Texts and Human Experiences: Related Texts- Billy Elliot

Rosie and Nona are sisters. Yapas. They are also best friends. It doesn't matter that Rosie is white and Nona is Aboriginal: their family connections tie them together for life. Born just five days apart in a remote corner of the Northern Territory, the girls are inseperable, until Nona moves away at the age of nine. By the time she returns, they're in Year 10 and things have changed. Rosie has lost interest in the community, preferring to hang out in the nearby mining town, where she goes to school with the glamorous Selena, and Selena's gorgeous older brother Nick. When a political announcement highlights divisions between the Aboriginal community and the mining town, Rosie is put in a difficult position: will she be forced to choose between her first love and her oldest friend?

For as long as Josephine Alibrandi can remember, it’s just been her, her mom, and her grandmother. Now it’s her final year at a wealthy Catholic high school. The nuns couldn’t be any stricter—but that doesn’t seem to stop all kinds of men from coming into her life. Caught between the old-world values of her Italian grandmother, the nononsense wisdom of her mom, and the boys who continue to mystify her, Josephine is on the ride of her life. This will be the year she falls in love, the year she discovers the secrets of her family’s past—and the year she sets herself free.Told with unmatched depth and humor, this novel—which swept the pool of Australian literary awards and became a major motion picture—is one to laugh through and cry with, to cherish and remember.

Seventeen-year-old Friday Brown is on the run --running to escape memories of her mother and of the family curse. And of a grandfather who'd like her to stay. She's lost, alone and afraid. Silence, a street kid, finds Friday and she joins him in a gang led by beautiful, charismatic Arden. When Silence is involved in a crime, the gang escapes to a ghost town in the outback. In Murungal Creek, the town of never leaving, Friday must face the ghosts of her past. She will learn that sometimes you have to stay to finish what you started -- and often, before you can find out who you are, you have to become someone you were never meant to be.

Between 1854 and 1929, so-called orphan trains ran regularly from the cities of the East Coast to the farmlands of the Midwest, carrying thousands of abandoned children whose fates would be determined by pure luck. Would they be adopted by a kind and loving family, or would they face a childhood and adolescence of hard labor and servitude? As a young Irish immigrant, Vivian Daly was one such child, sent by rail from New York City to an uncertain future a world away. Returning east later in life, Vivian leads a quiet, peaceful existence on the coast of Maine, the memories of her upbringing rendered a hazy blur. But in her attic, hidden in trunks, are vestiges of a turbulent past. Seventeen-year-old Molly Ayer knows that a community-service position helping an elderly widow clean out her attic is the only thing keeping her out of juvenile hall. But as Molly helps Vivian sort through her keepsakes and possessions, she discovers that she and Vivian aren't as different as they appear. A Penobscot Indian who has spent her youth in and out of foster homes, Molly is also an outsider being raised by strangers, and she, too, has unanswered questions about the past. Moving between contemporary Maine and Depression-era Minnesota, Orphan Train is a powerful tale of upheaval and resilience, second chances, and unexpected friendship.

One evening, five-year-old Saroo left his poor village home in India to watch his older brother work at the next town's train station. His life was about to be utterly transformed. Lost and alone on an unfamiliar train, he found himself taken across the country and deposited in a strange city, unable to explain who he was or where he was from. He'd arrived in Calcutta. After weeks of defying the odds on the city's notoriously dangerous streets, Saroo was taken in by a government agency and, after failed attempts to find his family, was miraculously adopted by an Australian couple, the Brierleys, and taken to start a new life in Hobart.As an adult, though, he never forgot his Indian roots and kept trying to work out where he came from. With the advent of Google Earth, his long inquiry began to bear fruit: as the technology improved, he was, against all the odds, able to find what he thought was his home neighbourhood of Ganesh Talai and go in search of his family. Even more astonishingly, he found them. Here, Saroo Brierley tells the extraordinary story behind this otherwise ordinary 32-year-old Aussie bloke, from the dirt floors of his birth home to the hills of Hobart and back again. He describes his incredulity at finding his birth mother, his heartbreak at learning of his brother's fate, and that fateful day over a quarter of a century ago.

Bethany Hamilton, whoYMmagazine called the "Bravest Girl in America," has been surfing since she was seven years old. Since her shark attack last year Bethany has participated in numerous competitions and has received the 2004 Teen Choice award for Most Courageous Teen and the 2004 ESPY Award for Best Comeback Athlete.

