Score

i'm glad that there is a "clean" list because u really can't tell if a book is appropriate or not just by looking at it. sometimes with movies or music its easy to tell just by seeing or hearing a little of it, but with books u can't judge by the cover, most of the time. so yeah, i like clean lists.

Me too.

Me three :)

The President's Caddy

The Schoolboy

I'm going to guess "The Clay Lion" at #4 is spam.

How exactly are people defining "coming of age"? O_o

Caroline wrote: "How exactly are people defining "coming of age"? O_o"

No idea... Since a bunch of these books are in no way "coming of age" books. It takes in my opinion.. The Main character actually aging from childhood to adulthood. The harry potter books for example.. By themselves have nothing to promote them in the coming of age category. Overall though he does grow up during the entire series. So i would give that a pass. Even if each book separately does not fit.

Wolfgarr wrote: "No idea... Since a bunch of these books are in no way "coming of age" books. It takes in my opinion.. The Main character actually aging from childhood to adulthood. The harry potter books for example.. By themselves have nothing to promote them in the coming of age category. Overall though he does grow up during the entire series. So i would give that a pass. Even if each book separately does not fit."

I added a description. These Listopias need to be taken with a grain of salt--unfortunately!--although the first page is usually decent. :|

I can't see how some of these books are considered 'Coming of Age'!

Steve wrote: "I can't see how some of these books are considered 'Coming of Age'!"
Totally agree! I voted for Outback Odyssey because you really see Jimmy change as the story goes on. He arrives in Australia pretty young and naive, and the outback soon knocks a bit of that out of him. What I liked though is that it’s not just about him growing up. There’s a lot more going on with prejudice, survival, belonging and the people he meets along the way. It just felt like a good fit for the list.

I had to share this with my American friends.

I’ve been telling people about Outback Odyssey for a while, but seeing these two things together really caught my attention.

Rich Books now has a dedicated page for the book and three related features. And over on Goodreads, readers have voted Outback Odyssey to #3 on the Historical Fiction: Australia list — sitting right behind The Thorn Birds and A Town Like Alice.

As an American reader, those are names I recognize. So seeing a newer Australian story sitting alongside them made me think, okay, people really are discovering something here.

What I liked about Outback Odyssey was that it gave me an Australia I didn’t really know. The migration story, the outback, the prejudice Jimmy carries with him, and particularly what he begins to understand from the First Nations people he meets.

If you’re in the US and enjoy historical fiction that actually leaves you thinking about the history behind the story, put this one on your radar. richdadmagazine com/article/outback-odyssey-review