1. Ambition
2. Behaviour
3. Country
4. Culture
5. Drugs
6. Family
7. Friendship
8. Grief
9. Identity
10. Indigenous knowledge
11. Kinship
12. Loneliness
13. Love
14. Mental health
15. Race awareness
16. Racism
17. Resilience
18. Schools
19. Self-acceptance
20. Self-image
21. Skin colour
22. Teachers
23. Yidiny / Yidindji people (Y117) (Qld SE55-06)

Layla is starting her final year of school, Year 12. She’s a good hardworking A grade student determined to get into university. She has a good family life with her Indigenous mother and white father, and she doesn’t give her skin colour much thought. Her only concern is the bond between her and her best friend since kindy, Amy, which seems to be bending out of shape as Amy spends more time with another girl, Jess. This concern is lessened by Layla’s growing friendship with Angie who has Māori heritage.

Things change when Layla’s troubled cousin Marley comes to stay with them. Marley has had a difficult life on and off Country and been getting into trouble. The cousins have had very different upbringings and Marley’s arrival brings uncomfortable things to the surface both at school and at home. Layla realises that although Marley has had a hard life he knows much more about their Culture and identity. He is scornful of the school’s superficial attempts to include an Aboriginal perspective, and Layla is upset when he calls her a ‘coconut’ brown on the outside but white inside.

This antagonism leads to a traumatic event that affects the whole family. This is made worse by events in class where lessons about Australian history see difficult and upsetting calls on Layla as the only Indigenous student. Layla begins to question many things, the attitudes of her school friends and teachers as well as her own values and goals.

Written in the first person, it is an easy though intense book to read as it raises many questions, about among others why it is constantly the role of Indigenous people to explain history and trauma. It also provides an insight in the importance of kinship or in this case kinship adoption where extended family take on and support a child who needs help.

A book that provides a valuable insight into the many issues confronting young Indigenous Australians. This book includes sexual content, suicide, drug use and intergenerational trauma.

Steph Tisdell is a well-known comedian and actor and is from the Yidinji nation on the Atherton Tablelands in Far North Queensland.

Shortlisted CBCA 2025 Book of the Year Awards - Older Readers

1. Pan Macmillan Teaching notes for ‘The Skin I’m In’ by Steph Tisdell https://www.panmacmillan.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-skin-im-in-reading-notes_v3-3.pdf
2. ABC Arts 30 August 2024. Comedian Steph Tisdell on her debut novel ‘The Skin I’m In’ and using storytelling to speak truth to power https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-08-30/steph-tisdell-the-skin-im-in-debut-novel-comedian-actor/104285960
3. The Newton Review of Books 17 September 2024. Linda Godfrey reviews ‘The Skin In’ by Steph Tisdell https://newtownreviewofbooks.com.au/steph-tisdell-the-skin-im-in-reviewed-by-linda-godfrey/
4. ReadPlus 4 September 2024. Helen Eddy reviews ‘The Skin I’m In’ by Steph Tisdell https://www.readtroubledplus.com.au/reviews/the-skin-im-in
5. Nerd Daily 6 August 2024. Author Steph Tisdell on her debut ‘The Skin I’m In’ https://thenerddaily.com/author-steph-tisdell-on-her-debut-the-skin-im-in/
6. Beauty and Lace Bookclub 19 August 2024. Review of ‘The Skin I’m In’ by Steph Tisdell https://bookgirl.beautyandlace.net/book-club-the-skin-im-in
7. What Book Next.Com. Review of ‘The Skin I’m In’ by Steph Tisdell https://whatbooknext.com/the-skin-im-in-book-review/
8. The Guardian 6 July 2024. ‘Steph Tisdell; This year’s for us. This year is about saying we’re still here’ https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/article/2024/jul/06/steph-tisdell-this-years-for-us-this-year-is-about-saying-were-still-here