McAlister's Way — Richard Marman

By his fifteenth birthday, Danny McAlister in on the run. He has escaped from a draconian boarding school after seriously injuring the principal. His flight takes him through Northern Queensland to the New Guinea Highlands where he searches for his father, lost while fighting the Japanese on the Kokoda Track. Thrown into an unforgiving adult world he grows up fast and becomes embroiled in union wars amongst cane cutters, joins the crew of prawn trawler in the Gulf of Carpentaria, gets mixed up with smugglers and New Guinea's burgeoning aviation industry. He teams up with 'Mad' Monty, an eccentric Afro- American pilot and Angela, the stunning teenage daughter of an English missionary. They must endure a series of harrowing adventures as they journey through New Guinea's Central Highlands and the islands in the Bismarck Sea where they face their final challenge against vicious Filipino pirates and discover the final secret of Danny's missing father. '...Masterfully handled and quite eloquent ...Wonderful.' 'I liked this book....it covered issues that needed to be addressed.' 2012 Australian CYA Writing Competition Judges