Rawah Arja is a Lebanese Australian writer from Sydney. Her first novel, The F Team, is published by Giramondo.

Looking for Alibrandi
Melina Marchetta
My childhood was spent swinging from trees and digging up imaginary treasure chests in my backyard. Reading was the last thing on my mind. This carried through to my teens – the lack of reading, not the burrowing for gold – until I came across Melina Marchetta and her brilliant storytelling. It changed my life and has had a lasting effect on my identity as a Lebanese girl from Punchbowl.

Does My Head Look Big in This?
Randa Abdel Fattah
If only I had a picture of my face when I saw the cover of a book with a young Muslim girl in a hijab. You would have seen my big brown eyes wide open as some massed choir sang "Hallelujah" and heavenly light shone down in my classroom. I thought the Muslim world had hit the jackpot! It was a few years after September 11, and seeing what a young Muslim female author had accomplished in such turbulent times gave me hope – something I didn’t know I was longing for.

The Kite Runner
Khaled Hosseini
I come from a gigantic Lebanese family. Never in my years alive on this world did I feel so devastated yet inspired as when I read Khaled’s mesmerising story. It haunted me in a beautiful way for many years, reminding me of the nostalgia of one’s homeland, something I’ve struggled with (being a child of migrants), and how our memories can recreate the lost worlds we leave in the past.

Monster
Walter Dean Myers
If I had to choose a book to give to the many young boys I teach and mentor in tough and challenging neighbourhoods, it would be this. Not because it’s about a young black boy in jail and on trial for murder, but because of the incredible complexity involved in the choices we make. It’s a provocative story about what it means to be alive in our time, particularly for people of colour and minorities, and it raises many ethical questions.