News

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, […]

The 2024 Western Australian Premier’s Book Awards were announced this evening at the State Library of Western Australia, with debut novelist Michael Thomas winning in the emerging writers’ category worth $15,000. In his speech Michael said he was extremely proud to win an award for a book that was based on his forebears. Michael said, […]

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?'

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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'

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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 […]

About the show The life of beloved children’s author Julia Lawrinson is stranger than fiction – and she draws on all her power as a storyteller to turn a life of intense headlines into a wild, marvellous tale. In episode two of this series, Julia takes us back to her rowdy youth and the start […]

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.

On Wednesday 20 November, the City of Melville host cosy crime author Alexander Thorpe at Civic Square Library for an in-conversation event unveiling his latest novel, Death Holds the Key. In Death Leaves the Station, audiences were introduced to a nameless mendicant monk who helped solve a baffling crime in Western Australia’s outback. In Death Holds the […]

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 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 […]

Anatomy of a Secret by Gerard McCann was shortlisted for the 2022 City of Fremantle Hungerford Award. Publisher Georgia Richter says, ‘Gerard McCann’s memoir documents the experiences of a Catholic boy who was just one of scores of young boys sexually assaulted by convicted paedophile Leo Leunig in Perth in the 1960s. Despite the confronting […]

About the show The life of beloved children’s author Julia Lawrinson is stranger than fiction – and she draws on all her power as a storyteller to turn a life of intense headlines into a wild, marvellous tale.  In the first episode of this 6-episode series, Julia immerses herself in the history of her own […]