Poster Boys by Scott Woodward

Title: Poster Boys

Author: Scott Woodward

Genre: Contemporary

Publisher: Lothian

Published: 24^th February 2026

Format: Paperback

Pages: 360

Price: $19.99

Synopsis: A jock, a try-hard and a space cadet. Highview Grammar will rue the day it put ‘History’ on the curriculum – because this unlikely trio is starting a revolution.

Edward Heffernan wants one thing: to get away from Nolan Li. If he cuts ties with the embarrassing Nolan, his reputation at Highview Grammar can only go up.

But when Nolan gets a note from the coolest kid in Year 9, Edward sees a chance to be popular. James Crombie is everything that Edward and Nolan are not, but it turns out this trio have one thing in common: they’re all sick of the culture, tradition and rules of their snobby 100-year-old high school. And they’re ready to do something about it.

A laugh-out-loud debut novel that mixes razor-sharp satire with a rollicking plot and a whole lot of heart. This is a YA coming-of-age caper about accepting yourself just as you are.

~*~

It’s 2003, and Edward Heffernan is in year nine at a prestigious all-boys school in Melbourne that has a deep history of Old Boys, sports, academia and a dedicated focus on the house system. Edward is quite average, and all he longs for is to lose his embarrassing nickname that has followed him around since year seven, and to get rid of Nolan Li. For him, and by extension his father, it’s all about reputation, getting a good education and being good at sports. And carrying on a family legacy. But Edward’s not really happy there, and he’s only doing things to try and fit in. He really wants to fit in, and Nolan Li isn’t helping.

But when word gets around that they want to shake things up after a very dramatic sports day and the most popular kid in school wants to team up with Nolan, Edward tags along. James Crombie is popular, rich and has influence. The unlikely trio begins a movement, or revolution called Common Sense. At first, it’s just about breaking down the house system and exposing the faux competition they feel they are being forced into.

Yet, as they work on breaking it down anonymously, they find out they all have the same common goal: breaking down the toxic culture, the out-dated traditions and the rules that their 100-year-old school runs under. It’s going to take lots of rumours, lots of digging around and using all their wits to get through it. That is, if they can convince each other how the revolution should work.

Poster Boys is a very masculine coming-of-age book that explores the world of being a teenage boy, the stark contrasts of the stereotypes against the more rounded characters, namely Edward, Nolan and Crombie. It’s an exploration of standing up for something you believe in, and the compromises you have to make. How to get your message out. Who you have to work with. How to get on the same level as the people you are trying to reach. And about trust and deception, and finding out who you can really trust as well as who you are. Because on the surface, it feels like it’s going to be filled with the typical blokey stuff, stereotypes and assumptions about the world. It delves a little deeper, and its setting in 2003 is what I think works to spread the message. Because at this time, there was still an analogue side to things. The combination of posters and emails was effective.

As it is set in 2003, it references things like the Afghanistan and Iraq war, information Technology classes, floppy disks and television shows that were common back then. These bridge the world between lives that were analogue and completely lived on computers, illustrating how teens used to navigate their world. The bullying in this book was daily, yet Edward didn’t have to put up with it outside of school. In a way, he could switch off because his bullies didn’t have constant contact with him. It’s going to be a bit of nostalgia for readers who remember days like that, an education for readers who are coming across these references for the first time, and a good chance to explain what the world was like in the early 2000s. Books like this act as a time capsule and reflection of our history and the attitudes that people are trying to work against.

This was an interesting novel that I think will appeal more to boys, and readers who enjoy books like this.