Will Kostakis

Charming, funny and poignant, this was a delight. I loved Bill and his best friend Lucas and Bill's bumbling attempts at lurve were hilarious and entertaining. The loving relationships with Yiayia - the quintessential Greek grandmother and the "glue" holding the family together - were portrayed sympathetically and warmly and her directive that Bill fulfills her bucket list fills Bill with dread and seems impossible. I also loved the fact that the novel embraces the sexuality spectrum. AND, show more Hooray! Most of the adults are supportive of their children (a bit of a rarity in YA at the moment). I must admit, I wasn't drawn to this book (cover issues AGAIN!) but I'm so glad I read it. show less

Only the second novel from the author, this is both a funny and sad book about families and adolescence. The main character is 17 year old Billy Tsiolkas and he is part of a Greek-Australian family. He is the middle son, in a single-parent family and loves his idiosyncratic grandmother, Yiayia. She is a great character in the story and to roughly quote Yiayia’s outlook on life from the novel “Life is made of 3 parts: at first you are embarrassed by your family; in the second part you show more make your own family and thirdly you embarrass the family you’ve made.” Yiayia becomes ill and so she gives Billy her list of things to do, her bucket-list. It is a short list of three things but basically they amount to Billy getting his family, which has drifted apart, back together again. This is a big task and Billy has to deal with all sorts of situations as he tries to follow Yiayia’s instructions. There are many situations and characters that readers would identify with as they read this realistic portrayal of adolescent life in Australia today. I like they way Billy’s character described the Melbourne’s laneways, when he and his friend “Sticks” make a flying visit, to an address supplied by Yiayia. show less

Was put off reading this book by the lame cover but its actually quite good - an older readers Percy Jackson. 16 year old Connor is hiding from his ex- best mate in an old boys school in Sydney when he stumbles on a trap door. Opening the door leads to a hidden room with a locked chest inside. While hiding and trying to work out if he can open the chest, a girl rushes in and does so and suddenly he is thrust into a world of living statues, gods and the end of the world scenarios - sound show more familiar?
Liked how Connor is gay so there's no romantic entanglement between him and the girl Sally (but later some with a "gorgeous boy" at a ball). A couple of twists that I didn't see coming and so I will be reading the second one to see how all the problems Connor faces are resolved. For older students due to language and mature content. show less

A book within a book about giving up everything for love and family. Harvey's father Ba has decided to leave his Dad and so they get on a plane to Sydney from Perth to stay at this grandmother's flat over a cafe in Sydney. Harvey is bisexual and discovers some things about his Ba he'd rather not know, re-connects with his great-grandmother ( only to find out she has Alzheimer's) and incurs the wrath of his feisty grandmother working at her cafe part-time. All the while trying to work out who show more he wants - is it Bradley the Grindr hook up or Isabelle, the barista at work?
Sotiris is 17 and has just had his first book published but instead of being on top of the world, a mistake means he loses the plot and it is not until he meet Jem that life begins to look up.
The reader then discovers that Sotiris ( who becomes Sam Baker for later version of the book) and Jem are actually Harvey's Ba and Dad, and Sotiris has left Jem because he is trying to write the story of them and can only do so when he is away from Jem.
The whole book itself is then semi-autobiographical of Will K ( i.e. gay Greek boy) so the reader can see bits of Will K's life in both the story of Harvey and Sotiris.
Was engrossing but somewhat unresolved at the end. I felt the book just stopped. Great writing and wonderful descriptions of the Sydney cafe life. show less