Discovery HSC English: Relationships

Adelaide, 1977. It is the year Elvis died but for twelve-year-old Jake Taylor that doesn't really mean much. His world revolves around school; Rose Avenue, the street where he and his mum, Harry, live; and the courthouse where Harry is a barrister. His best friend, Robbie Duncan, lives only a few houses away and for them the Christmas holidays are for cricket, tennis and swimming at the pool or the beach. But then Rory Macbeath moves into the red brick house at the end of the avenue and everything starts to change. Rory and his family have emigrated to Australia from Glasgow and he and Robbie hit it off instantly. Jake has his doubts. But after long days and nights of swimming, fishing and daring each other into trouble, Jake comes to know Rory has talents and courage beyond anyone he has ever known. Like Harry, Rory Macbeath stands up to bullies. Harry does it in the courtroom. Rory does it closer to home. After a fishing trip with Robbie's dad, Mr Duncan brings Rory and the boys back to his house for dinner. But Rory disappears and everyone on Rose Avenue is about to discover why. For Jake and Rory nothing will ever be the same.

Imagine you live in London immediately following World War II and you have been told to pack your bag, but not told where you are going, or for how long. Imagine you are sent halfway across the world because someone thinks it will be better for you. Set in the early 1950s, the novel recounts the trials of a 14 year old boy sent out after WW11 to New Zealand from Britain, as one of a contingent of 'orphans' even though his father, ' touched in the head', is actually still alive.

Orphaned in the brutal Balkans conflict, thirteen-year-old Josef is forced to flee across the border. Frightened, angry and deeply traumatised he is plucked to safety by an Australian uncle he never knew existed. Josef battles with a new language, a strange landscape and a volatile cousin named Karina. Working at a native animal refuge saves him from desolation, but can Josef save the animals when they need him most?

The first of two books about smart-alec, sports-mad Benny, whose family moves to Tunisia. Benny sees the move as a total catastrophe, until he meets Omar, a wild orphan boy. Omar has learnt English from TV and through his 'telly-speak' a madcap friendship develops between the two boys. Their crazy escapades lead to both a ton of trouble and some heart-breaking adventures.

Michael Sweeney and his friend Dud are just two of the many invisible nothings at their expensive school. They come from deep in the suburbs and they're not cool or tough or even that brainy. So they're pretty much left alone, until they make friends with the new American guy. And before long, Michael Sweeney is somebody. But that's just the beginning of his troubles. .

Alex Woods knows that he hasn't had the most conventional start in life. He knows that growing up with a clairvoyant single mother won't endear him to the local bullies. He also knows that even the most improbable events can happen - he's got the scars to prove it. What he doesn't know yet is that when he meets ill-tempered, reclusive widower Mr Peterson, he'll make an unlikely friend. Someone who tells him that you only get one shot at life. That you have to make the best possible choices. So when, aged seventeen, Alex is stopped at Dover customs with 113 grams of marijuana, an urn full of ashes on the passenger seat, and an entire nation in uproar, he's fairly sure he's done the right thing . . .

Set amid the sprawling Johannesburg township of Soweto, where survival is the primary objective, Tsotsi traces six days in the life of a ruthless young gang leader. When we meet Tsotsi, he is a man without a name (tsotsi is Afrikaans for "hoodlum") who has repressed his past and now exists only to stage and execute vicious crimes. When he inadvertently kidnaps a baby, Tsotsi is confronted with memories of his own painful childhood, and this angry young man begins to rediscover his own humanity, dignity, and capacity to love.

The not-so-ordinary life of a boy named Larry, set against the great events of the world. Laurence Augustine Rainbow is born into an ordinary family, and seems set for an ordinary life. But as the world changes around him, so does the happiness of his own family. This is a unique story of one family - and one boy - trying to hold their heads above water in a world quietly gone mad.

