Eleni Hale
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In June this year I attended an author event at the Sandringham branch of Bayside Library with my good friend and author Mairi Neil, and was introduced to a local writer I hadn't come across, Eleni Hale. Mairi blogged the event so I won't reproduce what's already been said except to say that the event was about 'turning your life into fiction'—and Eleni had mined her own life in state care to write what has now become an award-winning debut novel. Her story, as she told it on the night, was so impressive and her passion for lifting the profile of kids in out-of-home care was so compelling, that copies of Stone Girl sold out. So I reserved it at my library online as soon as I got home.
In July it was announced that Eleni had won the 2019 Readings Young Adult Prize for Stone Girl. The book is obviously very popular because it has taken ten weeks for my reserve to come through, and my library has multiple copies of it. It has the PRC (Premiers' Reading Challenge) sticker on it too, selected for the Years 9 & 10 list, but it is, IMO, very much a book for senior students or for those for whom it is deemed suitable by the judgement of a responsible adult. The book doesn't come with trigger warnings, but I assume that secondary school librarians have some process for shielding younger students from books with very detailed drug references and abuse of all kinds. I'm aware, of course, of the irony that a book that I wouldn't have wanted my 15 year-old to read until he was older, is about the terrible things that happened to a girl aged just 12.
By coincidence, Kate at Books are My Favourite and Best has just reviewed a memoir by an author who was also in state care. Rating the book highly, but concluding that it's not for the faint-hearted, she begins her review like this:
That's how I felt about Stone Girl. It is a superb evocation of all that's wrong with the way we provide for vulnerable children in State Care, but it is utterly heartbreaking, and more so because I know it is authentic. Hale said that night at the library that all the experiences were real, though she had also drawn on what happened to other kids she knew so they didn't all happen to her. Well, I don't want to criticise welfare workers because they have an unenviable task and all the ones I've ever met have been doing their very best to manage out-of-home care with inadequate resources. (And I've met plenty, from my very first school and thereafter.) But I don't think I could have continued reading had I not had the image before me of its adult author who had somehow survived and thrived despite personal experiences and witnessing trauma that would have broken most other people. I am glad Stone Girl wasn't available to read in the days when I was required by law to report abuse and neglect under Victoria's Mandatory Reporting laws, because I know I would have broken them rather than put any child at risk of what happens to the child in this book.
To read the rest of my review please visit In June this year I attended an author event at the Sandringham branch of Bayside Library with my good friend and author Mairi Neil, and was introduced to a local writer I hadn't come across, Eleni Hale. Mairi blogged the event so I won't reproduce what's already been said except to say that the event was about 'turning your life into fiction'—and Eleni had mined her own life in state care to write what has now become an award-winning debut novel. Her story, as she told it on the night, was so impressive and her passion for lifting the profile of kids in out-of-home care was so compelling, that copies of Stone Girl sold out. So I reserved it at my library online as soon as I got home.
In July it was announced that Eleni had won the 2019 Readings Young Adult Prize for Stone Girl. The book is obviously very popular because it has taken ten weeks for my reserve to come through, and my library has multiple copies of it. It has the PRC (Premiers' Reading Challenge) sticker on it too, selected for the Years 9 & 10 list, but it is, IMO, very much a book for senior students or for those for whom it is deemed suitable by the judgement of a responsible adult. The book doesn't come with trigger warnings, but I assume that secondary school librarians have some process for shielding younger students from books with very detailed drug references and abuse of all kinds. I'm aware, of course, of the irony that a book that I wouldn't have wanted my 15 year-old to read until he was older, is about the terrible things that happened to a girl aged just 12.
By coincidence, Kate at Books are My Favourite and Best has just reviewed a memoir by an author who was also in state care. Rating the book highly, but concluding that it's not for the faint-hearted, she begins her review like this:
That's how I felt about Stone Girl. It is a superb evocation of all that's wrong with the way we provide for vulnerable children in State Care, but it is utterly heartbreaking, and more so because I know it is authentic. Hale said that night at the library that all the experiences were real, though she had also drawn on what happened to other kids she knew so they didn't all happen to her. Well, I don't want to criticise welfare workers because they have an unenviable task and all the ones I've ever met have been doing their very best to manage out-of-home care with inadequate resources. (And I've met plenty, from my very first school and thereafter.) But I don't think I could have continued reading had I not had the image before me of its adult author who had somehow survived and thrived despite personal experiences and witnessing trauma that would have broken most other people. I am glad Stone Girl wasn't available to read in the days when I was required by law to report abuse and neglect under Victoria's Mandatory Reporting laws, because I know I would have broken them rather than put any child at risk of what happens to the child in this book.
