She doesn't have a lot but she's generous with what she does have.' 'In her funny way I think she likes us there.' 'Is there still much legal stuff to pay?' 'I didn't want to tell Daniel,' he said, 'but we got an offer on the house.' The trip home from Westleigh was the same: staring out the window, pretending to listen to the radio but really exhausted, numb and wondering how our family, the Brennans, had ended up here. 'Don't look, but he's about three to Tommy's left. 'Don't do that!' Daniel said out of the side of his mouth. 'He's at the centre too?' Dad looked around. 'You know, in for the same thing – as me.' He spends a bit of time talking to me and this other poor bastard, Theo, who's in for the – the –' His expression cracked but he pulled it together.

His face was getting a bit of a concentration camp look to it and the dark circles under his eyes were worse than I remembered, yet today he did seem calm. His name's Jerry.' I watched Daniel talk. 'They're doing time but they're also mentors. 'There's a few older blokes,' Daniel explained. 'Isn't he a bit old to be here?' I asked. I could tell he wanted to change the subject, he'd been looking uncomfortable. 'Who's the older guy?' Dad interrupted, looking over at the public phone. 'Do we have to go through this, boys?' But we ignored Dad. We were sure he'd get suspended, but he didn't. As if any of us could forget.Īfterwards Daniel had smashed the window in the change room. Jane lives on Sydney's Northern Beaches and is married with two children.'Yeah, remember the punch-up with the cocky little half-back from Booralee High?' Daniel said. It is currently on the NSW HSC syllabus list. The Story of Tom Brennan won the 2006 CBC Book of the Year - Older Readers and the 2006 Australian Family Therapists Award for Children's Literature. Since Burke started writing in 1999, she has published a number of acclaimed books for teenagers and young adults, including Children's Book Council Notable Books WHITE LIES and The Red Cardigan, Aurealis Awards finalist Nine Letters Long, The Story of Tom Brennan, Faking Sweet, Starfish Sisters and Ocean Pearl. With writers for parents, she grew up in a world of noise, drama and books, but she decided to become a nurse after her mother lost a long battle with cancer. Burke was born in Sydney in 1965, the fourth of five sisters. Burke's CBCA award-winner The Story of Tom Brennan. And he'd better get a lock for his wardrobe so his mother won't find what he's hiding.ĭamon's taking matters into his own hands - but so is the town of Strathven.Ī confronting, powerful story for young adults in the vein of J.C. Then, see if the Pigman will give him a job - pig hunting will teach Damon what he needs to know. But it's what happens afterwards that changes everything. On Damon Styles's eighteenth birthday, he is expelled from school.

Pig Boy by J.C. Burke