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They are also best friends. It doesn't matter that Rosie is white and Nona is Aboriginal: their family connections tie them together for life.
The girls are inseparable until Nona moves away at the age of nine. By the time she returns, they're in Year 10 and things have changed. Rosie prefers to hang out in the nearby mining town, where she goes to school with the glamorous Selena and her gorgeous older brother, Nick.
When a political announcement highlights divisions between the Aboriginal community and the mining town, Rosie is put in a difficult position: will she have to choose between her first love and her oldest friend?
Winner, Book of the Year: 2016 NT Literary Awards
Highly commended, Victorian Premier's Literary Awards for Writing for Young Adults
Longlisted, 2015 Inky Awards
Honour Book, 2015 Children's Book Council of Australia, Book of the Year for Older Reader
Shortlisted, 2016 Territory Read Award
'A powerful coming-of-age story ... Atkins writes with clear-eyed sensitivity, and although I longed to hear Nona's voice, its absence is deliberate and effective. Nona & Me is poignant young-adult fiction invoking the complex and often overlooked realities of remote indigenous life.' —Sydney Morning Herald
'[Clare Atkins] wrestles with some of this country's most hotly debated political issues with a rare lightness of touch. [Nona & Me is] a convincing portrait of a naive but feverish first love, friendships waxing and waning, and the clash between fitting in and sticking to your values. Above all, there's a warmth and optimism that's hard to resist.' —Sunday Age
'This [is a] powerful, beautifully contoured story of cross-cultural friendship.' —The Weekend Australian
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
September 24, 2014 -
Formats
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Kindle Book
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OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9781922231680
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EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9781922231680
- File size: 2752 KB
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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August 7, 2014
Nona & Me is one of those wonderful books that takes you deeply into a rarely seen world and brings it vibrantly to life. Set in a remote part of the Northern Territory, it explores a host of political and social issues through the eyes of a teenage girl caught between two very different worlds. Rosie may be white, but growing up her life revolved around her adopted family in the Aboriginal community of Yirrkala—until her best friend Nona left. Now Rosie has new friends, a new crush and a whole new world. But when Nona comes back, it all threatens to come crashing down. Rosie is such a relatable character, despite occasionally being awful to everyone. Her struggles are universal, as she deals with conflicts over family versus friends, and personal values over fitting in. Debut author Clare Atkins writes about a place and a time with love and care, and explores a complicated and fraught situation with honesty and respect. Nona & Me belongs to that category of YA that appeals to adults as well as teens; I highly recommended this for readers aged 14 and up.Meg Whelan is the children’s book buyer at the Hill of Content Bookshop in Melbourne
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