Category: Subjects & themes

Fiona Wilkes is one of four writers shortlisted for the 2024 City of Fremantle Hungerford Award and in the running to win a $15,000 cash prize from the City of Fremantle, a publishing contract with Fremantle Press and a writing fellowship at the Centre for Stories. Her desire to balance out the narrative around queer […]

Nedingar: Ancestors by Isobel Bevis and Leanne Zilm has been recognised for a third time in this year’s awards season. The dual language picture book has already been shortlisted for an Environment Award by the Wilderness Society and has been made a CBCA Notable Book. Now it is in the running for Speech Pathology Australia’s […]

Nandi Chinna will appear at Rebeun’s Room in Fremantle on 2 October for a poetry reading accompanied by musical compositions. Nandi will be reading from her new poetry collaboration, Tossed Up by the Beak of a Cormorant.

Get the classroom thinking creatively, and help Quokka find a friend, with this free teaching activity. Working together or solo, kids can brainstorm the animals that a quokka would encounter on the beach and draw a friend for them.

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'Draw a Friend for Quokka'

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Using the illustrations of bush animals, get the classroom colouring in and writing the Noongar word for each animal in the blank space. Each of the animals can be found in the dual-language Noongar and English picture book, Djinang Bonar: Seeing Seasons by Ebony Froome and Leanne Zilm.

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'What animals can we see in the bush?'

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Enjoy a read-a-long with author Helen Milroy as she shares her latest picture book Bush Bugs. Hairy bugs, scary bugs, big or small. Let’s see if you can name them all!

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 […]

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'Create A Comic/Dig Up A Story'

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Mark Greenwood is a history hunter. He enjoys searching for lost explorers and glittering treasure, delving into baffling mysteries and investigating famous cold cases. In this piece, he shares his passion for the unexplained and how that resulted in a new series of books. Why these mysteries in particular? I’m hooked on mystery, history and […]

Get down to the Queenscliffe Literary Festival and visit Fremantle Press author and editor of Avast! Pirate Stories From Transgender Authors, Michael Earp.

Holding a published copy of One Wrong Turn in my hands was a dream come true. I never entertained the idea of there being a sequel and the fact that it now exists is largely thanks to the enthusiasm of Australia’s dance community and of course, the wonderful team at Fremantle Press! Dance has been […]

Nedingar: Ancestors, a bilingual picture book by Isobel Bevis and Leanne Zilm, has been shortlisted for the Karajia Award by the Wilderness Society of Australia. Launched in 2022, the Karajia Award for Children’s Literature celebrates the First Nations authors illustrators who create children’s books that honour a connection to Country and tell stories exploring land, […]

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 […]

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'Create A Profile For These African Countries'

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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 […]

Djinang Bonar: Seeing Seasons by Ebony Froome and Leanne Zilm takes readers through the six Noongar seasons and is a wonderful way to learn some Noongar language. Listen to Ebony read the story in Noongar.

In Into the Blue, what starts as a fun snorkelling adventure quickly becomes a test of character and conscience when Blair loses his brother’s beloved GoPro in the sea. On this map of the Omeo wreck on Coogee Beach, draw and label the plants, animals, lost objects, trash and treasure you might see on an old […]

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'Ship to Shore'

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Published in association with THEATRE 180, Courage Be My Friend by Jenny Davis OAM is the story of Sister Vivian Bullwinkel, who was the only survivor of the Bangka Island Massacre during World War II. Vivian’s selfless efforts to support her fellow prisoners of war in a Japanese camp garnered her many medals and saw her go on to […]

Sister Bullwinkel was a WWII hero who tended to patients in a Japanese prisoner of war camp in Indonesia. Find the right illnesses to diagnose the WWII patient like Vivien Bullwinkel does in Courage Be My Friend. We’ve collated some common diseases she may have encountered. Use the internet to come up with your best […]

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'Diagnose the WWII illness'

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Brobot is the first children’s graphic novel in the Sally Tinker series. The series follows Sally Tinker and her brother as they navigate through all of Sally’s inventions. The Design Your Own Robot activity sheet is a great resource to spark creative and logical thinking and to encourage attention to detail. For more teaching activities, download […]

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'Design your own robot'

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Gastronauts is a children’s graphic novel in the Sally Tinker series. The series follows Sally Tinker and her brother as they navigate through all of Sally’s inventions. The Inside The Human Body activity sheet is a great resource for written literacy, identification skills and biological science. For more teaching activities, download the free teaching notes here.

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'Inside the human body with James Foley'

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Nedingar: Ancestors by Isobel Bevis and Leanne Zilm, I Am the Mau and other stories by Chemutai Glasheen and Timeless by Kelly Canby have been named Notable books by the Children’s Book Council of Australia. Fremantle Press children’s publisher Cate Sutherland said she was extremely proud of her list and excited to see diverse debut […]

The American Library Association’s Rainbow Round Table and Young Adult Library Services Associations have announced more love for the US edition of Stars in Their Eyes by Jessica Walton and Aśka.

Cristy Burne  Remember the first time you spotted a fish swimming in the ocean? Or the fun of jumping waves? Or that full-body shiver as you plunge into the chilly, salty sea? A child’s emotional connection to nature is a vital and revitalising superpower – and I want to grow it whenever I can.  Our […]

Find the Wongutha Words in this crossword and unlock the tales of the Wongutha people. From Indigenous traditional teaching stories of the Wongutha people, to stories based on the author’s childhood at Mount Margaret Mission, Wongutha Tales is a unique collection bringing together May L. O’Brien’s beautiful stories for the first time. This activity sheet is an […]

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'Wongutha Words'

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