I’m going to admit it: I definitely have some kind of ‘high school hangover’.

This is a book that tells you: Follow your dreams! Become who you are! Love your friends! – but doesn’t say that it’s easy. I read it again and again for its strongly Melbourne-based transitional tale (what up Canning St, Carlton!). This book held my hand gently and firmly into adulthood. The book follows three country girls as they enter their university years and the big smoke – Carmel is an incredibly shy girl who doesn’t know where she fits in, Jude is struggling with the legacy of her father’s death in South America, and Kat … well, she’s used to getting her own way. I am a staunch supporter of about 75% of the books listed here (the others simply because I haven’t read them), but there is one notable book missing from the list, in my opinion: Maureen McCarthy’s Queen Kat, Carmel and St Jude Get a Life.

I was a big fan of Gillian Rubinstein’s Galax-Arena, which led me to create my own language (I still have the notebooks to prove it). His Parkland trilogy was also a favourite. I’d nominate the underrated Victor Kelleher and his disturbing psychological thriller, Del-Del, which terrified me as a teenager. Kerry White collection of Australian children's books.As the penultimate week of the KYD YA Championship draws to a close, the team here at Kill Your Darlings thought we’d encourage you to nominate your favourite non KYDYAC-shortlisted book for the KYD YA People’s Choice category, by sharing our picks from the last 30 years. | Choice (Psychology) - Juvenile fiction. White Ravens International Youth Library List 1995.

Short-listed Children's Book Council of Australia Book of the Year Award. In a world of the distant future where humans and near-humans live in an enclosure patrolled by keepers and leopard-dog creatures, non conformist Cassie escapes with a feral boy, but their happiness hinges on their interpretation of 'freedom' and their acceptance of the choices made for them by the alien race which oversees their survival. Kerry White collection of Australian children's books.

Parkland by Victor Kelleher