Fiction
Category: Fiction
Furia
Furia
By Yamile Saied Méndez
17-year-old, Argentinian Camila is from a multi-ethnic background and secretly soccer-obsessed. To achieve her dreams, Camila must step out of the shadows and become ‘La Furia’, an unstoppable force for change that refuses to let men and context define her.
This exciting, action-packed audiobook is dramatically and passionately read. As well as a sports story, you’ll hear about the real-life disappearances of young women in Argentina.
The local detail, language and culture references are rich, but the struggle for recognition, patriarchal oppression and toxic masculinity will be familiar to girls playing or following sport anywhere. Despite the gritty issues, Furia is a positive story.
You’ll be gripped as Camila battles on and off the pitch, making time fly whenever and wherever you’re listening.
Bibliographic data
| Publisher & imprint | Hachette Audio |
| Publication date | 15 September 2020 |
| Length | 532 minutes |
| Format | Audiobook |
| Read by | Sol Madariaga |
| Subjects | Sport, Relationships |
| ISBN | 9781649040114 |
A Map to the Sun
A Map to the Sun
By Sloane Leong
This gorgeous graphic novel presents a diverse group of friends forming a basketball team in a school dismissive of girls’ sports and as a positive alternative to their difficult home and personal lives.
Themes of friendship and teamwork are realistically portrayed with all the arguments, communication breakdowns, and make-ups that are common in true friendship and team sports.
Overall, you’ll get a respectful engagement with painful topics like body image, family issues, sexism, and inappropriate relationships but also a heart warming message of friendship, understanding, and respect.
Throughout, the opportunities sport provides for self-determination and growth are strongly represented. Plus, if you’re into art, you’ll love how Leong uses colour to create mood and how she portrays dynamic and dramatic movement in the sports scenes.
Bibliographic data
| Publisher & imprint | First Second |
| Publication date | 16 October 2020 |
| Pages | 368 |
| Format | Paperback graphic novel |
| Subjects | Sport, Relationships, Coming of Age, Comics |
| ISBN | 9781250146687 |
Run, Rebel
Run, Rebel
By Manjeet Mann
In this audiobook, Manjeet Mann narrates her own verse novel, making it feel like a live poetry reading and emphasising the power of spoken language.
Run, Rebel is the story of Amber finding her voice on the running track. Her parents are poor, illiterate, and still carrying the wounds of their own childhoods. It falls to Amber to break cycles of oppression and stage her own personal ‘revolution’ to achieve her sporting dreams.
Mann’s portrayal of school life, crushes, and the impacts of bullying will strike a chord with most listeners. But Amber’s Indian, immigrant story also brings intercultural insight for listeners from other backgrounds. You’ll also hear from other female characters, enriching your understanding through multiple perspectives.
The language is always clear and easy to understand. Additionally, the audio format includes some clever tricks when voices overlap, which really makes the text come alive in your headphones.
Bibliographic data
| Publisher & imprint | Penguin |
| Publication date | 5 March 2020 |
| Length | 334 minutes |
| Format | Audiobook |
| Read by | Manjeet Mann |
| Subjects | Sport, Poetry, Relationships |
| ISBN | 9780241442784 |
My Spare Heart
My Spare Heart
By Jared Thomas
When seventeen-year-old Aboriginal basketball loving Phoebe moves to a new town she initially struggles to find her place. The hipster hippies and ‘progressive’ school are alien. What’s more she suddenly finds she is no longer the best basketball player, something many players face when stepping up a level.
Phoebe’s development isn’t helped by the aggressive attention of boys and the shame of her non-Aboriginal alcoholic mother. Eventually, she turns these challenges into opportunities for growth, both personally and in her sport.
Teen readers will recognise the conflict between wanting to hide and needing to speak up, between wanting to fit in and being authentically yourself. As an Aboriginal Australian writer, Thomas also presents positive examples of how culture and identity can be a resource for strength.
Bibliographic data
| Publisher & imprint | A&U Children’s |
| Publication date | 31 May 2022 |
| Pages | 384 |
| Format | Paperback novel |
| Subjects | Sport, Relationships, Aboriginal Australians |
| ISBN | 9781760631833 |
I Kick and I Fly
I Kick and I Fly
By Ruchira Gupta
Activist Ruchira Gupta has fought at the highest levels for women’s rights and against international sex trafficking. Here, she turns these experiences into an inspiring and exciting novel about escape and redefining what’s possible for yourself and those you love.
You follow fourteen-year-old Heera as she discovers a talent for martial arts that can break her out of the cage others have put around her. Gupta’s story makes it clear that sex trafficking and patriarchal control are international issues that affect us all. Additionally all readers who struggle at school or home but find self-confidence through any sport will also relate to Heera’s journey.
Heera’s own progress is also wrapped in gripping adventure story, as she investigates the mystery of other girls’ disappearances, turning this deeply felt novel into a real page-turner.
Bibliographic data
| Publisher & imprint | One World Publications |
| Publication date | 4 July 2023 |
| Pages | 352 |
| Format | Paperback novel |
| Subjects | Sport, Social Justice |
| ISBN | 9780861546947 |
Hockey Girl Loves Drama Boy
Hockey Girl Loves Drama Boy
By Faith Erin Hicks
Alix is a talented ice hockey player with anger issues, a mother who doesn’t even like sport, and a bullying, jealous teammate. Could Ezra the popular, queer, drama kid be just the friend, even boyfriend, that she needs?
Hicks’ graphic novel is both a feel-good romance and sensitive exploration of serious issues, including family violence. Topics of gender and sexuality are also foregrounded as both Alix and Ezra refuse to be labelled and tied to a single, defining identity.
The art can be cute when it suits but also powerful bringing both the sports action to life and and making the more emotional scenes hit harder.
Sports players will appreciate how Alix’s focus on her game at first isolates her but later becomes the way to build bridges with her parents and her new friends. It’s especially gratifying to see the mother character come to understand Alix’s passion for sport.
Bibliographic data
| Publisher & imprint | Pan Macmillan Australia |
| Publication date | 3 October 2023 |
| Pages | 304 |
| Format | Paperback graphic novel |
| Subjects | Sport, Romance, Relationships, Coming of Age, Comics |
| ISBN | 9781761560576 |