Classroom Express

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School visits might be off the calendar but that doesn’t mean our authors are inaccessible: seven ways to touch base

April 1, 2020

Classes might be homeward bound, and book launches may be cancelled, but booksellers, publishers and writers will keep on keeping on. Here are seven happenings, or potential happenings, coming to a virtual world near you. If you know of any others you’d like us to share – please keep us informed!

Fun stuff for you and your book-loving kids to get stuck into while you're all at home

March 31, 2020

Whether they are in the classroom, the virtual classroom or just hanging out at home, there are plenty of free and fun activities to keep the youngest members of our community engaged.

HM Waugh's The Lost Stone of SkyCity is in the running for an Aurealis Award for Best Children's Fiction

March 27, 2020

The Lost Stone of SkyCity has been shortlisted in the 2019 Aurealis Awards for speculative fiction. The awards, which accept novels, novellas, anthologies, graphic novels and short stories, are given for works of outstanding literary merit and originality that make a significant contribution to the genre of speculative fiction.

Fremantle Press writer Norman Jorgensen smuggled into the Hall of Fame for fortieth anniversary year

March 16, 2020

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.

Three Fremantle Press titles make the CBCA Notables List in record breaking year of entries

March 16, 2020

Kelly Canby’s Rodney, Julia Lawrinson’s Maddie in the Middle and Holden Sheppard’s Invisible Boys have all been made Notable books in their respective categories in the Children’s Book Council of Australia Book of the Year Awards.

Wombat, Mudlark and Other Stories shortlisted for the Readings Children's Book Prize

March 16, 2020

A huge congratulations to Helen Milroy, author of Wombat, Mudlark and Other Stories, for being among the six books shortlisted for the Readings Children's Book Prize worth $3,000.

Superstar children's book writers Julia Lawrinson and A.J. Betts join the Fremantle Press podcast to share their new books and their top tips for successful author gigs

March 16, 2020

In this all-ages episode we're chatting to Maddie in the Middle author Julia Lawrinson about the complexities of female friendships. We ask her whether it's ever okay to do the wrong thing for the right reason and we listen as Julia (who holds a PhD) completely bombs out in her pop quiz (#EpicFail) before she redeems herself with a brilliant reading from Maddie in the Middle.

Illustrator and author Katie Stewart returns to her childhood, four decades later, to find inspiration for new picture book

March 13, 2020

A peripatetic childhood gave What Colour is the Sea? illustrator and author Katie Stewart the chance to see the world from many perspectives. Katie’s new book, her first with a traditional publisher, is about a koala who asks her Aussie animal mates what the true colour of the sea is. The answers vary, so when koala ambles down to the seaside to see for herself, she discovers her friends are both wrong and right in their perceptions.

The award-winning and inspirational Wongutha author of Bawoo Stories and Badudu Stories dies in Perth

March 12, 2020

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that this blog post contains images and the name of a person who has died. Please take care.

Get lucky this Friday the thirteenth at the CBCA WA's A Night with Our Stars event

March 11, 2020

We’re excited to share the stellar line-up of Fremantle Press children’s authors attending the Children’s Book Council of Australia’s A Night with Our Stars event on Friday 13 March. Two hundred guests will have the good fortune to meet Fiona Burrows, Kelly Canby, James Foley, Julia Lawrinson, Holden Sheppard, Katie Stewart and HM Waugh at this annual highlight of the event calendar.