Teenagers are often written at by adults, but My First Lesson is a rare opportunity for twenty-five teenagers to tell their own stories in their own inimitable ways. Keen young writers were invited to respond creatively to the themes in Alice Pung’s award-winning YA novel Laurinda, and the results are authentic and varied. Anthology editor Pung explains in her excellent foreword that her policy was to select stories that are not only polished and literary, but also those that are raw, genuine, direct, and inclusive of marginalised writers.
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I ride this day upon the worldroad, alone, except for Courage who rides on the pommel of my saddle fluffing his feathers. I did not dream of journeying thus as a child…”
This is the unforgettable world of Isobelle Carmody, presented in fourteen stories written over a period of thirteen years. Within these stories you will find paths travelled by seekers of the deepest truths never found on straight roads: here a princess might reject a prince to save a rooster, a boy searches for his truename, a group of pilgrims is led by a song and a beast discovers hope. Enter this world and you will never again be sure where reality ends and imagination begins, for sometimes the greatest truths can only be told through imagination…