Fremantle Press author takes home national award

Kate McCaffrey has won her second Australian Family Therapists’ Award for Children’s Literature for her latest novel, Crashing Down. Kate’s novel In Ecstasy took home the same award in 2009 and Destroying Avalon was highly commended in 2007.

McCaffrey said her intention was always to write novels that teenagers would relate to, worlds that they would recognise and people that they would know.

‘I have wanted to explore issues that I feel are important and significant in their lives. I think it is an added benefit that adults can get some understanding from them,’ said the award-winning author.

The Australian Family Therapists’ Award for Children’s Literature was first established in 1986 to recognise books that depict a functioning family that can ‘cope creatively and constructively with credible obstacles’. Well-known among Australian publishers and writers, it will celebrate its thirtieth anniversary in 2016.

Kathryn Apel won the Young Readers/Picture Book Award for her children’s book Bully on the Bus. Both authors win $1,500 prize money.

More information on the awards can be found at http://www.aaft.asn.au/.