A triumphant and empowering narrative about a 16 year old boy called Billy who trades the soulless tyranny of his father's home and a rigid, uninspiring education for a life of itinerancy. As he becomes exposed to the samaritanism of strangers his cynicism towards humanity and the 'human lot' gradually diminishes, creating the psychological space for his perceptions to expand.

Narrated by Amir, a 40-year-old novelist living in California, The Kite Runner tells the gripping story of a boyhood friendship destroyed by jealousy, fear, and the kind of ruthless evil that transcends mere politics. Running parallel to this personal narrative of loss and redemption is the story of modern Afghanistan and of Amir's equally guilt-ridden relationship with the war-torn city of his birth. The first Afghan novel to be written in English, The Kite Runner begins in the final days of King Zahir Shah's 40-year reign and traces the country's fall from a secluded oasis to a tank-strewn battlefield controlled by the Russians and then the trigger-happy Taliban.

Set during the 1980s civil war in Lebanon, 'Dreams of Water' is compulsively readable, deceptively simple and overwhelmingly moving. 'If you could tell me just one thing about yourself, what would it be?' She begins, 'I would say that I once lost a brother.' As a young man disappears, his family is left wondering, hoping, fearing for what may have become of him. It is only through his loss that they begin to truly understand the deep bond of love that ties their family together.

Two unlikely friends are drawn into a dramatic series of events through their mutual mistrust of their new English teacher. From the moment Miss Payne (The Hound of the Baskervilles, The English Teacher from Hell, Pitbull!) walks into their classroom, Calma and Kiffo know she will have to go. After doing a bit of, late-night sleuthing, they decide whe is certainly a drug dealer. But the more they work to prove Miss Payne is crooked, the more evidence they find of her innocence. And then everything falls apart.

Joe Brickman is looking forward to his year as captain of the Lawndale High soccer team - and to a blooming relationship with his neighbour Kristine. But when the social structure of the school begins to crumble, Joe finds himself on the wrong side of the new order. Violence has always been part of school life - especially at Lawndale. It goes back generations. But as the brutal, tribal rules that govern the school are exposed, Joe has to find the courage to break free.

So far, Marc E. Jarvis has lost a white football boot, a school tie and a best friend. But there's more in store for him when he completes Work Experience at a local car yard - where his world is truly rocked, shocked and shaken. Then Marc meets Electra. And nothing will ever be the same again . . . A story of true friends, crazed coaches, shooting stars, and loves lost and found.

Six thousand years ago, the land is one dark forest. Its people are hunters and gatherers. They know every tree and herb and they know how to survive in a world steeped in enchantment, menace and powerful magic. Until an ambitious and malignant force conjures up a demon; a demon so evil that it can be contained only in the body of a ferocious bear; a demon so hungry for death that it slays everything it sees; a demon with the potential to destroy the world. Only one boy can stop it: 12-year-old Torak, Son of the Wolf. With his dying breath Torak's father tells him of the heavy burden that is his. He must lead the bear to the mountain of the World Spirit and beg for that spirit's help to overcome it. Torak is an unwilling hero. He is scared and trusts no one. His only companion is a wolf cub, whom he seems to understand better than any human. But how can they alone overcome such evil? In a taut, fast-paced adventure, boy and wolf must find the courage to face an enemy who seems everywhere at once and a little bit of whom seems to hide in everybody they meet.

In Al Tafar, Iraq, twenty-one-year old Private Bartle and eighteen-year-old Private Murphy cling to life as their platoon launches a bloody battle for the city. In the endless days that follow, the two young soldiers do everything to protect each other from the forces that press in on every side: the insurgents, physical fatigue, and the mental stress that comes from constant danger. Bound together since basic training when their tough-as-nails Sergeant ordered Bartle to watch over Murphy, the two have been dropped into a war neither is prepared for. As reality begins to blur into a hazy nightmare, Murphy becomes increasingly unmoored from the world around him and Bartle takes impossible actions.

