black writers, reflecting visionary pasts, hopeful futures and the invisible ties between First Nations people and People of Colour. With works by Tuesday Atzinger, Flora A Chol, Claire G. Coleman, Zena Cumpston, Lisa Fuller, Meleika Gesa-Fatafehi, Yirga Gelaw Woldeyes, Chemutai Glasheen, Genevieve Grieves, Afeif Ismail, Ambelin Kwaymullina, Laniyuk, Maree McCarthy Yoelu, Jasmin McGaughey, Sisonke Msimang, Merryana Salem, Mykaela Saunders, A??sha Trambas, Alison Whittaker and Jasper Wyld, this is an anthology of the tales they wish had existed when they were growing up in Australia.

Sixty-seven days: True love is everlasting by Yvonne Weldon