Books From Around the World (YA): Oceania

It’s often interesting to get a different perspective on the world. Here are some books set in some far-flung places – and some places close to home – grouped by continent/large body of water with islands in it. The books on this list are (mostly) written by authors from the countries they are about, and in many cases have been translated into English from their mother tongues (the book we’ve chosen for Madagascar, Return to the enchanted island by Johary Ravaloson, is only the second book to have ever been translated from Malagasy into English!).

Not all of the books are in the Young Adult collection, but we’ve tried to make sure that they all at least feature kids or teens in prominent places in the story. Our eventual goal is to have at least one book for every country in the world! Help us out by sending in recommendations if you’ve found one we’ve missed!

This list contains books written by authors from Oceania (including Polynesia, Micronesia, and Melanesia). Please note that this list does NOT include books by New Zealand authors – for those titles, please visit our Aotearoa Fiction list. Check out our lists for authors from Africa, Asia, Europe, North and Central America, and South America for even more recommendations!

Updated June 19, 2024
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Wellington City LibrariesYouth team at Wellington City Libraries
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Obernewtyn
Carmody, Isobelle.
Paper Book
Born with enhanced mental powers, Elspeth Gordie faces persecution by her own post-holocaust world, but she must resist dark forces who hope to use her powers to resurrect the apocalypse.
Australia | Australian author
Ready when you are
Lonesborough, Gary
Paper Book
A remarkable YA love story between two Aboriginal boys -- one who doesn't want to accept he's gay, and the boy who comes to live in his house who makes him realize who he is.It's a hot summer, and life's going all right for Jackson and his family on the Mish. It's almost Christmas, school's out, and...

Australia | Australian author

Looking for Alibrandi
Marchetta, Melina
Paper Book
During her senior year in a Catholic school in Sydney, Australia, seventeen-year-old Josie meets and must contend with the father she has never known.

Australia | Australian author

Tomorrow, when the war began
Marsden, John
Paper Book
World War III becomes an unstoppable reality in the action-packed first installment of the Tomorrow series--an international bestseller in an eye-catching new paperback.When Ellie and her friends go camping, they have no idea they're leaving their old lives behind forever. Despite a less-than-tragic...

Australia | Australian author

The book thief
Zusak, Markus
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * ONE OF TIME MAGAZINE'S 100 BEST YA BOOKS OF ALL TIME * A NEW YORK TIMES READER TOP 100 PICK FOR BEST BOOKS OF THE 21ST CENTURY The extraordinary, beloved novel about the ability of books to feed the soul even in the darkest of times...

Australia | Australian author

Bridge of Clay
Zusak, Markus
Paper Book
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY * THE WALL STREET JOURNAL The unforgettable, New York Times bestselling family saga from Markus Zusak, the storyteller who gave us the extraordinary bestseller THE...

Australia | Australian author

A disappearance in Fiji
Rao, Nilima
Paper Book
1914, Fiji: 25-year-old Akal Singh would rather be anywhere but this tropical paradise-or, as he calls it, 'this godforsaken island.' After a promising start to his police career in his native India and Hong Kong, Akal has been sent to Fiji as punishment for a humiliating professional mistake....

Fiji | Fijian-Australian author

Sweat and salt water : selected works
Teaiwa, Teresia
Paper Book
On 21 March 2017, Associate Professor Teresia Kieuea Teaiwa passed away at the age of forty-eight. News of Teaiwa's death precipitated an extraordinary outpouring of grief unmatched in the Pacific studies community since Epeli Hau'ofa's passing in 2009. Mourners referenced Teaiwa's nurturing...

Kiribati | i-Kiribati author

Strangers in their own land : a century of colonial rule in the Caroline and Marshall Islands
Hezel, Francis X.
Paper Book
"Hezel has written an authoritative and engaging narrative of [a] succession of colonial regimes, drawing upon a broad range of published and archival sources as well as his own considerable knowledge of the region. This is a 'conventional' history, and a very good one, focused mostly on...

Marshall Islands | Author is a Jesuit priest who lived and worked in Micronesia for more than 50 years

Mister Pip
Jones, Lloyd
Paper Book
In a novel that is at once intense, beautiful, and fablelike, Lloyd Jones weaves a transcendent story that celebrates the resilience of the human spirit and the power of narrative to transform our lives. On a copper-rich tropical island shattered by war, where the teachers have fled...

Papua New Guinea | New Zealand author; book is based partly on his experiences as a journalist during the Bougainville Island civil war (1988-98) and his connections with Papua New Guinean soldiers during that time

Where we once belonged
Figiel, Sia
Paper Book
Thirteen-year-old Alofa Filiga struggles to come to terms with womanhood, her search for identity, and the restrictions of life in her Samoan village.

Samoa | Samoan author

Devil-devil
Kent, Graeme.
Paper Book
It's not easy being Ben Kella. As a sergeant in the Solomon Islands Police Force, as well as an aofia, a hereditary spiritual peacekeeper of the Lau people, he is viewed with distrust by both the indigenous islanders and the British colonial authorities. In the past few days he has been cursed...

Solomon Islands | British author who worked for many years in the Solomon Islands


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