Novels with Ethical Dilemmas
Light 'n' fluffy(ish!)
When Cece arrives at A-student Holland's school wearing a T-shirt that says IMRU?, their immediate attraction makes Holland consider whether it's time to come out of the closet.
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All kinds of dilemmas occur when Jane moves out of home and into the Orange House to participate in a reality TV series.
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Dante is waiting for his A-Level (HSC) results but an ex-girlfriend arrives instead - with a baby!
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Practicing feminist and severe OCD sufferer Evie discovers that falling in love can have unforseen consequences
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Naomi and her gay best friend have made a no-kiss list to keep their freindship intact, but the heart doesn't always cooperate...
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Every day A wakes in a new body. He has a code of ethics which stops him doing anything that will change the owner of the body's life - until he falls in love.
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BMisty, child of a poverty-stricken black family starts ballet at 13 and is spotted at a youth centre class. biography of the first African American principal dancer in a major (White) US ballet company.
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when Lucas asked his best friend to the prom she tells him she's going with her girlfriend. Before he thinks of the consequences and feeling betrayed that she never told him, he tells the football team she's gay...
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Oz has grown up within the Reighn of Terror, a motorcycle club and knows they're the "good guys" ; Emily, whose biological father is in the club, has been shielded from club politics - of course they fall in love. Romance with Guts!
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Told from dual perspectives, this novel tells the story of Jill, whose mother decides to illegally adopt a baby after her husband dies, and Mandy, a pregnant teen from a disadvantaged background.
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Ditty feels most fulfilled when dancing, but she is from a strict Jewish family where dancing is forbidden. Just how far should you go to express yourself? Are her secret ballet lessons worth defying her religious beliefs?
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Apple's mother returns after 11 years to take her away from the grandmother who brought her up. It takes meeting someone more lost than she is for apple to begin healing.
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Fed up with her private girls school, Harriet invents Amelia Westlake to expose the hypocrisy and entitlement around her. From cartoons in the school paper to letters inviting local public school principals to use he school's facilities things are set to change.
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Nina is used to moving around. Her family are bank robbers and she is used to infiltrating the local community to help out. But this time is different - she's met the bank manager's son.
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These are the real poems, diaries and letters of Esther Earl, the girl who inspired the best-selling novel and hit film, The Fault in our Stars. This collection of everyday documents will make you realise how many ethical decisions you make in everyday life.
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When Shehadie arrives at Sophie's Lebanese Catholic school, reverse racism isolates the Anglo from the pack. But he's also the hottest guy in the year, so how will this play out? Set during the real-life Cronulla Race Riots in Sydney.
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Global Issues
How far should Cat go to rescue her ex-slave friend Pedro when his ex-owner claims him? An adventure novel set in a C18th English theatre.
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This verse novel describes the childhood of the first Cuban feminist, abolitionist writer, emphasising the power of words to change the world
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Maya Aziz dreams of being a film maker in New York. Her family wanther to be a doctor. Then a suicide bomber who shares her last name strikes in a city hundreds of miles away and everything changes . . .
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Set in the Deep South of the USA before the civil rights movement, this novel portrays the plight of African Americans in the (still) flawed legal system.
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Deborah Ellis spends time in 'forgotten places' like refugee camps and AIDS hospitals write novels featuring the stories of those she meets (you may have read Pavana). Here she lets children speak for themselves about the Israeli/Palestine conflict.
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Already a Netflix movie, this is the author's response to social apathy about the police-shootings of Black citizens in the USA and the Black Lives Matter Movement. On the way home from a party, Starr's friend is pulled over by the police and shot...
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Subhi was born in a refugee detention centre. Jimmie is a girl from outside the wire with notebook she can't read from a mother she lost. Together they discover just how many different kinds of freedom and bravery there can be.
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A Romeo and Juliet story in a world where Black and White people are totally segregated and Black people have all the power over lowly White "noughts" (named for the lack of pigment in their skin).
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A gritty novel dealing with race, domestic violence, mental health and sexuality. Hope Street connects people on the fringes: a refugee family, a Vietnam veteran with PTSD, two children who Dad beats their mum, their Turkish neighbour who tries to protect them, her grandaughter who's exploring her sexuality...
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Forced into foster care, Pan(dora) is a locked box of memories. This confronting novel challenges the reader to untangle her memories as Pan tries to reconcile her own blurred recollections with her sister's voice in her mind and discovers exactly what a 'family' might be.
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Based on real stories, this novel tells the story of Abdul and other refugees trying to cross from France to England. This is a darker book than her usual stories and pulls no punches about what humans will do to survive (or to make money!).
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By taking over a late night radio slot called "Beautiful Music for Ugly Children", Elizabeth/Gabe discovers the perfect place for his f2m transgender identity. When the show develops a cult following, his his identities come into conflict and he needs to make decisions about who he wants to be.
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Dark 'n' dangerous
On the first page, Declan throws himself under a train. On the next he discovers the consequences of suicide and what would have happened if he'd paused to consider his actions.
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Alex's life is wonderful - she has a loving family, a great job and a boyfriend who loves her. But her friends can see the cracks that show her relationship isn't all she believes it to be...
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When Hadley's best friend suicides after an incident at a party, she takes justice into her own hands, fighting back in a pink mask and accidnetally starting a movement to perevent violence against women.
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Inspired by a real murder of a Goth in and English park, this story brings together Eve whose sister was murdered for her choice to be different and Antony who was there but did nothing to help.
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Told from two points of view, Mia, who takes ecstasy to deal with her shyness at parties, and her best friend who can see what's happening to her, this novel depicts some of the reasons why people take drugs and the dangers of dependence on them.
