About Me

I’ve worked in the children’s book industry for over 25 years in various roles: in-house editor, consultant to a literary agent, children’s book buyer, reviewer, freelance manuscript assessor, and as a writer-in-residence in a high school library.

My writing includes the Young Adult novels Girl, Aloud (2009), Steal My Sunshine (2013) and I Am Out With Lanterns (2018). For late primary/early high school readers: The Other Side of Summer (2016; a companion novel to I Am Out With Lanterns), Aussie Stem Stars: Gisela Kaplan (2021), and The Goodbye Year (2022). Eliza Boom’s Diary books 1 & 2 (2014) are for emerging readers aged 5-9. My latest novels are Elsewhere Girls (2021) and Outlaw Girls (2024), co-written with Nova Weetman, and The Wild Unknown will be published in April 2026.

I’ve been shortlisted for the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards, the Aurealis Awards, the Educational Publishing Awards, the Davitt Awards, the Speech Pathology Awards, the NSW Young People’s History Prize, the West Australia Young People’s Book Awards, and the Ethel Turner Award for Young People’s Literature. In 2023 The Goodbye Year was the winner of the NSW Young People’s History Prize. Internationally, The Other Side of Summer was a Junior Library Guild Selection in the USA, Eliza Boom, Book 1 was the winner of the Michigan Great Lakes Book Award, and Girl, Aloud was longlisted for the Waterstone’s Prize and shortlisted for the Lincolnshire Young People’s Book Award in the UK. 

You can find me on Series 3 of Story Tools: creative writing videos to inspire and instruct children in the art of storytelling.

I have a Substack newsletter called Voracious, which I publish monthly, including reading recommendations, industry commentary, and news about my books. Please subscribe to stay in touch.