Nightbirds by Kate J. Armstrong

Nightbirds by Kate J. Armstrong Author Interview ‘I’ll tell you another secret … about Simta. Everyone in this city wears a mask. They pretend they’re someone braver, smarter, more cunning: whatever mask best suits them. Wear it well and no one will see you – not the real you. They’ll only see what you want […]

Read More Nightbirds by Kate J. Armstrong

The Wish Sisters by Allison Rushby

The Wish Sisters by Allison Rushby, illustrated by Karen Blair, published by University of Queensland Press Allison Rushby is part of the famous Brisbane writing Rushby duo. Allison’s mother, Pamela Rushby, is the awarded author of When the Hipchicks Went to War, The Horses Didn’t Come Home and The Ratcatcher’s Daughter. Allison is the author […]

Read More The Wish Sisters by Allison Rushby

Big Magic by Sarah Armstrong

Big Magic by Sarah Armstrong Sarah Armstrong, writer of awarded literary fiction, explains how she wrote her imaginative first middle-fiction novel, Big Magic for Joy in Books at PaperbarkWords blog: A few years ago – squashed beside my six-year-old daughter on her narrow bed, reading her the classic kids’ novel, The Borrowers – it struck me that […]

Read More Big Magic by Sarah Armstrong

The Silver Moth by Carol Lefevre

The Silver Moth by Carol Lefevre When ‘The End’ is a Beginning:  writing a sequel to Elizabeth Goudge’s The Little White Horse Carol Lefevre As a child, when you truly bond with a book, some part of you never quite accepts that its final page is the end of the story. This was my experience […]

Read More The Silver Moth by Carol Lefevre

The Not So Chosen One Kate Emery

The Not So Chosen One by Kate Emery The Not So Chosen One is the debut young adult fantasy novel of Kate Emery, a Perth journalist and writer. It is about a Perth teenager who has to juggle an unexpected pregnancy with an even-more-unexpected introduction to the world of magical high-school. As the title of […]

Read More The Not So Chosen One Kate Emery

Solomon Macaroni by Ashleigh Barton

Solomon Macaroni and the Cousin Catastrophe by Ashleigh Barton Ashleigh Barton’s picture book What do you call your Grandma? (illustrated by Martina Heiduczek) is a 2022 CBCA shortlisted book. Her new book, Solomon Macaroni and the Cousin Catastrophe (University of Queensland Press) is the first in a children’s series. Here she explains the genesis of […]

Read More Solomon Macaroni by Ashleigh Barton

Dragon Skin by Karen Foxlee

Inside the 2022 CBCA Shortlist Dragon Skin by Karen Foxlee (published by A&U) Author Interview “If you find a dragon you need a friend.” (Dragon Skin) Every new book from Karen Foxlee comes to us with great anticipation. She brings magic into the world in both her realist and fantasy stories. Her books resonate with […]

Read More Dragon Skin by Karen Foxlee