Boy from the Mish

The Boy from the Mish is Gary Lonesborough's own-voices YA debut set in a fictional Aboriginal mission community in New South Wales. Jackson spends his summer the way he always has -- with his mates, teasing tourists, and steering clear of the racist boys from town -- until his aunty visits from the city with his younger cousins in tow, and a boy named Tomas.

Tomas, also Koori, is staying with Jackson's family for a while after being released from juvenile detention. Sharing a room -- Tomas on a mattress on the floor, Jackson in his bed -- forces Jackson to confront feelings toward men that he has always pushed away. As the two grow close and discover a shared love of storytelling, Tomas as a writer and Jackson as an artist, they begin working together on Tomas's graphic novel.

The novel is a coming-of-age story about first love, identity, and community, and about the buried secret Jackson has to face in order to let himself be known.