 First edition | |
| Author | John Marsden |
|---|---|
| Country | Australia |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Young adult novel |
| Published | 1991 |
| Publisher | Pan Macmillan |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback |
| Pages | 160 pp (paperback) |
| ISBN | 978-0-440-21951-4 |
Letters From the Inside is a young adult novel written by Australian author John Marsden. It was first published in 1991. [1]
The story is told in the form of letters exchanged between fifteen-year-old girls, Mandy and Tracey. They begin writing after Tracey places an ad in fictional magazine GDY.
The two girls share information about their lives from school, to family, to relationships. Mandy reveals that her brother is abusive and violent, information which Tracey tries to ignore. It appears to Mandy that Tracey's life is perfect, as she has a wonderful boyfriend, rich and caring parents, and she is close to her siblings. However, inconsistencies start appearing in Tracey's letters, and when Mandy questions her on them, Tracey stops writing. Mandy refuses to give up, and finally Tracey replies with the information that she is in fact in a juvenile detention center, and will be there for a long time. Tracey expects Mandy to no longer want to write to her, but Mandy continues to do so.
Their relationship becomes even deeper now that they are completely honest with each other. Mandy, however, occasionally frustrates Tracey with her naivete as Tracey claims she is not as "nice" as Mandy claims, and becomes angry when Mandy makes a joke about tunneling into her cell and staying with her.
Throughout their letter writing, Tracey seems to get in touch with her "softer" side, which includes writing an essay about her Nanna. She wins an award for the story, and asks Mandy to celebrate for her.
Towards the end of the book, Tracey finally confesses the truth about her family and gives her reason for not wanting to hear about Mandy's brother. Mandy never replies to the letter and never writes again. Tracey continuously writes, getting increasingly worried, especially when her letters are sent back to her with "Return To Sender" on them, not in Mandy's hand writing.
Anita Silvey of Horn Book Magazine in her review of Letters from the Inside wrote: "John Marsden writes another riveting story of young women with much to say and much to escape from." [2]
Joanna Cole was an American author of children's books, best known as the author of the Magic School Bus series, which sold more than 93 million copies in 13 countries. She wrote more than 250 books, ranging from her first book Cockroaches to her famous series Magic School Bus, which is illustrated by Bruce Degen.
John Marsden is an Australian writer and alternative school principal. Marsden's books have been translated into eleven languages.
Cynthia Rylant is an American author and librarian. She has written more than 100 children's books, including works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Several of her books have won awards, including her novel Missing May, which won the 1993 Newbery Medal, and A Fine White Dust, which was a 1987 Newbery Honor book. Two of her books are Caldecott Honor Books.
Joyce Johnson is an American author of fiction and nonfiction. She was born Joyce Glassman in 1935 to a Jewish family in New York City and raised in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, a few blocks from the apartment of Joan Vollmer Adams where William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac lived from 1944 to 1946. She was a child actress and appeared in the Broadway production of I Remember Mama, which she writes about in her 2004 memoir Missing Men.
The Tomorrow series is a series of seven young adult invasion novels written by Australian writer John Marsden, detailing the invasion and occupation of Australia by a foreign power. The novels are related from the first-person perspective by Ellie Linton, a teenage girl, who is part of a small band of teenagers waging a guerrilla war on the enemy soldiers in the region around their fictional home town of Wirrawee. The name of the series is derived from the title of the first book, Tomorrow, When the War Began.
Ramona the Pest, by Beverly Cleary, is the second book of the Ramona series and the first to focus on Ramona Quimby as the protagonist. This children's book chronicles the adventures of Ramona's first few months at kindergarten. The book's title is derived from the characterization of Ramona as a "pest" by many, including her older sister Beatrice, known as "Beezus." Ramona the Pest was first published in 1968 and featured illustrations by Louis Darling. Other illustrators have since updated Ramona the Pest, including Alan Tiegreen, Tracy Dockray, and Jacqueline Rogers.
Eleanor Estes was an American children's writer and a children's librarian. Her book Ginger Pye, for which she also created illustrations, won the Newbery Medal. Three of her books were Newbery Honor Winners, and one was awarded the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award. Estes' books were based on her life in small-town Connecticut in the early 1900s.
Criss Cross is a novel by Lynne Rae Perkins that received the 2006 Newbery Medal for excellence in children's literature. It includes the character Debbie from her previous novel, All Alone in the Universe, but introduces several new characters, primarily her neighborhood friends Hector, Lenny, Patty, and Phil.
