''The Story of Tom Brennan'' is a 2005

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

young adult novel Young adult fiction (YA) is a category of fiction written for readers from 12 to 18 years of age. While the genre is primarily targeted at adolescents, approximately half of YA readers are adults. The subject matter and genres of YA correlate ...

written by

J. C. Burke J. C. Burke (born 1965 in Sydney) is an Australian author, currently living in Sydney. Jane Burke was born in 1965 in Sydney, where she was the fourth of five sisters; her parents were writers. Burke did not start publishing stories until 1999. He ...

. It was named as book of the year for older readers by the

Children's Book Council of Australia The Children's Book Council of Australia (CBCA) is a not for profit organisation which aims to engage the community with literature for young Australians. The CBCA presents the annual Children's Book of the Year Awards to books of literary merit ...

. The story follows Tom Brennan, a 17-year-old boy known for his football skills. An accident involving his brother forces the family to move towns, and the novel shows the various Brennan family members changing after the accident and how it affected them. The story involves issues relevant to teenagers such as alcohol, relationships and fitting in. This novel is often studied in Australian high schools as it is accessible to most readers.

Plot

For Tom Brennan, life is about rugby, mates, and family—until a night of celebration changes his life forever. Tom's world explodes as his brother Daniel is sent to jail and the Brennans are forced to leave the small town Tom's lived in his whole life. Tom is a survivor but needs a ticket out of the past just as much as Daniel. The novel is based around the aftermath of the incident that leads to the Brennan family leaving the town of Mumbilli and is written from Tom's perspective. Beginning in the present, Tom is at his grandmother’s house and hating every minute of his new life, we soon begin to see glimpses of the events in Tom's recent past: the "sudden death" football party where all the trouble begins, and the terrible, tragic events of that night and days that follow. The novel involves teenage issues such as alcohol, drink driving, relationships, and moving on after your world turns upside down. In the end, Tom becomes friends with a girl named Chrissy, which they progress from a friendship into a relationship. Chrissy helps Tom come to terms what happened in the past and have a positive outlook on the future.

Characters (main)

* Tom Brennan—Narrator * Daniel Brennan—Tom's Brother * Brendan Brennan—Tom's Uncle * Christina "Chrissy" Tulake also mummy * Theresa "Tess" Brennan —Tom's mother * Joeseph Brennan —Tom's father * Kylie Brennan —Tom's sister * Carmen Healy —Tom's Grandmother * Aunty Kath -Fin's mother * Finbar "Fin"

Awardshttps://www.penguin.com.au/content/resources/TR_TomBrennan.pdf

The Story of Tom Brennan has been awarded the 2006 CBC Book of the Year for Older Readers and the 2006 Australian Family Therapists Award for Children's Literature. The book is on the Australian's HSC syllabus list and is studied by high-schoolers in Australia.

References

2005 Australian novels Australian young adult novels {{2000s-ya-novel-stub