My Books

    

 in ecstasy

‘The book every teenager will want to read - and every parent should read. A brutally frank look at the teenage sub-culture of drugs.’ Dr Bill Saunders

AVAILABLE APRIL 2008

‘Ecstasy. I’d always thought I might try it one day. I’d heard kids at school talking about getting wasted on the weekends. They made it sound awesome. I pictured the roughly made tablets with their tiny butterflies. An amazing experience inside a tiny pill.My body ached and my face was sore — I guess from smiling so much. I don’t remember ever laughing more. A new world had opened up for me, a place where I was confident and beautiful and a hot guy like Lewis wanted to be with me. That morning I figured life couldn’t get any better. How could something that made you feel like that be bad for you?’

Mia and Sophie hace been best friends forever — but that’s all about to change. Experimenting with drinking, boys and drugs, their friendship is tested to its limits, and they soon find out just how very bad things can be.

DESTROYING AVALON

Children’s Book Council of Australia Notable Book 2007

Winner West Australian Young Reader’s Book Awards 2007 Avis Page

Winner ‘Writing for Young Adults’ 2006 Western Australian Premier’s Book Awards

Highly Commended The Australian Therapists’ Award for Literature 2006

Being fourteen is hard but it’s even harder when your parents uproot you from a cosy little country town to a huge urban high school.

Already unsettled and anxious about the prospect of starting year ten at a new school, Avalon’s first day is a disaster and it only gets worse. She immediately finds herself on the wrong side of the popular girls and within days becomes the subject of a vicious cyber bullying campaign.Miserable and alienated she finds solace with a small group of friends, and for a while things seem okay. But the focus of the bullying shifts to her friend Marshall who becomes the victim of both physical and mental threats which have consequences more terrible than anything anyone could have imagined. Destroying Avalon is about adolescent peer pressure and the search for identity. It’s a
hard-hitting, uncompromising story of teenage struggle, courage and betrayal. It is also an incredibly moving story.

www.penguin.com.au

Judges Report Western Australian Premier’s Book Awards 2006

Kate McCaffrey - Destroying Avalon
Fremantle Arts Centre Press
Moving to a new school, Avalon has difficulty in finding friends – and then the real terror starts. The victim of relentless, vicious defamatory messages on the internet, Avalon is too devastated and confused to think how to defend herself until a tragedy brings release. This strong novel is grounded in the realities of secondary school culture, dialogue and relationships, where peer pressure has escalated into a new and dangerous realm. There are important messages in this riveting, fast paced story with high appeal for its target audience of young adult readers. A gripping, thought-provoking story of cyber-bullying, this novel may be a timely warning to parents and teachers of the present and rapidly evolving dangers facing young people today.

Judges report Notable Australian Children’s Books 2007

Older Readers: Destroying Avalon

When her family moves to the city, Avalon starts at a new high school. Although believing herself to be smart and strong, she is suddenly at the centre of brutal cyber bullying. The rapid insidious nature of the anonymous campaign unfolds compulsively through text and email messages, until it is realistically concluded. McCaffrey’s skilful storytelling keeps the reader guessing right to the end; she deals with friendship, cyber-stalking, homosexuality and teenage suicide. A list of supportive websites is appended. 

AVAILABLE AT ALL GOOD BOOKS STORES
Or directly from www.fremantlepress.com.au