Elizabeth Wright Enright Gillham was an American writer of children's books, an illustrator, writer of short stories for adults, literary critic and teacher of creative writing. Perhaps best known as the Newbery Medal-winning author of Thimble Summer (1938) and the Newbery runner-up Gone-Away Lake (1957), she also wrote the popular Melendy quartet. A Newbery Medal laureate and a multiple winner of the O. Henry Award, her short stories and articles for adults appeared in many popular magazines and have been reprinted in anthologies and textbooks.
The Horn Book Magazine, founded in Boston in 1924, is the oldest bimonthly magazine dedicated to reviewing children's literature. It began as a "suggestive purchase list" prepared by Bertha Mahony and Elinor Whitney Field, proprietors of the country's first bookstore for children, The Bookshop for Boys and Girls. Opened in 1916 in Boston as a project of the Women's Educational and Industrial Union, the bookshop closed in 1936, but The Horn Book Magazine continues in its mission to "blow the horn for fine books for boys and girls" as Mahony wrote in her first editorial.
So Much to Tell You is a young adult novel by Australian author John Marsden, first published in 1987. It was his debut book. It was instantly successful in Australia and the US and has since been translated into nine languages and awarded many highly acclaimed literary awards including the Christopher Medal and the Victorian Premier's Award. It was declared the Best Book of the Year by the Children's Book Council, and, accordingly, its author hopes that it will act as a source of inspiration to other teens who have had to overcome trauma and challenges in their lives which have had long-term ramifications.
Finding Cassie Crazy is a novel by Jaclyn Moriarty. It was first published 2003 in Australia. The novel is both a stand-alone and also the second book of the Ashbury/Brookfield series.
The Moffats is the first in a series of four children's novels by American author Eleanor Estes. It tells the story of four young children and their mother who live in a small town in Connecticut. Their adventures are based on Estes' memories of her childhood and focus on a working-class, single-parent American family during World War I.
The Good Master (1935) is a children's novel written and illustrated by Kate Seredy. It was named a Newbery Honor book in 1936. The Good Master is set in the Hungarian countryside before World War I and tells the story of wild young Kate, who goes to live with her Uncle's family when her father can't control her and at the end she goes back to her father. At Uncle Marton's suggestion, Kate and her father move back to the country to live, to be near Marton and his wife and son. Like his brother Marton, Kate's father Sandor is a countryman and misses rural life. And he sees what a wonderful effect country life has had on Kate.
Dear Mr. Henshaw is a juvenile epistolary novel by Beverly Cleary and illustrator Paul O. Zelinsky that was awarded the Newbery Medal in 1984. Based on a 2007 online poll, the National Education Association listed the book as one of its "Teachers' Top 100 Books for Children".
Anita Silvey is an American author, editor, and literary critic in the genre of children’s literature. Born in 1947 in Bridgeport, Connecticut, Silvey has served as Editor-in-Chief of The Horn Book Magazine and as vice-president at Houghton Mifflin where she oversaw children’s and young adult book publishing. She has also authored a number of critical books about children's literature, including 500 Great Books for Teens and The Essential Guide to Children's Books and Their Creators. In October 2010, she began publishing the Children's Book-A-Day Almanac online, a daily essay on classic and contemporary children's books.
Winter is a young adult novel by John Marsden in 2000. Winter, the protagonist of the story, returns to the family estate which she left at the age of four when her parents died. She finds that everything is not as it seems when she visits her parents' graves, and she is determined to uncover the answers.
Eloise Greenfield was an American children's book and biography author and poet famous for her descriptive, rhythmic style and positive portrayal of the African-American experience.
The Road from Home: A True Story of Courage, Survival, and Hope, earlier titled The Road from Home: The Story of an Armenian Girl, is a non-fiction book written by David Kherdian, originally published in 1979. It is based on the life of the author's mother, Veron Dumehjian (1907-1981), who survived the Armenian genocide. During the deportations, the rest of her immediate family died. She returned to her native town, only to be displaced again by the Greco-Turkish War (1919–22). After settling in Smyrna, she was forced to flee once more due to the Great Fire of Smyrna. Veron escaped to ultimately settle in the United States. The book is widely read by middle school children throughout the U.S. and has been published throughout Europe. It has received a number of prestigious awards.
Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars: A Dangerous Trans Girl's Confabulous Memoir is a 2016 Canadian book by Kai Cheng Thom. A surrealist novel, it follows an unnamed transgender woman protagonist who leaves home at a young age to live on the Street of Miracles—where various sex work takes place—with other "femmes". After one of them is killed, others form a gang and begin to attack men on the street.
