Category: History
It’s Women’s History Month and we’re really excited to announce the publication of Goldfields Girl, a historical fiction novel about an extraordinary woman named Clara Saunders. Here, author Elaine Forrestal shares with us some of what she learned about this amazing pioneer of the Western Australian Goldfields.
Norman Jorgensen and Andy Griffiths have taken their places alongside Roald Dahl, Brian Jacques, Victor Kelleher, Paul Jennings, Duncan Ball and John Marsden in the West Australian Young Readers Book Awards (WAYRBA) Hall of Fame. Now in its fortieth year, the WAYRBA Hall of Fame is reserved for those authors who have won the award […]
In the last edition of Classroom Express we shared some inspiration form the library team at Bunbury Catholic College on how to create a book display project worthy of entry into our Creative Classrooms competition.
NAIDOC Week takes place in the first week of July each year, which this year is Sunday 7 to Sunday 14 July 2019, and recognises the culture, history and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. It’s a great opportunity to show support for your local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.
I think it is important for fictional characters to live in real places, which is why I have set my stories in locations I have visited. Often an interesting-looking town – or island, in this case – can be the spark that inspires the whole story. The Cocos Islands, approximately 2,750 kilometres north-west of Perth, […]
Teach Australia’s colonial history through the eyes of a 12-year-old boy embroiled in one of the greatest criminal underworlds in the Gold Rush era. Or start a discussion around grief and loss in young people with a beautifully written literary novel.
Each book in Dianne Wolfer’s Light trilogy of picture books for older readers, about young girls and boys living through World War I, has now been given the nod as a CBCA Notable Book.
As NAIDOC Week approaches, take advantage of our wide range of Indigenous titles for children and young adults to join in the community celebrations. Some Indigenous authors are still available for school and community events and can be booked using this author booking form.
Dianne Wolfer’s book In the Lamplight – set during World War I – brings female roles and friendships to the fore in the context of this time in history.
Our free WWI activity kit is a great way for the little ones to learn about Australian history. Enjoy activity sheets from Dianne Wolfer’s In the Lamplight and Lighthouse Girl, and Norman Jorgensen’s In Flanders Fields.
Sister Heart by Sally Morgan has been shortlisted for a 2018 Adelaide Festival Award for Literature in the children’s category.
Need a last-minute Book Week activity? Why not get your students to create and use semaphore flags or morse code? Morse code and the semaphore signalling method was used to communicate important military information, home-front anxieties and, eventually, hopes for a more peaceful world. We’ve created some handy activity sheets for the book Lighthouse Girl by […]
The world premiere of Hellie Turner’s The Lighthouse Girl is set to take place in Albany, the birthplace of the much-loved Anzac story. Based on Dianne Wolfer’s acclaimed books, Lighthouse Girl and Light Horse Boy, the play will premiere at the Albany Entertainment Centre on 22 April before its Perth season at the State Theatre […]
Red Read’s life takes an alarming turn when his mother sells him to an infamous smuggler plying his trade off the north-west coast in the closing days of the 19th century. Author Norman Jorgensen provides a sneak preview.
Sister Heart by Sally Morgan has been shortlisted for the Children’s Book Council of Australia’s Book of the Year. The awards, which are celebrating their 70th year, are the most influential and highly respected in Australia.
Sally Morgan’s new book, Sister Heart, was shortlisted for a Victorian Premier’s Literary Award today. Poignantly written from the child’s perspective, Sister Heart tells the story of a young Aboriginal girl’s experience as part of the Stolen Generations.
Need a last-minute Anzac Day activity? Why not get your students to create and use semaphore flags? The semaphore signalling method was used to communicate important military information, home-front anxieties and, eventually, hopes for a more peaceful world.
Drawing on fascinating archival material, and interweaving fact with fiction, in this video award-winning author Dianne Wolfer deftly recreates the story of Fay Howe, the little girl from Breaksea Island. In doing so she depicts the hardships of those left at home during WWI — waiting, wondering and hoping.
Alice Nelson is a novelist who won the T.A.G. Hungerford Award and was named Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Australian Novelist in 2009. Here she talks about her latest book After This: Survivors of the Holocaust speak.
Author Norman Jorgensen’s research notes on inspiring Viking women.
Based on the book Light Horse Boy by Dianne Wolfer, and using historical sources and Brian Simmonds’ evocative charcoal images, this is the story of Jim and his experience of the first world war.