2012

They've got the world at their feet, but have they got what it takes? Fifteen-year-old Tara Webster has grown up on a farm in outback Australia and has dreamt of being a dancer ever since she was a little girl. When she makes it into the National Academy of Dance - the best school in the country - she is sure her life is about to be spectacular. What Tara doesn’t realise is how far behind she is in her training, and that there’s a whole lot more to surviving the Academy than just dancing... It’s through Tara's eyes that we enter the world of the National Academy of Dance. This is the year Tara will leave her home on the farm and go into boarding school in Sydney; the year she will fall in love for the first time and have her heart broken. It’s a year of friendships and jealousies, triumphs and disappointments. This is the year she'll be tested. Does she have what it takes to be a dancer? Can she cope with the sacrifices she's required to make?

They've got the world at their feet, but have they got what it takes? When Sammy Lieberman joins the National Academy of Dance he soon learns there’s a lot on his plate: overcoming his weak ankles, fighting his father’s determination that he should become a doctor and running from Saturday class to synagogue. But just when Sammy thinks he’s making progress his own feelings confront him with even greater challenges.

They've got the world at their feet, but have they got what it takes? Sixteen-year-old Kat isn't sure what she wants to do in the future but she does know there’s more to life than dancing. If only her parents would realise it. Kat’s mother is the National Ballet Company's principal ballerina and her stepfather is an acclaimed choreographer. It’s tough having celebrity parents and in the dance world this is as A-List as it gets. As a result, Kat has no choice but to attend the Academy and pretend she looks pleased about it - which couldn’t be further from the truth. Kat is naturally talented at ballet but finds her hip hop classes much more interesting. Kat’s energy is infectious and her flair for mischief, legendary. She’s one of those people who can convince you to do anything. The perfect complement to Tara’s wide-eyed innocence, Kat stops her friend from getting too earnest with a healthy dose of realism and a naughty sense of humour. Some people are afraid of failure but Kat is afraid of success. She loves her mother but doesn't want to end up like her. Kat and her stepbrother, Ethan, are used to taking care of themselves. Their parents are proud that the kids are so independent. Kat wishes just once they could be like a normal family. No one would ever guess how insecure she often feels...

They've got the world at their feet, but have they got what it takes? 'I'm here to dance. the rest of you can play happy families.' Abigail has been dancing forever and is the best student in the class. It's not a title she's going to give up easily. Startlingly beautiful, she learnt long ago how to use her charisma to manipulate others. When Abigail wants something she can make you feel as if you're the whole world... and when she's got what she wanted she can end the privilege just as quickly. this year Abigail's body is changing and she regards it as a terrible betrayal. Suddenly, it's no longer so easy to be the thinnest or the best and Abigail pushes herself to work harder than anyone.She is a naturally gifted dancer but knows she's not perfect. Abigail isn't a horrible person but she believes ballet is everything and she will do whatever it takes, even if means stepping over every friend she's got in the process. Besides, on the rare occasion she tries to let other people in, it never works out the way she planned. And so Abigail figures since everyone already thinks she's a bitch, she may as well be the biggest bitch she can be. But when things get tough, is loneliness too high a price to pay for reaching the top? this year, bit by bit, Abigail learns the value in friendship. Begins on ABC1at 5.30 pm on Monday 31 May and screens every week day until 5 July. thenScreens on ABC3 at 3.40 pm on 6 June, screening double episodes every Sunday through to end August

A book for every parent who has thought about encouraging—or pushing—their child towards stage, television or celluloid; for every grown-up who wanted to audition and wasn’t allowed to, and for anyone interested in the consequences when showbiz happens to nice, ordinary people.

Josie, Nicolette, and Aviva all get mixed up with a senior boy–a cool, slick, sexy boy who can talk them into doing almost anything he wants. In a blur of high school hormones and personal doubt, each girl struggles with how much to give up and what ultimately to keep for herself. How do girls handle themselves? How much can a boy get away with? And in the end, who comes out on top? A bad boy may always be a bad boy. But this bad boy is about to meet three girls who won’t back down.

If you start to read this book, you will go on a journey with a nine-year-old boy named Bruno. (Though this isn't a book for nine-year-olds.) And sooner or later you will arrive with Bruno at a fence. Fences like this exist all over the world. We hope you never have to encounter one.

Tim Winton is Australia’s best-loved novelist. Breath is an extraordinary evocation of an adolescence spent resisting complacency, testing one’s limits against nature, finding like-minded souls, and discovering just how far one breath will take you. It’s a story of extremes—extreme sports and extreme emotions. On the wild, lonely coast of Western Australia, two thrillseeking and barely adolescent boys fall into the enigmatic thrall of veteran big-wave surfer Sando. Together they form an odd but elite trio. The grown man initiates the boys into a kind of Spartan ethos, a regimen of risk and challenge, where they test themselves in storm swells on remote and shark-infested reefs, pushing each other to the edges of endurance, courage, and sanity. But where is all this heading? Why is their mentor’s past such forbidden territory? And what can explain his American wife’s peculiar behavior? Venturing beyond all limits—in relationships, in physical challenge, and in sexual behavior—there is a point where oblivion is the only outcome. Full of Winton’s lyrical genius for conveying physical sensation, Breath is a rich and atmospheric coming-of-age tale from one of world literature’s finest storytellers.

It’s never too late to run away from home! Helen burns her bed and her bridges when she leaves home to run a second hand bookshop. But can you ever really discard the past? For starters there are thousands of musty books to sort through. Then her sons return home with more baggage than a Qantas 747 and on top of all that the drunk who sold her the bookshop is determined to muscle his way back into the business. Helen desperately wants life to be a literary novel but it’s looking more and more like a pile of pulp fiction. As quirky characters browse the shelves of her bookshop, Helen fights for the right to choose a future that is not yet written.

A tragic tale about falling in love on the world's most infamous ill-fated sea voyage as heroine, Tess, discovers darker secrets that lie beneath the doomed crossing. and a hidden brotherhood that threaten to tear her lover from her forever.

They've got the world at their feet, but have they got what it takes? Christian Reed is the kind of boy most teenage girls dream of - gorgeous, mysterious and angry with the world. Christian likes to push his body to the max; the greater the risk, the more it interests him. Before his mother died, she made Christian promise that he’d audition for the National Academy of Dance. Christian kept his promise but never said he’d go if he got in. Instead, he ignores his letter of acceptance and continues to hang out with his fellow adrenaline-seeking mates. One night, Christian ends up in serious trouble with the police. Kicked out by his foster family, he arrives at the Academy not because he wants to be there but because he has no place else to go... For a long time Christian remains a bit of a mystery. What isn't in question is his dancing ability. But while some of the girls swoon over Christian’s bad boy image, Tara finds him unbearable. Down-to-earth one moment, moody and aloof the next, Christian is the most infuriating boy she knows! As the year progresses Christian lets down his defenses, revealing a complicated person underneath. It’s a turbulent journey but slowly he begins to trust people again. And, gradually, Christian and Tara discover that love and hate can be two sides of the same coin.