To read the rest of my review please visit In June this year I attended an author event at the Sandringham branch of Bayside Library with my good friend and author Mairi Neil, and was introduced to a local writer I hadn't come across, Eleni Hale. Mairi blogged the event so I won't reproduce what's already been said except to say that the event was about 'turning your life into fiction'—and Eleni had mined her own life in state care to write what has now become an award-winning debut novel. Her story, as she told it on the night, was so impressive and her passion for lifting the profile of kids in out-of-home care was so compelling, that copies of Stone Girl sold out. So I reserved it at my library online as soon as I got home.
In July it was announced that Eleni had won the 2019 Readings Young Adult Prize for Stone Girl. The book is obviously very popular because it has taken ten weeks for my reserve to come through, and my library has multiple copies of it. It has the PRC (Premiers' Reading Challenge) sticker on it too, selected for the Years 9 & 10 list, but it is, IMO, very much a book for senior students or for those for whom it is deemed suitable by the judgement of a responsible adult. The book doesn't come with trigger warnings, but I assume that secondary school librarians have some process for shielding younger students from books with very detailed drug references and abuse of all kinds. I'm aware, of course, of the irony that a book that I wouldn't have wanted my 15 year-old to read until he was older, is about the terrible things that happened to a girl aged just 12.
By coincidence, Kate at Books are My Favourite and Best has just reviewed a memoir by an author who was also in state care. Rating the book highly, but concluding that it's not for the faint-hearted, she begins her review like this:
That's how I felt about Stone Girl. It is a superb evocation of all that's wrong with the way we provide for vulnerable children in State Care, but it is utterly heartbreaking, and more so because I know it is authentic. Hale said that night at the library that all the experiences were real, though she had also drawn on what happened to other kids she knew so they didn't all happen to her. Well, I don't want to criticise welfare workers because they have an unenviable task and all the ones I've ever met have been doing their very best to manage out-of-home care with inadequate resources. (And I've met plenty, from my very first school and thereafter.) But I don't think I could have continued reading had I not had the image before me of its adult author who had somehow survived and thrived despite personal experiences and witnessing trauma that would have broken most other people. I am glad Stone Girl wasn't available to read in the days when I was required by law to report abuse and neglect under Victoria's Mandatory Reporting laws, because I know I would have broken them rather than put any child at risk of what happens to the child in this book.
To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2019/08/18/stone-girl-by-eleni-hale/… (mehr)
In July it was announced that Eleni had won the 2019 Readings Young Adult Prize for Stone Girl. The book is obviously very popular because it has taken ten weeks for my reserve to come through, and my library has multiple copies of it. It has the PRC (Premiers' Reading Challenge) sticker on it too, selected for the Years 9 & 10 list, but it is, IMO, very much a book for senior students or for those for whom it is deemed suitable by the judgement of a responsible adult. The book doesn't come with trigger warnings, but I assume that secondary school librarians have some process for shielding younger students from books with very detailed drug references and abuse of all kinds. I'm aware, of course, of the irony that a book that I wouldn't have wanted my 15 year-old to read until he was older, is about the terrible things that happened to a girl aged just 12.
By coincidence, Kate at Books are My Favourite and Best has just reviewed a memoir by an author who was also in state care. Rating the book highly, but concluding that it's not for the faint-hearted, she begins her review like this:
The current thinking in social work circles is that there are better long-term outcomes for children left with their family in an unstable home, than those removed and placed in foster care. This was in the back of my mind as I read comedian Corey White’s recently published memoir, The Prettiest Horse in the Glue Factory.
The details White shares of his childhood made me sick with fear from the first page.
That's how I felt about Stone Girl. It is a superb evocation of all that's wrong with the way we provide for vulnerable children in State Care, but it is utterly heartbreaking, and more so because I know it is authentic. Hale said that night at the library that all the experiences were real, though she had also drawn on what happened to other kids she knew so they didn't all happen to her. Well, I don't want to criticise welfare workers because they have an unenviable task and all the ones I've ever met have been doing their very best to manage out-of-home care with inadequate resources. (And I've met plenty, from my very first school and thereafter.) But I don't think I could have continued reading had I not had the image before me of its adult author who had somehow survived and thrived despite personal experiences and witnessing trauma that would have broken most other people. I am glad Stone Girl wasn't available to read in the days when I was required by law to report abuse and neglect under Victoria's Mandatory Reporting laws, because I know I would have broken them rather than put any child at risk of what happens to the child in this book.
