Each month on our website we choose two books, read them and then analyse their similar and different cultural assumptions, themes and issues.

As the unofficial cliche goes, the most interesting books you'll ever read are those that you can relate to. Be that as it may a young Australian reader...female...probably around 15 or 16, may decide that Finding Cassie Crazy and Winter would be perfect books to read this month because they are stories about the lives, experiences, and issues of teenage girls in Australian Culture - just like her!

This month we are analysing Finding Cassie Crazy, a novel by Jaclyn Moriarty and Winter by John Marsden, both Young Adult fiction. These two novels look at dramas with boys, parents, friends, school, maturity and independency, and while sharing cultural assumptions about these issues, the novels deliver two very different perspectives on young women in Australian Culture.