My pick of the holidays is the “Tall Man” by Chloe Hooper. We had to buy a second copy over Christmas just so more family members could read it. It would be appropriate for older students 11-12 particualry those studying Australian history, revolutions, cultural studies or those with a keen interest in legal studies and indigenous affairs.

Below is the extract from Penguin:

“The Tall Man is the story of Palm Island (Queensland), the tropical paradise where one morning Cameron Doomadgee swore at a policeman and forty minutes later lay dead in a watch-house cell.

It is the story of that policeman, the tall, enigmatic Christopher Hurley who chose to work in some of the toughest and wildest places in Australia, and of the struggle to bring him to trial.

Above all, it is a story in luminous detail of two worlds clashing - and a haunting moral puzzle that no reader will forget.”

Mr Scott Buchanan