I Am the Messenger by Markus Zusak

Since it's Awards Season for juvenile literature, I've been trying to read some of the winners. I Am the Messenger was a Printz Award honor book, and I have to say I liked it better than the winner, Looking For Alaska. (I thought LFA was a bit too preachy, and suffered from that "It's a YA novel so there has to be some kind of tragedy" syndrome.)

I Am the Messenger was sweet without being too sentimental, and takes place in Australia, which makes a nice change. It was definitely a page-turner, and despite taking a weird, unnecessary metafictional detour at the end, the plot was fun and unusual.
I thought the writing was a bit overwrought in places, but all in all it was a good read and a worthy use of a few hours.