News & Blog by Deborah Abela
Read the latest news and bulletins, essays, features, opinions from our bestselling authors. Find out what's being said, debated, and discussed in the world of books and ideas.
I was contacted by the family friend of a young girl who had been diagnosed with a brain tumour. Edyn Fawcett, I was told, was a great kid who everyone fell in love with the moment they met her and who loved Max Remy. They asked if I could sign a book for her to help take her mind off the months of treatment and operations and hospital stays she was facing. The lovely Linsay Knight and Zoe Walton...
I was really keen for Grimsdon not to be a grim, disaster novel – there have been a few post-apocalyptic films and stories in the last few years and even though my characters face a world that has changed, there is still a lot to be hopeful about, including the fact that these courageous kids will be our future. There are moments when the kids face kidnappers, where their lives are threatened by collapsing...
‘Didn’t you know that water would be the end of me?’ cried the Wicked Witch. ‘Of course not,’ was Dorothy’s reply, ‘How could I?’ From The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum (The opening quote from Grimsdon) On August 2nd my latest book was finally released. It has taken me about two years to write with lots of interruptions in between….I wrote it because of my frustration at governments all around...
Living in suburban Sydney as a kid surrounded by paddocks (where there’s now a 6-lane highway) seemed a dull way to be. We lived in a three-bedroom fibro house in a horseshoe street and through summers that burnt our feet and seared our bums as we hurtled down slippery dips. But then there were books and the days where we’d yell goodbyes to Mum and not return until dinner. Those days were the best....
Here we are smack bang at the beginning of the week that celebrates all things kids’ books. All around the country authors and illustrators entertain kids’, parents, librarians and teachers about the wonderful world of kids’ books and explain why they choose to live in their heads most of the time on great adventures and often in their pyjamas. They encourage kids with all their wordly might to read...