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Told as a letter to her captor, this novel tells the story of Gemma was abducted at a airport and taken to an Australian bush property by a kind, attractive man who expected her to love him. It's told so well that you will experience Stockholm Syndrome along with Gemma.
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Isola sees things no one else sees, things from her mother's book of fairy tales. What really happened to the murdered girl in the woods? Can her spectral brothers and real-life friends save Isola? Is this novel magic realism or does the main character have a serious mental illness?
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Theo is a talented dancer expecting to begin full time training. But her childhood best friend has returned after a four year abduction and she thinks she recognises his abductor. How much of her past should she reveal? How will the revelations affect her future?
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When Zoe arrives in a new school, she is accidentally accepted into a group of bullies and doesn't know how to extricate herself, despite their escalating violence. To what extent is she responsible for the terrible consequences of their actions?
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As a child, JJ murdered her best friend. Now she's been released from prison and has a new identity, but a reporter keeps hanging around, triggering flashbacks. What really did happen back then? Was JJ fully responsible for her actions as a young child?
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Nate grew up in a Neo-Nazi hate group, killed the leader (his father) and escaped. He served his time, has a new name, is desperately fighting the brainwashing her grew up with and now his best friend is African American. But the group are out to get him.
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The previous term, Valerie's best friend committed a high school massacre and she accidentally saved the life of their biggest bully. This term she has to return to school a 'hero', and deal with the aftermath of the 'Hate List" they wrote together.
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Things that make you think
In this dystopia all language and gestures have been copyrighted and those who cannot afford the price of their communication are taken to prison farms. But when her best friend dies, Speth stops speaking - she's unaware that this will start a protest movement.
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Grace and Tippi are joined at the waist. For the first time, they have chosen to attend a local high school instead of being homeschooled. How different are their identities and should they have an operation to become separated?
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The religious right have taken over America. They control all aspects of life and have predicted the end of the world. Vivian is one a a few disbelievers but the day after the predicted apocalyse, she wakes to find her believer parents vanished and two holes in the cieling.
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When Peter's Polish parents are killed he is assessed as a blonde blue eyes Aryan and given to a high ranking Nazi family as a son. This novel examines a little-known aspect of Nazi history as well as the process of indoctrination and rebellion.
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Six babies were implanted with DR6124 - a gene for psychic abilities. Now their abilities have blossomed an they are being hunted down by a man who plans to use them. This middle grade thriller examines the ethics behind high stakes genetic engineering.
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Kate has leukaemia, so her family decided to have a second 'saviour child' who would be a perfect match for blood transfusions and bone marrow transplants. Now Anna is being expected to donate a kidney to her sister.
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Sophy mother is a talented artists, but it's her daughter who keeps her taking her medication and doing basic things like cooking and cleaning - until the day her mother takes an overdose and Sophy is lives with her aunt while her mother is in hospital.
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In dystopian Melbourne everything is for sale, including bodies. When Kelty's best friend is almost killed in an explosion, she decides to take an artifical body and offer her body to her friend. Looks at class and politics as well as mind/body identities.
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When Dicey and her three younger siblings are left in a car by their mother, who doesn't return, Dicey decides to take them all - by foot, across three states - to their aunt. But just what makes 'family' and how much should one change to be accepted?
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In this dystopia underage criminals are not executed but given a second chance at life - after their brains are wiped they are adopted in to new families to lead normal lives. But just what is lost when one is "Slated"? And what did Kyla do in the first place?
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Dallas lives on a rural property where she shoots feral pigs for a living. When she takes a job at genetics lab in order to find out what's killing the pigs, she meets whizkid, Felix, and discovers far more than she bargained for.
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In a dystopian Sydney filled with competing gangs, Ben follows the echo of a powerful, wild animal only he can communicate with. It turns out to be a tiger living in the oasis-village of Taronga Zoo. But what is the real role of these animals?
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Expelled from her deaf school, for spraying graffiti over a slur about her best friend, Julia takes solace in her art, painting the local streets. But soon her work is being 'improved' by another graffiti artist and she is involved in an all-out war.
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When Caitlin's perfect older sister runs away, she tries to keep the family functioning. Stretched to breaking point, she meets sexy, dangerous Rogerson, the only positive thing in her life. But what happens when the solution becomes worse than the problem?
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How innocent is the bystander in a hostage 'siege'? When she was nine years old, Freya was part of a hostage situation that she's tried hard to forget. How that she's eighteen, a reporter is hanging around trying to find out what her role might have been.
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Louisa takes a job caring for an articulate, funny paraplegic main. She enjoys his company and may be falling in love, but he just wants to be allowed to die. Now a hit film, this novel examines both side of the euthanasia debate.
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Quick Reads
Laurie's history teacher runs an experiment to that get far out of control. Based on a true story.
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What do you do when you hear a rumour that someone has a gun in their locker. A Verse Novel.
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Oscar and his friends hack the school cameras to expose bullying.
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Amina lives in war-torn Mogadishu where dissenters are brutally punished. But this doesn't stop her making protest art on the walls of bombed out homes.
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Four children ell stories on the school buis, but it's Anna's story about Hitler's imagined daughter, Heidi, that keeps them thinking long after the ride is over. If Hitler had a daughter, would she be evil? To what extent should we be judged by the actions of those around us?
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Grace grew up as part of a fundamentalist Christian sect. Treading carefully between her faith in God and her doubting of the sect's teachings, she treads a fine line between the questions that got her father exiled from his family and submission to dubious authority.
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