Kids' Book Review: #LoveOzYA March Update with Jaclyn Moriarty

To support the #LoveOzYA initiative, each month Kids' Book Review will ask an Australian YA author to share their favourite Australian young adult titles - what they are reading, what they've read and what books are on their TBR pile. We'll also include a list of Australian author YA new releases for the month. Our guest author for March is Jaclyn Moriarty, author of numerous books including Dreaming of Amelia, Finding Cassie Crazy, and The Colours of Madeleine trilogy.

What are you currently reading?
Freedom Ride by Sue Lawson.

What are your recent OzYA favourites?
Too many to choose between: I am very proud to be part of OzYA. It’s some of the best literature in the world.

Some of my recent favourites include:
Clariel by Garth Nix
The Extraordinaires by Michael Pryor
Cloudwish by Fiona Wood
The Peony Lantern by Frances Watts
Calypso Summer by Jared Thomas
The Burning Elephant by Christopher Raja
Nona and Me by Clare Atkins
Green Valentine by Lili Wilkinson

I could keep going. As soon as I send this, I’ll remember five more.

What 5 OzYA titles are currently in your TBR pile?
These are all books that I want to read soon, or when they come out, because I love the authors or they sound intriguing or I’ve heard great things about them, or all of the

Summer Skin by Kirsty Eagar
My Sister Rosa by Justine Larbalestier, My Sister
Fall (Twinmaker #3) by Sean Williams
Words in Deep Blue by Cath Crowley
One Thousand Hills by James Roy and Noel
Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay
Zeroes by Scott Westerfeld and Margo Lanagan

That’s seven, isn’t it?

What advice would you give to aspiring YA authors?
Ignore all advice and all rules. Do not despair if you find yourself not writing for weeks at a time: you are replenishing your imagination with life. Do not despair if you keep starting and then stopping and starting something new. One day you will find the story that holds your attention. And when you do, ask somebody who will read a chapter at a time, praise you effusively and insist that you keep going.

Can you tell us a little bit about your current writing project?
I’ve spent the last eight years in the Kingdom of Cello so now I feel strange and excited to be outside it again. I’m writing five things at once: A book about a girl whose parents ran away to have adventures with pirates when she was a baby, and have now left instructions for her to deliver treasure to several aunts; a novel about a woman who signs up to take a series of seminars on the secret to human flight; a new Ashbury-Brookfield book; a novel about my great-grandmother; and a time travel novel.

Visit Jaclyn Moriarty's website for more information about her books and author events. The third book in Jaclyn's Colours of Madeleine trilogy, A Tangle of Gold, is available this month published by Pan Macmillan.

March YA New Releases