Maureen McCarthy – författare

When burglars break into Jack''s house, they take all his stuff. Now he''s got no skateboard, no TV, no music, nothing. All his brothers do is fight, his mum thinks they all need counselling, his dad''s trying to set an example, but hey, who''s interested? Jack just wants to get out of that house. So he does. And he meets Diana. And her dog. And her grandma, who wears tiger-skin bikinis. They''re all pretty vicious. And suddenly, life is anything but boring.

Hundreds of kilometres without a car, a house or a person in sight. The dome of clear blue above and the occasional group of roos startling off into the scrub. Then emus, bolting off in a mad panic on the other side. I was finding something that had been lost inside me and I wanted to weave in and out on that straight white ribbon of road for the joy of having found it again.Cross my Heart is the story of Mick and Michelle, chasing a dream, crossing their hearts for the future. A vibrant, passionate, sprawling novel set in outback Australia from the highly acclaimed author of Chain of Hearts and Queen Kat, Carmel and St Jude Get a Life.

Kelly is seventeen. She''s a scholarship girl, her dad drinks too much and her mum lives in another city. Her house isn''t renovated like those of her friends. But Kelly has one thing her friends are envious of – Phil. Rich, devoted, handsome Phil. And it looks like their future together is all mapped out. Then, on a hot afternoon in a dingy little pizza shop, Kelly meets Con. He''s unlike anyone she''s ever known before. It''s a dramatic meeting, a chance encounter that changes everything . . .A passionate and uncompromising story of love, conflict and choices, from the author of Chain of Hearts and the highly acclaimed Queen Kat, Carmel and St Jude Get a Life.

At seventeen, Sophie is a mess. Her best friend is dead and her boyfriend has gone. She''s dropped out of school, sleeps through the day, eats all night and refuses to see anyone. Her family has had enough. But Sophie is about to embark on the strangest journey of her life. It will take her back into her family''s past, back to the origins of the bitter rift between her mother and her Aunt Fran, to her Uncle Jimmy and the Vietnam War, and finally to the girl in the painting and the story haunting all their lives.