When the Taliban took control of the Swat Valley, one girl spoke out. Malala Yousafzai refused to be silenced and fought for her right to an education. On Tuesday October 9, 2012, she almost paid the ultimate price

Ten Australian stories and how they were written.Stories and essays by ten talented writers, including Maria Takolander, Tony Birch and Jennifer Mills. Introduction by Amanda Lohrey. Cracking The Spine is the most innovative resource in Australian literature I have seen in many years. An anthology of contemporary short stories, each with a commentary by their authors, the collection breaks down the wall between the creative and discursive, the imagistic and the expository. Filled with cutting-edge, innovative writers and armed with an expansive definition of what it is to be an Australian, Cracking the Spine will be at once accessible to undergraduate students and informative and challenging for their teachers. What a thrill to see a work like this come about!

A collection of literature anthologies and reference books for Key Stage 3 onwards. A collection of contemporary short stories encompassing a variety of situations, characters, relationships, emotions and issues. The stories provide pupils aged 11-14 with an accessible approach to exploring personal thoughts and feelings. They also illuminate more far-reaching attitudes and values.

Are you brave enough to read four of Poe's famous horror stories? Edgar Allan Poe wrote strange stories about terrible people and evil crimes. Don't read this book late at night!

Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, KBE (1881-1975) was a comic writer who has enjoyed enormous popular success for more than seventy years. Wodehousea€(TM)s main canvas remained that of prewar English upper-class society, reflecting his birth, education, and youthful writing career. Wodehouse was admired both by contemporaries like Rudyard Kipling as well as by modern writers like Terry Pratchett. Best known today for the Jeeves and Blandings Castle novels and short stories, Wodehouse was also a talented playwright and lyricist who was part author and writer of fifteen plays and of 250 lyrics for some thirty musical comedies. He worked with Cole Porter on the musical Anything Goes. His other works include: A Prefecta€(TM)s Uncle (1903), Tales of St. Austina€(TM)s (1903), The Gold Bat (1904), The Head of Kaya€(TM)s (1905), Love Among the Chickens (1906), The White Feather (1907), Mike (1909), Psmith, Journalist (1909), Psmith in the City (1910), The Little Nugget (1913), Something New (1915), The Man with Two Left Feet, and Other Stories (1917), Piccadilly Jim (1917), A Damsel in Distress (1919), Indiscretions of Archie (1921) and The Clicking of Cuthbert (1922).

Wonder is the funny, sweet and incredibly moving story of Auggie Pullman. Auggie wants to be an ordinary ten-year-old, but he is far from ordinary. Born with a terrible facial deformity, this shy, bright ten-year-old has been home-schooled by his parents for his whole life, in an attempt to protect him from the stares and cruelty of the outside world. Now, for the first time, Auggie is being sent to a real school - and he's dreading it. Auggie sees himself as just an ordinary kid and all he wants is to be accepted. But can he convince his new classmates that he's just like them, underneath it all?

Seventeen-year-old Delilah's crazy life is about to get crazier. Ever since her father took off overseas, she's been struggling to run the family's cafe - The Flywheel - without him and survive high school. But after a misjudged crush on one of the cool girls, she's become the school punchline as well. With all that's on her plate she barely has time for her favourite distraction - spying on the beautiful Rosa, who dances flamenco at the tapas bar across the road. Only her best friend Charlie knows how she feels about Rosa, but he has romantic problems of his own. When his plan to win an older woman's heart goes horribly wrong, Del is the only one who can help Charlie stay out of jail. All this leaves Del grappling with some seriously curly questions. Is it okay to break the law to help a friend? How can a girl tell another girl she likes her without it ending in humiliation and heartbreak? And - the big one - is it ever truly possible to dance in public without falling over?

Meet Eleanor Oliphant: she struggles with appropriate social skills and tends to say exactly what she's thinking. That, combined with her unusual appearance (scarred cheek, tendency to wear the same clothes year in, year out), means that Eleanor has become a creature of habit (to say the least) and a bit of a loner. Nothing is missing in her carefully timetabled life of avoiding social interactions, where weekends are punctuated by frozen pizza, vodka, and phone chats with Mummy. But everything changes when Eleanor meets Raymond, the bumbling and deeply unhygienic IT guy from her office. When she and Raymond together save Sammy, an elderly gentleman who has fallen on the sidewalk, the three become the kind of friends who rescue each other from the lives of isolation they have each been living. And it is Raymond's big heart that will ultimately help Eleanor find the way to repair her own profoundly damaged one.

