Love You Two

'Then something shifted. I don't know when what used to make me content began to make me cringe; when my adoration of her turned to irritation. Was it adolescence? Was it a mother-daughter thing?

Pina's friends think she's lucky. How many families get along the way hers does- how many parents are as free-spirited and happy as hers? But sometimes Pina wonders who the grown-up is- her or her mother.

Then a chance glimpse at an email unravels what Pina though she knew about life and love. Can her family survive what she has discovered? And what does it all mean for Pina's own life?

Two siblings, two boys, two cities, three generations, four friends. How many versions of the truth?

Although this is a work of fiction, Love You Two was inspired by Maria Pallotta-Chiarolli's fifteen years of community work and academic research and publishing. Her work focuses on sexual and emotional health in relation to sexual, family and cultural diversity in Australia, with an emphasis on adults and adolescents, and parents and their children. She says, "There were lots of important research projects, people I'd met, events I'd witnessed, that just hung around in my head and heart begging to be taken out, aired and affirmed."

"I wanted to write a comforting, funny, challenging and realistic book for young people and the adults in their lives who love 'differently', whose families are misunderstood, misrepresented and hidden, so that they could find themselves and know that what matters is how people love not who they love. "

Set in modern multicultural Australia, with a third- generation Italian-Australian heroine, Love You Two is a young adult coming-of-age novel about a time in life when life, love and family aren't what anyone said they'd be.

Maria Pallotta-Chiarolli has gained international recognition as a leading writer, researcher, lecturer and consultant. Senior Lecturer in the School of healthy and Social Development, Deakin University, she also enjoys working with young people in schools and is passionate about her work, social justice, and her incredibly supportive family and friends.

Her first book for young adults, Tapestry, explored five generations of her family's history in Australia and Italy. It was shortlisted buy the Children's Book Council of Australia and in the NSW Premier's Literary Awards. She is also the author of Girls Talk, Boy's Stuff, Someone You Know and When Our Children Come Out.

Love You Two
Random House Australia
Author: Maria Pallotta-Chiarolli
ISBN: 9781741660715
Price: $18.95