An aging, booze-addled father makes the trip from Montana to Nebraska with his estranged son in order to claim a million-dollar Mega Sweepstakes Marketing prize.

Two terminally ill men escape from a cancer ward and head off on a road trip with a wish list of to-dos before they die.

In 1991 Andrew Daddo was sacked as an MTV VJ. Rather than slink back to Australia immediately, Andrew and a bloke he'd met at a party named Ray O'Neal set off on a month-long motorcycle journey across America. That summer spent riding cross country with Ray forged a friendship that Andrew thought would last a lifetime. But in February 2004 Ray died in an accident. He left behind a wife and a young daughter, Rose. In It's All Good Andrew Daddo writes about that motorcycle journey, and the things he and Ray did, as a way of sharing with Rose some memories of her father. This is a lovely, funny, poignant story that flows from one yarn to the next with delightful ease. In trying to convey to Rose the love her father would have shown her, Andrew Daddo captures a universal sadness experienced when we lose someone we love. His message is heartfelt and the reader is left with the message to love well and to never take people and the good times for granted.

This is an extraordinary life of an ordinary man. It is the story of Albert Facey, who lived with simple honesty, compassion and courage. A parentless boy who started work at eight on the rough West Australian frontier, he struggled as an itinerant rural worker, survived the gore of Gallipoli, the loss of his farm in the Depression, the death of his son in World War II and that of his beloved wife after 60 years of devotion, yet felt that his life was fortunate.

This is the inspiring account of a family's struggle to break into their son's autistic world - and how a beautiful retriever dog made the real difference. Dale was still a baby when his parents realised that something wasn't right. Worried, his mother Nuala took him to see several doctors, before finally hearing the word 'autism' for the first time. Scared but determined that Dale should live a fulfilling life, Nuala describes her despair at her son's condition, her struggle to prevent Dale being excluded from a 'normal' education and her sense of hopeless isolation. Dale's autism was severe and violent and family life was a daily battleground. But the Gardner's lives were transformed when they welcomed a gorgeous Golden Retriever into the family. The special bond between Dale and his dog Henry helped them to produce the breakthrough in Dale they had long sought.

John and Jenny were just beginning their life together. They were young and in love, with a perfect little house and not a care in the world. Then they brought home Marley, a wiggly yellow fur ball of a puppy. Life would never be the same.

He started learning to play the piano when he was three years old in Shenyang, China. Today he is one of the world's most outstanding pianists. In this engrossing life story, adapted by Michael French, Lang Lang not only recounts the difficult, often thrilling, events of his early days, but also shares his perspective on his rapidly changing homeland. He thoughtfully explores the differences between East and West, especially in the realm of classical music and cultural life. Shining through his rags-to-riches story of a child prodigy who came of age as a renowned musician, Lang Lang's positive spirit, his dynamic personality, and his enduring passion for music will inspire readers of all ages.

The true story of a poor Chinese peasant boy who, plucked unsuspectingly at age 10 from millions of others across the land to be trained as a ballet dancer, turned the situation to his advantage to become one of the world's greatest ballet stars. Li tells his story with simplicity and charm, with humour and compassion, and at times with great drama. After seven lonely years of gruelling training at the Peking Dance Academy, Li was selected, at age 18, to perform at the Houston Ballet's summer school, which led to a dramatic defection, assisted by his friends and contacts, including George and Barbara Bush.

The memoirs of the President of South Africa, begin in 1974 while a political Pretoria on Robben Island where he was to spend 27 years. In 1993 he won the Nobel Peace Prize with fellow South African S.W. De Clerk and is now remembered throughout the world as a vital force in the fight for human rights and racial equality.

On October 31, 1999, schoolboy sailor Jesse Martin completed one of the last great adventures of the 20th century. At 18 years of age, and after 11 months at sea, he became the youngest person to sail solo, nonstop, and unassisted around the world. This is the story of why Jesse set himself such an astonishing task and how he managed to make his dream come true. A story of courage, loneliness, and danger, it also is an incredible, gripping, true-life adventure.

