The Twelve Books of Christmas

Twelve great books to put on your Christmas list...

Pick Me Up by David Roberts and Jeremy Leslie
(Dorling Kindersley) $49.95 HB

Subtitled Stuff you need to know, this book includes How to Spot a Fake Smile, How on Earth did Man Get to the Moon? What is the meaning of life? and Was Beethoven a punk? With outrageously cool design, Pick Me Up looks like a cross between one of those funky architectural design books, and the Guinness Book of Records.

Clay by David Almond
(Hachette Livre) $16.95 pbk

Pretty much everything award winning writer David Almond touches becomes tinged with a dark, whimsical beauty. Clay is no exception. When Stephen Rose arrives in town, Davie's simple, small-town world is transformed into something huge and terrifying, where clay can come to life, and God can't be taken for granted.

Looking for Alaska by John Green
(HarperCollins) $19.95 pbk

Miles' life has been largely uneventful up until now - so he leaves home to go to boarding school, searching for the "Great Perhaps". What he finds is love, tragedy, alcohol, pranks, famous last words and poetry. A daring, funny and moving book and winner of the American Library Association Michael L Printz Award.

We Are the Weather Makers by Tim Flannery
(Text) $19.95 pbk

This concise, revised edition of The Weathermakers is designed especially for teenage readers. It is a passionate book about climate change and global warming, that presents hope along with irrefutable science. Flannery shows how climate change connects and affects us all and what young people can do about it.

Notes from the Teenage Underground by Simmone Howell
(PanMacmillan) $16.95 pbk

Is this the coolest book published in Australia this year? Gem, Mira and Lo, three Melbourne teenagers, need a project as summer looms. It's time to go Underground. Gem starts making an underground film. Mira sets out to find 'boys-without-barcodes'. Nobody's quite sure what Lo will do, but it will be Big. But can Gem's friendship with the others survive this whirlwind of boys, wild nights and the avant-garde?

Rose by any other name
by Maureen McCarthy (Allen & Unwin)

Maureen McCarthy is the popular author of Queen Kat, Carmel and St Jude Get a Life. When the year began, Rose was living in her fabulous house with her loving family. She had top VCE marks, a great best friend, and had just met a cute boy.
One year later, Rose is living in a dump. Her best friend hasn’t spoken to her for months. Her family has fallen apart, and she’s blown off uni to work in a café. What happened in the intervening year is fascinating, heartbreaking and utterly gripping. It is fantastic to see that McCarthy still has her magic touch.

Bindy is perfect. She's smart, super-organised, friendly and helpful to her fellow students. Little wonder then, that everyone hates her. But do they hate her enough to try to kill her? A black, black comedy full of twists and surprises.

D.J. Schwenk milks cows. She plays sport. She doesn't Talk about How She's Feeling. No one in her family does. So a lot of stuff ends up not getting said. Why is her best friend Amber acting so wierd? And why doesn't D.J.'s little brother ever speak? What's her mother's big secret? And how on earth is D.J. going to tell her dad that she wants to join the boys' high school football team? If the movie Napoleon Dynamite rocked your world, try this.

For the discerning fantasy reader in your family (this is published as an adult book, but will be loved by readers of all ages). Think Hornblower. Or Master and Commander. But with dragons. Director Peter Jackson has just bought the movie rights to this one, so get ready for a blockbuster. Fantasy readers will love this book; it’s a serious page-turner.

David Case is on the run. From Fate. He changes his name to Justin and gets a whole new look, thanks to new friend Agnes. He develops new relationships with his telepathic baby brother, an invisible dog, and a male rabbit called Alice. He has a few close-calls, and things spiral out of control. Can Justin really escape his Fate? From the award winning author of how i live now.

The long-awaited graphic novel by one of the world's finest illustrators. The Arrival is a wordless story of migration. Stunning, hauntingly beautiful artwork blends with the unspoken universal story of moving and starting a new life. A beautiful book by a great artist.

Vampire stories are no longer the domain of mysterious pale men with long black cloaks and funny accents. These vampires are the product of science. They're parasites, spreading through the human race like a plague. But are these vampires really the bad guys?