November Book Club
Who’s finished their Christmas list? At Franc.World we’ve put together the world’s biggest, shoppable and most epic gift guide that includes plenty of amazing books to keep all our book-loving tweens going all holidays and well into the new year. Which books are on your list? Perhaps our November book club titles can help you choose?
New Dragon City
If you like apocalyptic movies like I am Legend, Mad Max or The Book of Eli, you are going to love this book.
Three years after dragons decimated the world, Noah, his hardcore survivalist father, and a ragtag group of survivors are scavenging and scraping together a new life in New York City.
Adults spend their time establishing a make-shift society, kids forage for materials, books and whatever else they can find in abandoned homes. But a chance encounter between Noah and a young dragon forces him to question everything he thought he knew.
With rumours spreading that there's a group of survivors living in harmony with dragons instead of hiding underground, Noah teams up with his fire-breathing ally to find out if peace between humans and dragons is really possible.
Really engaging with a great plot and colourful characters, New Dragon City is a delight to read. Not only does it present some pretty cool ‘what ifs’ like ‘what if dragons overtook your city?’ it also delves into relationships with friends and what it means to be family.
Author Mari Mancusi is a former Emmy award winning TV producer and author of more than two dozen sci-fi/fantasy books for kids, teens and adults. Her bestselling series have been chosen as featured selections in the Scholastic Book Fairs and clubs and have been selected by the American Library Association as “Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers” and “Popular Paperbacks.”
Little Ash: Perfect Match
Australian tennis superstar Ash Barty has teamed up with authors Jasmin McGaughey and Jade Goodwin to bring young tween readers this fun new illustrated series about school, sport, friendship and family.
The first book in the series, Perfect Match sees Ash try a variety of sports including karate, softball, netball and gymnastics. But Ash still hasn’t found the right sport that she absolutely loves.
An easy-to-read first chapter book for younger readers, the Little Ash series is engaging, with sweet illustrations and fun story lines to ensure even the most reluctant of readers will enjoy discovering these books.
Looking for Alibrandi
First published in 1992, Looking for Alibrandi by Melina Marchetta, has become an enduring and modern classic.
Although now 30 years old, it has become multi-award-winning, a bestseller and made into an award-winning feature film, largely due to the raw, honest way in which it was written, ensuring such strong relatability from teenage readers – no matter the generation.
The content is also very relatable, in that it explores the world of Josephine Alibrandi, a seventeen-year-old, first-generation Italian immigrant who is in her final year at a wealthy girls' school in Australia. On the cusp of adulthood, this is the year Josie meets her father, the year she falls in love, the year she finds the real truth about her family – and the identity she has been searching for.
For those parents/carers who read it during their teenage years, or indeed saw the 2000 film of the same name – (John Barton! OMG I’m not crying, you’re crying!), it is also a wonderful book to support conversations about love, loss and family.
Beloved by generations, a moving and revealing book, unusual for its honesty and its insight into the life of a young female, it is as relevant now as it was in 1992 (and 2002, and 2012!!).