Mel and Shell is set in 1979. What was going on then? For Sandgropers of a certain age, you’ll remember that 1979 was promoted as the 150th anniversary of English settlement in Western Australia. There were fetes, re-enactments (including the Parmelia Yacht Race), and every primary school child was given a diary with lots of […]

School holidays are almost upon us, and as your class activities start to wind down, keep your students engaged by getting your hands on our amazing classroom resources and activities. Email admin@fremantlepress.com.au to order yours while stocks last, or download and print your own using the picture links below. Primary school What Colour Is The […]

Rights to James Foley’s newest picture book Stellarphant have been sold to Kane Miller in the USA.

Hassan Al Nawwab was born in Iraq in 1960 and came to Australia in 2003 with his wife and children. He is a poet and journalist who has published three volumes of poetry and two plays in Arabic, and has received numerous awards for his poems.

Vociferate | 詠 is Western Australian writer Emily Sun’s debut poetry collection. Alice Pung has described the book as ‘polemical, personal and political’ – in it, Emily meditates upon a range of issues that have shaped her world. Emily was born in British colonial Hong Kong to stateless diasporic-Chinese parents, who are descendants of Chinese […]

David Price says when we hold strong views about a subject, we often do not like to listen to contrary ones. He says, ‘In fact, we live in a time when we are able to exclusively access – mainly online – only the information and opinions that suit our own view of the world. In […]

One of the questions I get asked about my picture books is ‘Why are they about animals?’ The automatic response for me would be ‘Because I love animals’, but the truth is a little more complex.

In this article, Ruth de Vos takes you behind the scenes to share how the illustrations for her new picture book with Danny Parker, Shine, developed from idea to gorgeous finished artwork.

Last year was a great year for Helen Milroy. Her work was shortlisted for the WA Premier’s Book Awards, the Readings Children’s Book Prize and the Speech Pathology Australia Book of the Year Awards, while reviewers called her picture book Backyard Birds vibrant, bright, beautiful, wonderful, colourful and bold. In 2021 the First Nations author […]

In 2019, I had the chance to travel to Eungella National Park in Queensland to see wild platypus. I wasn’t planning to write an adventure novel starring a monotreme … And I wasn’t planning to spend a day battling mud and swollen rivers and carnivorous worms, either. But somehow, both of those things happened and […]

Just days after receiving the Australian Mental Health Prize and right in the middle of NAIDOC Week 2020, Fremantle Press First Nations children’s book writer and illustrator Helen Milroy was named the WA state recipient of Australian of the Year 2021.

This term we asked some of our favourite writers to send us their top storytelling tips and tricks with a couple of writing exercises to boot. Take a look below and don’t forget to download your free poster for the classroom or order it from admin@fremantlepress.com.au.

In the lead-up to summer holidays, keep children engaged in the classroom with our free activity sheets and teaching notes. We’ve also got a selection of bookmarks to give away – just email admin@fremantlepress.com.au to get your hands on them.

Beautiful, bold Australian wildflowers are the heroes of Let’s Count Wildflowers by botanical pop artist Tracey Gibbs, AKA Lalleuca.

Sally Tinker is back with a new adventure in invention! The fourth book from the mind of James Foley in the S.Tinker Inc. graphic novel for junior readers series is out now.

Aussie director Nicholas Verso and producer Tania Chambers optioned the film and television rights to Holden Sheppard’s YA novel Invisible Boys this week. Invisible Boys has already won the 2018 City of Fremantle Hungerford Award, the 2019 Kathleen Mitchell Award and the 2019 Western Australian Premier’s Award for an Emerging Writer, and was shortlisted for […]

Stock up your classroom with some free activity sheets, door hangers, teaching notes and bookmarks. We’ve rounded up a selection of the latest.

Head down to the City of Perth Library from now until 18 October for an amazing exhibition by our children’s and YA authors. The exhibit will showcase the inspiration, draft notes and illustrations, artworks and more behind their books.

We were lucky to chat with dystopian aficionado Brendan Ritchie about his chapter in the newly released book Beyond the Dark: Dystopian Texts in the Secondary English Classroom (edited by Patricia Dowsett, Ellen Rees and Alex Wharton, and published by the Australian Association for the Teaching of English). Brendan is well positioned to discuss dystopian […]

When you want to find books by and about Aboriginal and or Torres Strait Islander Peoples for your classroom or library, which resources do you turn to? The NCACL has just launched a new database, which they hope will be invaluable to teachers in their search for the most appropriate materials to share with their […]

The importance of critical thinking has become a common discussion topic in the media in recent weeks. And teachers have long known critical thinking is the basis for progress in learning. In this article, writer, illustrator and former teacher Katie Stewart shows how to use her new picture book, What Colour is the Sea?, to […]

Storyathon for Kids Write a microstory that is exactly 100 words. This writing competition is open to children in years 3–8 during each school term. You can submit up to three stories for one competition, and you can enter all or just a few of the competitions run each year.

Kelly Canby’s new book, Littlelight, is already on the reprint list after COVID-19 led Fremantle Press to let our booksellers get the book earlier than its release date. In this e-interview, Kelly tells us more about the book and shares some recent news.