Sonya Hartnett
Sonya Hartnett is an Australian author who writes fiction for children, young adults and adults and has won numerous prizes and awards, having been described as 'the finest Australian writer of her generation'. She wrote her first novel, Trouble All the Way, at the age of thirteen and had it published when she was fifteen. Her books have also been published in Europe and North America.
Although she is often classified as a writer of young adult fiction, Hartnett does not consider this label entirely accurate: 'I’ve been perceived as a young adult writer whereas my books have never really been young adult novels in the sort of classic sense of the idea". Hartnett won the 2008 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award.
Books
Stripes of the Sidestep Wolf
Author: Sonya Hartnett
Publisher: Walker Books
Interest age: 13+
Reading age: 13+
When Satchel tells Chelsea about a creature he’s seen on the mountain, she becomes convinced it is the last-ever Tasmanian wolf and that finding it will save them both.
The Children of the King
Author: Sonya Hartnett
Publisher: Scholastic
Brilliantly written, this is an original and exciting story set in England and London during the Blitz.
The Silver Donkey
Author: Sonya Hartnett Illustrator: Laura Carlin
Publisher: Walker Books
Interest age: 8+
Reading age: 8+
In French woodland, sisters Coco and Marcelle find and help a blind English deserter from the battlefront, trying to ensure he reaches home. In return, he tells them marvellous tales...
What the Birds See
Author: Sonya Hartnett
Publisher: Walker Books
Interest age: 14+
Reading age: 12+
Adrian is ‘a child for whom life easily falls apart’, a nine-year-old who is afraid of almost everything and has never known his father.