Laurinda is an exclusive school for girls. At its hidden centre of power is The Cabinet, a triangle of girls who wield power over their classmates - and some of their teachers. Entering this world of wealth and secrets is Lucy Lam, a scholarship girl with sharp eyes and a shaky sense of self. As she watches The Cabinet in action, and is courted by them - as she learns about power and repression - Lucy finds herself in a battle for her identity and integrity.

"His devilishly complex cosmological theories are handled engagingly in accessible language for the lay reader.… [T]his is a touching portrait that will grace any bookshelf." –Astronomy Now Stephen Hawking is arguably the most famous physicist since Albert Einstein. His decades-long struggle with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease), combined with his singular brilliance as a cosmologist, has fascinated both the public and his colleagues in science. In this engagingly written biography, Kristine Larsen, a physicist and astronomer herself, presents a candid and insightful portrait of Hawking’s personal and professional life. Avoiding the hero-worship sometimes found in popular works on Hawking, Larsen emphasizes that Hawking is first and foremost a scientist whose work has made significant contributions to our understanding of the nature and origins of the universe. Writing in nontechnical language for the lay reader, Larsen clearly explains Hawking’s complex scientific accomplishments, while telling the story of his challenging life. Topics include Hawking’s early lack of focus as a college student; the impact of ALS on his career and personal life; his groundbreaking work on radiating black holes; his later cutting-edge theories of black holes, cosmology, and the anthropic princip≤ the amazing publishing success of A Brief History of Time; and his status as a pop icon and spokesperson for the interplay of science and society. Larsen situates Hawking’s sometimes-controversial work within the broader context of scientific peer review and public debate, and discusses his personal life with compassion, respect, and honesty.

PENGUIN BLOOM is a unique journey of recovery and an extraordinary celebration of life, featuring Cameron Bloom's exceptional photographs and a captivating narrative by Bradley Trevor Greive. Penguin the Magpie is a global social media sensation with over 113k followers on Instagram. People the world over have fallen in love with the stunning and deeply personal images of this rescued bird and her human family. But there is far more to Penguin's story than meets the eye. This is a true story of hope and courage. It begins with a shocking accident, in which Cameron's wife, Sam, suffers a near fatal fall that leaves her paralysed and deeply depressed. Into their lives comes Penguin, an injured magpie chick abandoned after she fell from her nest. Penguin's rescue and the incredible joy and strength she gives Sam and all those who helped her survive demonstrates that, however bleak things seem, compassion, friendship and support can come from unexpected quarters, ensuring there are always better days ahead. This plucky little magpie reminds us all that, no matter how lost, fragile or damaged we feel, accepting the love of others and loving them in return will help to make us whole.

Anh Do nearly didn't make it to Australia. His entire family came close to losing their lives on the sea as they escaped from war-torn Vietnam in an overcrowded boat. But nothing -- not murderous pirates, nor the imminent threat of death by hunger, disease or dehydration as they drifted for days -- could quench their desire to make a better life in the country they had dreamed about. Life in Australia was hard, an endless succession of back-breaking work, crowded rooms, ruthless landlords and make-do everything. But there was a loving extended family, and always friends and play and something to laugh about for Anh, his brother Khoa and their sister Tram. Things got harder when their father left home when Anh was thirteen -- they felt his loss very deeply and their mother struggled to support the family on her own. His mother's sacrifice was an inspiration to Anh and he worked hard during his teenage years to help her make ends meet, also managing to graduate high school and then university. Another inspiration was the comedian Anh met when he was about to sign on for a 60-hour a week corporate job. Anh asked how many hours he worked. 'Four,' the answer came back, and that was it. He was going to be a comedian! The Happiest Refugee tells the incredible, uplifting and inspiring life story of one of our favourite personalities. Tragedy, humour, heartache and unswerving determination -- a big life with big dreams. Anh's story will move and amuse all who read it

Inspiration for the feature film and one of the most acclaimed graphic novels ever, following the adventures of two teenage girls, Enid and Becky, best friends facing the prospect of growing up, and more importantly, apart.

Looking for excitement, Coraline ventures through a mysterious door into a world that is similar, yet disturbingly different from her own, where she must challenge a gruesome entity in order to save herself, her parents, and the souls of three others.

A quirky, fast-paced urban fantasy by esteemed author Jane Yolen Aliera Carstairs just doesn't fit in. She's always front and center at the fencing studio, but at school she's invisible. And she's fine with that . . . until Avery Castle walks into her first period biology class. Avery may seem perfect now, but will he end up becoming her Prince Charming or just a toad?

