The way that these sub-plots and themes are gently handled is the strength of this book and for young adult readers, there’s a lot of thought-provoking stuff that will stick with them long after they’ve finished reading. A handful of sub-plots play out – her changing relationship with Josh, the nature of her friendship with one of Glenthorn’s star players and the importance of ‘finding your tribe’ for teenagers. As the story unfolds, Shelley’s ‘secret’ is revealed along with her developing friendship with Tara, another ‘footy tragic’. It’s a ‘fresh start’ – from what, you don’t know. Despite being robbed of the opportunity to play, Shelley lives and breathes footy, analysing every part of Glenthorn’s game, watching the replay with her dad, clipping newspaper articles about Glenthorn and going along to local games to watch her childhood friend, Josh, play.Īt the beginning of the book, Shelley is starting at a new school, St. The Whole of My World is the story of Shelley, a teenage girl obsessed with Australian Rules football. Instead, expect characters dealing with grief the difficulties of finding your place in a group (regardless of age) the lure of celebrity fame and that tightrope between being a kid and an adult.

It’s worth noting that although this book is aimed at the young-adult market, the issues that it covers are anything but light. I picked up Hayes first, partly because I committed to reading some of the ARCs that I had been kindly given access to but also because I suspected the Krein would be confronting reading (and I wasn’t in the mood for that at the time). One was Anna Krein’s Night Games and the other, The Whole of My World by Nicole Hayes.

It’s interesting that I had two books at the top of my reading stack about women and footy.