It’s Women’s History Month and we’re really excited to announce the publication of Goldfields Girl, a historical fiction novel about an extraordinary woman named Clara Saunders. Here, author Elaine Forrestal shares with us some of what she learned about this amazing pioneer of the Western Australian Goldfields.
Norman Jorgensen and Andy Griffiths have taken their places alongside Roald Dahl, Brian Jacques, Victor Kelleher, Paul Jennings, Duncan Ball and John Marsden in the West Australian Young Readers Book Awards (WAYRBA) Hall of Fame. Now in its fortieth year, the WAYRBA Hall of Fame is reserved for those authors who have won the award four times or more.
True West is a new crime novel by David Whish-Wilson set in late 1980s Perth against the backdrop of hate crimes associated with Jack van Tongeren’s Australian Nationalist Movement that included the firebombing of Asian businesses, as well as the dog-whistle comments made by then federal Liberal opposition leader John Howard associated with ‘slowing down’ Asian immigration. In the novel Lee Southern has fled to Perth after he betrayed the Knights bikie gang in Geraldton. Lee works as a rogue truck driver but before too long he finds himself captured by neo-nazis and must do their bidding if he is to protect those last few things he holds dear.
In the last edition of Classroom Express we shared some inspiration form the library team at Bunbury Catholic College on how to create a book display project worthy of entry into our Creative Classrooms competition.
NAIDOC Week takes place in the first week of July each year, which this year is Sunday 7 to Sunday 14 July 2019, and recognises the culture, history and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. It’s a great opportunity to show support for your local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.
Dr Antonio Buti is a professor of law at UWA and MLA for Armadale. His latest book, A Stolen Life: The Bruce Trevorrow Case, explores the story of the only member of the Stolen Generations to win compensation for his removal from his family.
I think it is important for fictional characters to live in real places, which is why I have set my stories in locations I have visited. Often an interesting-looking town – or island, in this case – can be the spark that inspires the whole story. The Cocos Islands, approximately 2,750 kilometres north-west of Perth, is one of the settings for my latest adventure story, The Wreckers’ Revenge.
In this episode of the Fremantle Press Podcast, Holden Sheppard speaks to Anne-Louise Willoughby about her biography of Australia’s first official female war artist and first female Archibald Prize winner, Nora Heysen: A Portrait.
Teach Australia’s colonial history through the eyes of a 12-year-old boy embroiled in one of the greatest criminal underworlds in the Gold Rush era. Or start a discussion around grief and loss in young people with a beautifully written literary novel.
Each book in Dianne Wolfer’s Light trilogy of picture books for older readers, about young girls and boys living through World War I, has now been given the nod as a CBCA Notable Book.