Angela's Ashes is Frank McCourt's sad, funny, bittersweet memoir of growing up in New York in late 30s and in Ireland in the 40s. It is a story of extreme hardship and suffering, in Brooklyn tenements and Limerick slums - too many children, too little money, his mother Angela barely coping as his father Malachy's drinking bouts constantly brought the family to the brink of disaster. It is a story of courage and survival against apparently over-whelming odds.

The Sherpas were not born climbers. When the British went to Everest in 1921, they hired porters. Yet by 1953 these porters had become the famous "Tigers of the Snow". This book describes the decisive moment in the transformation of "coolies" (porters and labourers) into the Sherpas as climbing legends: the German expedition to Nanga Parbat in 1934. During that disastrous climb, the Europeans unroped from their inexperienced porters and fled to safety leaving them to stay on the mountain and help each other as best they could. After this tragedy the Sherpas, with their keen understanding of and respect for the mountains as well as their instinct to save lives, knew they were the most responsible men on the mountains.

Duy Long Nguyen (Longy) came to Australia as a Vietnamese boat person with vivid memories of the smell of napalm. Determined to find his way in his new country, he battled racism and struggled for acceptance. He found himself working as a bodyguard and straddling both sides of the law. After surviving a shoot-out in Sydney's Chinatown, Longy helped uncover corruption in the NSW police. Turning his back on violence, he realised he had a very special gift, taught to him by indigenous tribes in the jungles of Vietnam: he was able to heal people.

In this lyrical, unsentimental, and compelling memoir, the son of a black African father and a white American mother searches for a workable meaning to his life as a black American. It begins in New York, where Barack Obama learns that his father - a figure he knows more as a myth than as a man - has been killed in a car accident. This sudden death inspires an emotional odyssey, first to a small town in Kansas, from which he retraces the migration of his mother's family to Hawaii, and then to Kenya, where he meets the African side of his family, confronts the bitter truth of his father's life, and at last reconciles his divided inheritance.

Cory Friedman was an ordinary fun-loving little boy. That March morning in 1989 started just like any other but later that day, he started to feel very different and the course of his life was set to change. It started with an irresistible urge to shake his head, and before long, his body became a volatile, explosive and unpredictable force. Overtaken by physical urges, tics and compulsions, the bright young boy started to feel and look like a puppet on a string. Cory had developed a rare combination of Tourette syndrome, Obsessive compulsive disorder, Anxiety disorder and other neurological conditions. The life he knew had been torn apart and his family was left watching him suffer. Desperate to help and hopeful of a cure, they embarked on a fifteen year plight which took them beyond breaking point. Cory was seen by thirteen doctors who in total prescribed sixty potent medicines. He was mistakenly sent to a psychiatric ward and on the brink of utter despair, he and his family decided to try a form of intervention that had never been tried in cases such as Cory's: he was sent to a wilderness survival camp in a bitter, unforgiving snowy Utah winter. This felt like their final chance.

An account of the ascent of the 21,000ft Siula Grande peak in the Peruvian Andes. Joe Simpson and his climbing partner, Simon Yates, had achieved the summit before the first disaster struck. What happened and how they dealt with the psychological traumas that resulted is the subject of this book.

This is the story of gutsy Nick Vujicic, an amazing 28-year-old Aussie, born without arms or legs, who is now an internationally successful motivational speaker. Nick encourages everyone to find their life purpose and, whatever their obstacles, go for it.

Neil White was once a man who lived by appearances - he owned expensive cars and a big house and worked at glossy magazines. When his bank balance couldn't keep up with his lifestyle, he started kiting - illegally depositing and drawing cheques between his two accounts. He got caught and was sent to prison. The experience transformed him completely: the man who lived to impress became a man who could look beyond the surface of things in order to tap into the deeper, more important issues that run our lives.