To read the rest of my review please visit In June this year I attended an author event at the Sandringham branch of Bayside Library with my good friend and author Mairi Neil, and was introduced to a local writer I hadn't come across, Eleni Hale. Mairi blogged the event so I won't reproduce what's already been said except to say that the event was about 'turning your life into fiction'—and Eleni had mined her own life in state care to write what has now become an award-winning debut novel. Her story, as she told it on the night, was so impressive and her passion for lifting the profile of kids in out-of-home care was so compelling, that copies of Stone Girl sold out. So I reserved it at my library online as soon as I got home.
In July it was announced that Eleni had won the 2019 Readings Young Adult Prize for Stone Girl. The book is obviously very popular because it has taken ten weeks for my reserve to come through, and my library has multiple copies of it. It has the PRC (Premiers' Reading Challenge) sticker on it too, selected for the Years 9 & 10 list, but it is, IMO, very much a book for senior students or for those for whom it is deemed suitable by the judgement of a responsible adult. The book doesn't come with trigger warnings, but I assume that secondary school librarians have some process for shielding younger students from books with very detailed drug references and abuse of all kinds. I'm aware, of course, of the irony that a book that I wouldn't have wanted my 15 year-old to read until he was older, is about the terrible things that happened to a girl aged just 12.
By coincidence, Kate at Books are My Favourite and Best has just reviewed a memoir by an author who was also in state care. Rating the book highly, but concluding that it's not for the faint-hearted, she begins her review like this:
The current thinking in social work circles is that there are better long-term outcomes for children left with their family in an unstable home, than those removed and placed in foster care. This was in the back of my mind as I read comedian Corey White’s recently published memoir, The Prettiest Horse in the Glue Factory.
The details White shares of his childhood made me sick with fear from the first page.
That's how I felt about Stone Girl. It is a superb evocation of all that's wrong with the way we provide for vulnerable children in State Care, but it is utterly heartbreaking, and more so because I know it is authentic. Hale said that night at the library that all the experiences were real, though she had also drawn on what happened to other kids she knew so they didn't all happen to her. Well, I don't want to criticise welfare workers because they have an unenviable task and all the ones I've ever met have been doing their very best to manage out-of-home care with inadequate resources. (And I've met plenty, from my very first school and thereafter.) But I don't think I could have continued reading had I not had the image before me of its adult author who had somehow survived and thrived despite personal experiences and witnessing trauma that would have broken most other people. I am glad Stone Girl wasn't available to read in the days when I was required by law to report abuse and neglect under Victoria's Mandatory Reporting laws, because I know I would have broken them rather than put any child at risk of what happens to the child in this book.
To read the rest of my review please visit In June this year I attended an author event at the Sandringham branch of Bayside Library with my good friend and author Mairi Neil, and was introduced to a local writer I hadn't come across, Eleni Hale. Mairi blogged the event so I won't reproduce what's already been said except to say that the event was about 'turning your life into fiction'—and Eleni had mined her own life in state care to write what has now become an award-winning debut novel. Her story, as she told it on the night, was so impressive and her passion for lifting the profile of kids in out-of-home care was so compelling, that copies of Stone Girl sold out. So I reserved it at my library online as soon as I got home.
In July it was announced that Eleni had won the 2019 Readings Young Adult Prize for Stone Girl. The book is obviously very popular because it has taken ten weeks for my reserve to come through, and my library has multiple copies of it. It has the PRC (Premiers' Reading Challenge) sticker on it too, selected for the Years 9 & 10 list, but it is, IMO, very much a book for senior students or for those for whom it is deemed suitable by the judgement of a responsible adult. The book doesn't come with trigger warnings, but I assume that secondary school librarians have some process for shielding younger students from books with very detailed drug references and abuse of all kinds. I'm aware, of course, of the irony that a book that I wouldn't have wanted my 15 year-old to read until he was older, is about the terrible things that happened to a girl aged just 12.
By coincidence, Kate at Books are My Favourite and Best has just reviewed a memoir by an author who was also in state care. Rating the book highly, but concluding that it's not for the faint-hearted, she begins her review like this:
The current thinking in social work circles is that there are better long-term outcomes for children left with their family in an unstable home, than those removed and placed in foster care. This was in the back of my mind as I read comedian Corey White’s recently published memoir, The Prettiest Horse in the Glue Factory.
