Author: Adam Matthews

Fremantle Press extends its condolences to the family and friends of writer Hetty Verolme who passed away on Tuesday 9 July 2024, aged 94. Hetty worked with Fremantle Press on two books, each one sharing her harrowing experiences as a child in Bergen-Belsen. The Children’s House of Belsen and Hetty: A True Story were published […]

The 2024 Byron Writers Festival will feature panels and storytelling from Fremantle Press authors Molly Schmidt, Madelaine Dickie, Wayne Bergmann, Tony Birch and Kris Kneen. Taking place on 9–12 August, these authors can each be found in multiple panels spanning the weekend, including: Molly Schmidt Title: Kin & Community Date: Friday 9 August 2024Session Time: […]

Immerse yourself in the sublime poetry of Caitlin Maling at the City of Fremantle Town Hall on Tuesday 1 August at 7 pm.

In activity one, ask your students to draw the elements of a stage. Working together or solo, have them plan a dance, making sure it has all the elements to wow an audience. Activity two teaches dance vocabulary using a crossword puzzle. Further discussion questions for Breaking Pointe include: You can download the activity sheets here and, for more […]

Activity Sheet

'Set The Stage/Dance Challenge'

Download activity sheet

Mark Greenwood shares mysterious true Australian stories in his junior fiction series, beginning with The Dragon’s Treasure and The Vanishing. In the teaching activity for The Dragon’s Treasure, budding reporters share the story of discovering treasure on a remote West Australian beach, using the newspaper template for the Pirate Times. For The Vanishing, kids create their own comic strip: drawing the moment […]

Activity Sheet

'Create A Comic/Dig Up A Story'

Download activity sheet

In A Leaf Called Greaf, Greaf changes with the seasons, and so does Bear. As Greaf leaves him, Bear feels a lightness and warmth that he had almost forgotten. Greaf has gone, but Bear knows its memory will hold a special place in his heart forever. In this activity, we ask children to draw their […]

Activity Sheet

'What Does Your Emotion Look Like?'

Download activity sheet

In 1989, Mecak Ajang Alaak led the Lost Boys on a four-year journey from Ethiopia to Kenya to protect them from becoming child soldiers. To understand these countries better, create a country profile for each of the following four countries: South Sudan, Sudan, Ethiopia and Kenya. This activity gives kids the opportunity to learn practical […]

Activity Sheet

'Create A Profile For These African Countries'

Download activity sheet

As one of the Fogarty Literary Award judges, I am delighted to present to you our third Fogarty Literary Award winner’s book: The Skeleton House. This book caught my attention from the very first sentence. I rode the waves of foreboding and revelation with my heart in my mouth. It is one of those books […]

Tell us about Avast! What’s unique about it? Avast! is the first anthology of its kind to be traditionally published in this country! It’s fiction entirely written by transgender authors, each exploring the prompt of pirates. Why pirates? Why not?! When we were offered the chance to choose a theme ourselves, we wanted something playful but […]

Children’s publisher Cate Sutherland says, ‘When we first shortlisted Father of the Lost Boys for the City of Fremantle Hungerford Award, we didn’t know then what we know now – that the book would be embraced by readers and that working with Yuot would be such a delight. Both are great reasons for us to […]

Children’s publisher Cate Sutherland said she loves working with Kelly Canby. Cate said, ‘Kelly’s work is nuanced and always evolving. She deals with sophisticated human emotions with subtlety and empathy, simplifying them so that young readers can understand themselves and others.’ Tell us about your latest book and why you wrote it. My latest book […]

What do good illustrators and authors do when they sit down to write a book? Sally Tinker, the leading character of Brobot: now available in colour, ponders this question with her author and creator James Foley. James’s new edition of Brobot: now available in colour is available in all good bookshops and online. Gastronauts: now available in colour is due for release […]

Join New York Times-bestselling author Natasha Lester on 24 July at 6.00 pm as she discusses the captivating new edition of If I Should Lose You with fellow author Emily Paull.

Michael Earp will be appearing at Supanova Comic Con & Gaming and looks forward to meeting all of their fans in Sydney in June 2024.

Get ready to set sail with a crew of rebels and misfits as Maddison Stoff and editor Michael Earp launch Avast! Pirate Stories From Transgender Authors a thrilling anthology of pirate tales by seven trans and non-binary writers.

In this episode, we are tuning in to listen to children’s author James Foley speak with his lead character, Sally Tinker, about how the big ideas come to be and where you can find them. James’s new edition of Brobot: now available in colour is available in all good bookshops and online. Gastronauts: now available in colour is due […]

On Wednesday 8 May, the Hon. Sabine Winton MLA, Minister for Early Childhood Education, and Bookaburras Ambassador Renae Hayward helped launch the 2024 Books for Little Bookaburras at the KindiLink early learning centre at Bentley Primary School. In her speech, Winton emphasised the importance of local stories by a local publisher for local Western Australian […]

Fremantle Press authors Chemutai Glasheen, Mark Greenwood, John Kinsella, Julia Lawrinson, Molly Schmidt, Laurie Steed, Michael Thomas, Georgia Tree, Dianne Wolfer and Emma Young have all been recognised in the Western Australian Premier’s Book Awards 2024 Shortlist. Fremantle Press publisher Georgia Richter said she was particularly delighted to see so many of our new authors […]

Spore or Seed by Caitlin Maling has been shortlisted in the Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry for the 2024 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards and is in the running to win $30,000.   Caitlin Maling said she was thrilled to be shortlisted amongst such fine poets (and by such fine poetry judges). Caitlin said, ‘This is such a […]

Fremantle Press is pleased to announce that the Books for Little Bookaburras 2024 program will be launched by Hon. Sabine Winton MLA, Minister for Early Childhood Education on Wednesday 8 May.

Just when we thought Kelly Canby’s star couldn’t keep rising, we were sent the amazing news that the North American edition of her picture book The Hole Story has just been named a Teacher Favourite in the 2024 North American Children’s Book Council Awards. Kelly Canby said she was surprised and delighted by the news. She […]

Children’s publisher Cate Sutherland can’t resist a dog book – especially written by master storyteller Deb Fitzpatrick. She asked Deb to share all the waggily, woofy goodness of writing Deb’s entertaining new adventure Kelpie Chaos. Tell us about your latest book and why you wrote it. Kelpie Chaos is a novel for younger middle readers […]

Children’s publisher Cate Sutherland says she loves the way Cristy Burne’s Into the Blue combines a snorkelling adventure with real-life conundrums that kids face every day. We asked Cristy to share more about the book’s themes and her writing process. Tell us about your latest book and why you wrote it. My latest book is Into the Blue […]

How to Avoid a Happy Life is Julia Lawrinson’s story of a messy family legacy and a lifetime of extraordinary events that have to be read to be believed. Publisher Georgia Richter says, ‘Julia’s writerly superpowers of observation and analysis, along with a robust sense of humour, allow her to survive and then write about […]