Upon completing "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" in 1922, F. Scott Fitzgerald declared it "the funniest story ever written" and "one of my two favorite stories." It's the strange tale of a man who is "born" 70 years old and mysteriously ages in reverse. This stunning graphic novel adaptation illustrates Benjamin Button's many adventures: He falls in love, starts a family, and runs a successful business. In his later years, he goes to war and attends Harvard University. As an old man, he resembles a newborn baby and returns to the care of a nurse.   Complete with Fitzgerald's original text, dazzling watercolor illustrations, and an afterword describing the story's origins and critical reception, this edition offers a fresh look at a literary masterpiece.

Persepolis is the story of Satrapi's unforgettable childhood and coming of age within a large and loving family in Tehran during the Islamic Revolution; of the contradictions between private life and public life in a country plagued by political upheaval; of her high school years in Vienna facing the trials of adolescence far from her family; of her homecoming--both sweet and terrible; and, finally, of her self-imposed exile from her beloved homeland. It is the chronicle of a girlhood and adolescence at once outrageous and familiar, a young life entwined with the history of her country yet filled with the universal trials and joys of growing up.

'A tender story of grief, trust and healing ... Hannah broke my heart.' AJ Betts I have three months left to call Katie my older sister. Then the gap will close and I will pass her. I will get older. But Katie will always be fifteen, eleven months and twenty-one days old.Hannah's world is in pieces and she doesn't need the school counsellor to tell her she has deep-seated psychological issues. With a seriously depressed mum, an injured dad and a dead sister, who wouldn't have problems?Hannah should feel terrible but for the first time in ages, she feels a glimmer of hope and isn't afraid anymore. Is it because the elusive Josh is taking an interest in her? Or does it run deeper than that?In a family torn apart by grief and guilt, one girl's struggle to come to terms with years of torment shows just how long old wounds can take to heal.'The Protected captures the volatility of adolescence, the fragility of family, and the importance of a good friend.' AJ Betts, author of Zac & Mia 

Harriet Price has the perfect life: she's a prefect at Rosemead Grammar, she lives in a mansion, and her gorgeous girlfriend is a future prime minister. So when she decides to risk it all by helping bad girl Will Everhart expose the school's many ongoing issues, Harriet tells herself it's because she too is seeking justice. And definitely not because she finds Will oddly fascinating. Will Everhart can't stand posh people like Harriet, but even she has to admit Harriet's ideas are good - and they'll keep Will from being expelled. That's why she teams up with Harriet to create Amelia Westlake, a fake student who can take the credit for a series of provocative pranks at their school. But the further Will and Harriet's hoax goes, the harder it is for the girls to remember they're sworn enemies - and to keep Amelia Westlake's true identity hidden. As tensions burn throughout the school, how far will they go to keep Amelia Westlake - and their feelings for each other - a secret?

The million-copy bestselling phenomenon, Fredrik Backman's heartwarming debut is a funny, moving, uplifting tale of love and community that will leave you with a spring in your step. Perfect for fans of Rachel Joyce's The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, Graeme Simsion's The Rosie Project and David Nicholl's US. New York Times bestseller 'Warm, funny, and almost unbearably moving' Daily Mail 'Rescued all those men who constantly mean to read novels but never get round to it' Spectator Books of the Year At first sight, Ove is almost certainly the grumpiest man you will ever meet. He thinks himself surrounded by idiots - neighbours who can't reverse a trailer properly, joggers, shop assistants who talk in code, and the perpetrators of the vicious coup d'etat that ousted him as Chairman of the Residents' Association. He will persist in making his daily inspection rounds of the local streets. But isn't it rare, these days, to find such old-fashioned clarity of belief and deed? Such unswerving conviction about what the world should be, and a lifelong dedication to making it just so? In the end, you will see, there is something about Ove that is quite irresistible...

Ziba came on a boat. A soggy old fishing boat that creaked and moaned as it rose and fell, rose and fell, across an endless sea

Rose lived with her dog, John Brown. `Just the two of us,' said Rose, until the mysterious midnight cat came along, and things began to change. An award-winning classic tale.

Two wild ducks become refugees when their swamp is drained. Their journey in search of a new place to live exposes them to danger, rejection and violence before they are given a new home.

When the enemy bombed the library, everything burned. As war rages, Peter and his father flee their home, taking with them a treasure box that holds something more precious than jewels. A book that tells the story of their people. They journey through mud and rain and long cold nights, and soon their survival becomes more important than any possessions they carry. When Peter loses his father and has to walk over the mountains, he must bury their treasure in an iron box to protect it, leaving it behind. But as the years go by, Peter never forgets the treasure box, and one day he returns to find it.