The details White shares of his childhood made me sick with fear from the first page.
That's how I felt about Stone Girl. It is a superb evocation of all that's wrong with the way we provide for vulnerable children in State Care, but it is utterly heartbreaking, and more so because I know it is authentic. Hale said that night at the library that all the experiences were real, though she had also drawn on what happened to other kids she knew so they didn't all happen to her. Well, I don't want to criticise welfare workers because they have an unenviable task and all the ones I've ever met have been doing their very best to manage out-of-home care with inadequate resources. (And I've met plenty, from my very first school and thereafter.) But I don't think I could have continued reading had I not had the image before me of its adult author who had somehow survived and thrived despite personal experiences and witnessing trauma that would have broken most other people. I am glad Stone Girl wasn't available to read in the days when I was required by law to report abuse and neglect under Victoria's Mandatory Reporting laws, because I know I would have broken them rather than put any child at risk of what happens to the child in this book.
To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2019/08/18/stone-girl-by-eleni-hale/… (mehr)
Reviewed for VPRC. Not sure I can recommend this one for younger readers simply for the language...the F and the C word are liberally spread throughout which is in keeping with the characters and their situation BUT if you are aiming it and young adults I think you need to be less heavy handed on the swearing per se...i.e. should write "Spiral swore" not "Spiral called me an F C and a Slut".
Set initially in the late 80s and early 90s, this is a very heartbreaking story about the faults in our system for parent-less young people. It starts with Sophie, a 12 yr old girl who has a mother who is an alcoholic and after an argument where Sophie has been at a friend's house for a few days; she comes home to discover her mother dead on the living room floor. Sophie goes into shock and sits with her mother's body for 3 days until the police break down the door due to the smell.
With a father in Greece who has remarried and wants nothing to do with her, her guilt and worthlessness contribute to Sophie's descent as she moves from one care home to the other, getting involved firstly with cigarettes, then alcohol, then underage sex, then "soft" drugs like weed to becoming a full on meth addict and dealer's moll. Traumatized by her mother's death, an attempted rape and kidnapping, she "hardens up" very quickly and the book follows the next 4 years of her life where everything that happens to her mother seems to be the inevitable path for her.
This is a cautionary tale for social workers, teachers and the adults of the world who wonder how children can spiral into decay in such a short time. The author's personal experience resounds very clearly in the sense that these children feel like they belong in another world - Sophie talks about seeing normal people on public transport and feeling like she is invisible and not part of the safe, loved and stable community.
For older readers due to graphic scenes of drug use (injecting) and language.… (mehr)
Set initially in the late 80s and early 90s, this is a very heartbreaking story about the faults in our system for parent-less young people. It starts with Sophie, a 12 yr old girl who has a mother who is an alcoholic and after an argument where Sophie has been at a friend's house for a few days; she comes home to discover her mother dead on the living room floor. Sophie goes into shock and sits with her mother's body for 3 days until the police break down the door due to the smell.
With a father in Greece who has remarried and wants nothing to do with her, her guilt and worthlessness contribute to Sophie's descent as she moves from one care home to the other, getting involved firstly with cigarettes, then alcohol, then underage sex, then "soft" drugs like weed to becoming a full on meth addict and dealer's moll. Traumatized by her mother's death, an attempted rape and kidnapping, she "hardens up" very quickly and the book follows the next 4 years of her life where everything that happens to her mother seems to be the inevitable path for her.
This is a cautionary tale for social workers, teachers and the adults of the world who wonder how children can spiral into decay in such a short time. The author's personal experience resounds very clearly in the sense that these children feel like they belong in another world - Sophie talks about seeing normal people on public transport and feeling like she is invisible and not part of the safe, loved and stable community.
For older readers due to graphic scenes of drug use (injecting) and language.… (mehr)
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With lots of swearing and street words, this is the story of how a shy 12 year old ends up drinking, smoking and doing drugs while in a poisonous relationship only three years later.
I did not really like the ending. We still don't know what happened to Cheryl, where Matty went and if she ever saw Gwen again. And I also find it hard to believe she just walked away and that was it. Yes, she recovered, but I'd liked to read how that happened, because the whole book is basically a downwards spiral. (Pun intended)… (mehr)