Tanya Hunter

17 July, 2023 Editor-in-Chief 1 Comment

Tanya Hunter’s love of adventure stories began as a child living in Nottingham, England, when she regularly explored the same countryside as the fabled Robin Hood. A former primary school teacher, Tanya has been a police officer for nearly twenty-five years. She is also a proud ambassador for Multiple Sclerosis QLD and has a passion for disability advocacy.

Tanya’s debut novel is The Quest for the Galleon of Time.

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The Quest for the Galleon of Time

17 July, 2023 Editor-in-Chief

by Tanya Hunter

The year is 1738 and eleven-year-old Tobias Crane is forced to leave his home to work as a ship’s lad on a trading galleon. Once onboard, Tobias discovers that the ship is a time-travelling galleon! A galleon that can inexplicably appear in different dimensions in the past, present and future.

A captain’s obsession with revenge will force Tobias and the crew on a dangerous adventure through treacherous waters. With the help of new friends, Tobias must somehow return home to warn his father that Continue reading The Quest for the Galleon of Time →

Teacher Notes

Teacher Notes – Alice’s Shoe

15 July, 2023 Site Manager

Teachers’ Notes for Alice’s Shoe (pdf, 690 kb)

Teacher Notes

Teacher Notes – Mizuto and the Wind

9 July, 2023 Site Manager

Teachers’ Notes for Mizuto and the Wind (pdf, 748 kb)

Teacher Notes

Teacher Notes – Timefire

9 July, 2023 Site Manager

Teachers’ Notes for Timefire (pdf, 206 kb)

Author

Julie Thorndyke

9 July, 2023 Editor-in-Chief

Julie Thorndyke is a graduate of the University of Sydney Master of Creative Writing program, Sydney writer Julie Thorndyke’s two collections of tanka poetry, Rick Rack and Carving Granite, were published by Ginninderra Press. Editor of Eucalypt: a tanka journal since 2017, Julie also writes fiction and other poetry forms. Her debut novel for adults, Continue reading →

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Alice’s Shoe

9 July, 2023 Editor-in-Chief 2 Comments

Written by Julie Thorndyke and illustrated by Jennifer Harrison

A country child, Alice ran barefoot. On smooth waxed floorboards, over dusty clay in the yard, through icy water in the creek… she refused to wear shoes. After losing her sight and hearing through illness, Alice slowly made her way back to life and became the first deafblind person in Australia to be educated. Her hated shoe was Alice’s first connection with the world of language as she learnt to sign. Continue reading Alice’s Shoe →

Author

Nean McKenzie

9 July, 2023 Editor-in-Chief

Nean McKenzie is a children’s writer and optometrist who lives in western Melbourne. Originally from Bendigo, Nean lived in New Zealand, Europe and North East Africa before returning to Victoria. She lives with her family and a cat called Lemonade who purrs, even when nervous.

Nean has had three middle-grade novels out with MidnightSun Publishing: Cryptosight (2019), Xenoflight (2022) and Timefire (2023). She was awarded a Maurice Saxby mentorship in 2016, a fellowship for the KSP Writers Centre for 2023 and has a diploma in Professional Writing and Editing from RMIT. Continue reading Nean McKenzie →

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Timefire

9 July, 2023 Editor-in-Chief

by Nean McKenzie

In the scorching summer of 2033, Gilbert Black is accused of being a firebug, just like his mother was thirteen years previously. That night a fire starts on his family’s farm. A fire with a tunnel in the centre of it. And that’s when things start to get really weird.

Pulled repeatedly back and forth through time, Gil finds himself at big Australian bushfires from the last two centuries. He searches across the years, determined to unlock the secret to his family’s legacy. Gil can’t change the past, but can he learn from it in time to return home and save his family from the biggest inferno ever known? Continue reading Timefire →

Author

Jennifer Mackenzie Dunbar

9 May, 2023 Editor-in-Chief

Jennifer Mackenzie Dunbar writes novels and short stories drawing on her love of history, music and mythology to explore the stories left untold in conventional historical accounts. Her short story The Man Who Rowed Away was published in the anthology Crush: stories about love (MidnightSun Publishing, 2017) and she self-published her debut novel Vivaldi’s Lost Concert in 2019.

Her previous work as a social worker provides her with a rich source of material to develop her colourful and complex characters and compelling plots. Her travels have taken her to beautiful and enchanting places, including Continue reading Jennifer Mackenzie Dunbar →

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Missing Pieces

9 May, 2023 Editor-in-Chief

by Jennifer Mackenzie Dunbar

Inspired by the 1831 discovery of a hoard of priceless chess pieces on a remote Scottish Island, Missing Pieces tells the story of four women who created and protected the now famous artefacts.

When Marianne is coerced into leaving the security of her comfortable London life to curate an exhibition on the Isle of Lewis, she uncovers her own ancestral connection to the mysterious island. Her eerie connections to the past introduce us to Magrit, the Icelandic artisan, beholden to a power-hungry Bishop, Morven, the rescuer, who seeks intimacy with a mysterious stranger and Mhairi, the negotiator, fighting a greedy landlord to stave off Continue reading Missing Pieces →

Author

Kaye Baillie

8 May, 2023 Editor-in-Chief

Kaye Baillie is a writer of fiction and non-fiction children’s picture books.

Kaye began writing stories and making books during the long, hot summer holidays on the orchard where she grew up in Victoria. With her sister, she sat at the kitchen table coming up with ideas and adding her own (not very good) illustrations. Now she writes stories at her kitchen table near the beach, where she lives with her family and their high-maintenance pets. Kaye has a strong interest in researching and writing stories about unique individuals and events.

Kaye has a Diploma in Professional Writing and Editing. In 2022 her book When The Waterhole Dries Up was shortlisted in the Children’s Book Council of Australia Awards and many of her picture books have won or Continue reading Kaye Baillie →

Author

Luisa Gioffre-Suzuki

8 May, 2023 Editor-in-Chief

Luisa Gioffre-Suzuki is a professional illustrator, artist and teacher based in Victoria. After spending over a decade in Japan, her personal style has developed with influences from vibrant Japanese culture and is underpinned by her Fine Art training and love of color. Luisa uses a variety of mixed media including inks, watercolor, acrylic, pastel, pen and pencil to create her colorful imagery. She has illustrated Continue reading →

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Mizuto and the Wind

8 May, 2023 Editor-in-Chief

written by Kaye Baillie
illustrated by Luisa Gioffre-Suzuki

Mizuto is a young boy living an ordinary life in Japan until one day, something extraordinary happens.

Following a deadly tsunami, Mizuto’s father is missing. Continue reading Mizuto and the Wind →

Author

Zena Shapter

2 May, 2023 Editor-in-Chief

Zena Shapter is a multi-award-winning author, high school English tutor and youth writing competition judge. Before writing When Dark Waters Burn, she interviewed scores of teenagers about what they wanted to read, and their concerns for the future. She was fascinated to learn they sought escapist stories that authentically represented their feelings of being unheard, fears about sustainability, threat of war, job instability… and Australian property prices! Continue reading →

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