"In a starred review, Kirkus Reviewsraves, ""An award-winning artist captures the passion and purpose of this most notable 20th century American speech.... A title for rememberance and for re-dedication to the dream."" On August 28, 1963, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington, Martin Luther King gave one of the most powerful and memorable speeches in our nation's history. His words, paired with Caldecott Honor winner Kadir Nelson's magificent paintings, make for a picture book certain to be treasured by children and adults alike. The themes of equality and freedom for all are not only relevant today, 50 years later, but also provide young readers with an important introduction to our nation's past. From Dr. Bernice A. King- "My father's dream continues to live on from generation to generation, and this beautiful and powerful illustrated edition of his world-changing 'I Have a Dream' speech brings his inspiring message of freedom, equality, and peace to the youngest among us--those who will one day carry his dream forward for everyone.""

Anh Do's inspirational story about his family's incredible escape from war-torn Vietnam and his childhood in Australia, told especially for children. Giant waves crashed down on our little boat. I was terrified but my mum hugged me tight and told me, "Everything will be okay. Don't worry, it will be okay." Anh Do nearly didn't make it to Australia. His entire family came close to losing their lives as they escaped from war-torn Vietnam in an overcrowded boat. It was a dangerous journey, with murderous pirates and terrifying storms, but they managed to survive. Life in suburban Australia was also hard for a small boy with no English and funny lunches. But there was a loving extended family, lots of friends, and always something to laugh about for Anh, his brother Khoa, and their sister Tram. And eventually for a young Anh, who tried hard to see the bright side of life no matter what the difficulty, there was triumph. The Little Refugee tells the uplifting and inspiring childhood story of one of Australia's favorite personalities.

Collects the best short poems and extracts from the Classical tradition, by authors including Virgil, Homer, Catullus, Horace, Sappho and Ovid, and illustrates them with the finest Classical and classically inspired pieces from the British Museums extensive collection. With an engaging and informative introduction on love in Classical poetry and a short biographical note on each of the poets covered

Whenever I used to see one of those old fellers going off with a spear for murrung -- fish -- I'd watch him. I'd run after him. I was only a little feller but I had a sense to follow and learn how to do all those things." Not everyone has someone to look up to and learn from in their life. But for this little boy, Uncle Abraham is that special person. This story about Minah, Uncle Abraham, shows how the passing down of knowledge can help keep memory alive.

This collection covers poetry from ancient (Homer and Omar Khayyam) to modern (Pablo Neruda and Derek Walcott) to introduce young readers to poets outside Great Britain and the United States. Each of the fifteen chapters includes biographical and historical information on one poet, along with several poems, discussion of techniques and themes, and suggestions for further reading.

Nearly 300 speeches offer provocative themes, historic parallels, and memorable quotations: Socrates, Julius Caesar, St. Francis, Martin Luther, Napoleon, Victor Hugo, Mohandas K. Gandhi, Winston Churchill, Fulton J. Sheen, Barbara Jordan, Malcolm X, Ronald Reagan, Nelson Mandela, Earl of Spencer, and many others.

A great speech has the power to define the times, to inspire, to stir and to motivate. This collection of ancient and modern speeches incldes the words of activists, politicians, philosophers and scores of others who have borne witness to significant moments from the first century to the twenty-first. Many have made history. They include- Mahatma Gandhi Oliver Cromwell Kevin Rudd Inga Clendinnen Daniel Mannix Napoleon Bonaparte Oericles Thomas Jefferson Nelson Mandela Martin Luther King Arundhati Roy the 9th Earl Spencer Elanor Roosevelt Winston Churchill Colin Powell the Dalai Lama Great Speecheswill make a great addition to every home and library shelf.

Collected here are more than 50 of the world’s most momentous and insightful speeches, drawn from a vast range of historical eras and from persons of all walks of life. Some speeches—such as Roosevelt’s response to the bombing of Pearl Harbor—changed the course of history itself, while others—such as Martin Luther King’s talk in Washington, DC—defined an era. Along with a transcript of each speech, a biography of the speaker is provided along with an explanation detailing why each speech was significant and its impact on the world. Evocative and inspiring, this is a fascinating collection of some of the greatest words ever spoken by mankind.

"This is a collection of sixty of the greatest speeches of modern times- speeches that not only shaped and changed the world but also moved us to action- emotionally, politically and socially- Franklin Roosevelts A Day That Will Live in Infamy and John Kennedys Ask Not What Your Country Can Do For You. Others remain relatively unknown- Bishop Romeros Stop the Repression sermon and New Zealand Prime Minister David Langes speech Nuclear Weapons are Morally Indefensible."