Jackie French

She sleeps. She eats. She scratches. She is training humans to become better pets. She is Mothball, a wombat with attitude. Award-winning author Jackie French's love of wombats comes alive in this cheeky observation of Mothball's life, while Bruce Whatley's captivating illustrations of Mothball's antics show just how entertaining and endearing wombats are to humans. The bestselling daily routine of...

In the 80th anniversary year, Jackie French explores the dropping of the bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, which ended World War 2. 1942 Japan has bombed Sydney Harbour. Sixteen-year-old Ossie lies about his age to protect his country, even though it means abandoning his only family, a one-eyed dog named Lucky. Kind-hearted Mrs Plum is already looking...

Why does humanity cling to warfare when it destroys the land and people the armies try to claim? Claverton Castle, 1940. Eagles and Spitfires fly in the skies of England as Lady Deanna, the aristocratic granddaughter of the Duke of Claverton, spends her days shovelling manure and her evenings in blue satin, attending dinner parties to gather intelligence from the...

A swashbuckling adventure from Australia's Children's Laureate Can you still love your father, no matter what his crimes are? Twelve-year-old Ben Huntsmore is the son of a shipowner, an only child who loves the farming life on his mother's family estate, Badger's Hill. But when Ben's father loses their ancestral home in 1809 as payment for a gambling debt, Ben...

Bestselling Mothball is back -- with birthday cake! (Carrot, of course.) She eats, she sleeps, she scratches. But today it's Mothball's birthday and it's time to celebrate! Created by author Jackie French and illustrator Bruce Whatley, Happy Birthday Wombat is a very funny picture book about enjoying a special day -- as seen through the eyes of the world's most...

At the tender age of eight, chimney sweep Tom Appleby is convicted of stealing and sentenced to deportation to Botany Bay. As one of the members of the First Fleet, he arrives in a country that seemingly has little to offer—or little that the English are used to, anyway. Tom Appleby, Convict Boy by Jackie French tells the story of...

THE STORY IS EQUAL PARTS DOWNTON ABBEY AND WARTIME ACTION, WITH ENOUGH ROMANCE AND INTRIGUE TO MAKE IT 100% NOT-PUT-DOWN-ABLE. Australian Woman's Weekly A tale of espionage, love and passionate heroism. Inspired by true events, this is the story of how society's 'lovely ladies' won a war. Each year at secluded Shillings Hall, in the snow-crisped English countryside, the mysterious...

It's 1932, the height of the Depression, and Butter O'Bryan and his friends have another mystery to solve. The Very Small Castle is home to Butter O'Bryan, his father, three aunts, friends Gil, Olive and Tish, and their dog, Woofer.But now there's also a monster at the castle!When glamorous film actress Delilah Divine vanishes in the middle of filming on...

A timely picture book about a young prince who is determined to rule over a country where the future is filled with environmental hope - and practical solutions, such as common usage of solar and wind power. Lively, fun and positive, this book serves to give young people information about their world and shows them that a lot of environmental...

Companion non fiction title for the bestselling Diary of a Wombat that explores everything you've ever wanted to know about wombats. Jackie French loves wombats. She's been living with and studying them for over 30 years, and they have been featured characters in many of her books. Now her beloved wombats take center stage, as Jackie reveals everything you have...

'HIGHLY RECOMMENDED FOR ALL READERS'-- ReadPlus on Barney and the Secret of the Whales The whisper in the darkness is: rebellion! (Or: death or liberty!) Frog is an orphan, a pickpocket, starving on the streets of Parramatta in 1804. But when the tall, commanding Irish rebel Mr Cunningham talks of freedom from tyranny and the lash, Frog creeps out to...

Drawing on her own family history, this is a story from Jackie French about education in Colonial Australia - and how women once had to fight for their right to it. January 1901Sharks circle a stranded ship as a young girl and her family stagger from the waves ...Rescued by a Pacific Islander boy named Jamie, Hannah's family begin a...

From Australia's Children's Laureate comes a delightful collection of stories about horses and unicorns. Take a journey through the ages and around the world - from ancient Greece, to the time of Genghis Khan to Arthurian England and then to outback Australia in the 1950s.Each story weaves the fantastic into the commonplace or focuses on the special relationship that exists...

Just shut your eyes and picture yourself walking around the corner. that's what my friend told me. Somewhere around the corner and you'll be safe. the demonstration was wild, out of control. Barbara was scared. She saw the policeman running towards her. She needed to escape. She closed her eyes and did precisely that: she walked somewhere around the corner...

Horace the Baker's Horse tells the heartwarming story of Horace, a very big horse with an even bigger heart. Every day he dutifully pulls the baker's cart, helping Old William, Big Bill, and Young Billy deliver bread, buns, and other doughy delights to the people of the town. However, when a terrible flu strikes, making everyone sick, it falls upon...

Christmas comes but once a year, and it's just as well for Santa's reindeer, who have to fight with Mothball for the carrots left out for them by the local children. And when Mothball takes an unexpected sleigh ride, it's not just Santa who faces the prospect of getting stuck in the chimney. Christmas from a wombat's eye view is...

In war-torn Malaya, Nancy dreams of Australia - and a young man called Michael. The year is 1942 and the world is at war. Nancy Clancy left school at fourteen to spend a year droving, just like her grandfather Clancy of the Overflow. Now sixteen, Nancy's family has sent her to Malaya to bring home her sister-in-law Moira and baby...

All Aboard! takes readers on a captivating journey through time, exploring the history of Sydney Central station from its inception to the opening of the modern Sydney Metro. This engaging book brings history to life with compelling text by Jackie French and stunning illustrations by Martina Heiduczek. Readers will discover fascinating stories ranging from the architectural evolution of buildings and...

A companion title to the best-selling The Fire Wombat, this is the story of Myrtle, a small turtle who, by heading uphill, tells the other animals that a flood is coming. Myrtle the turtle knows everything about the waterhole where she lives in the creek. She can also sense the giant flood that is coming, long before other animals or...

Following on from The Fire Wombat and The Turtle and the Flood, The Drought Kangaroo is the third title in the series that focuses on animals and the challenges they face in environmental disasters, be it fire, flood, and now drought. Drought has devastated Joseph the kangaroo's home. He longs for green grass and the cool, clear water he can...

The Diary of William Shakespeare, Gentleman is part comedy, part love story, intertwining the threads of Shakespeare's life drawn from his plays. Could the world's greatest writer truly put down his pen forever to become a gentleman? He was a boy who escaped small-town life to become the most acclaimed playwright of the land, a lover whose sonnets still sing...

From Australia's best-loved storyteller comes the final book in the bestselling Matilda Saga This is a love song to our nation, told in a single sweeping story. Jed Kelly has finally persuaded her great aunt Nancy to tell the story of her grandparents. The tale that unfolds is one of Australia's greatest romances - that of Clancy of the Overflow,...

One Perfect Day is part of a series that takes readers on a fictional journey through some fascinating Australian stories. These stories are inspired by objects from the National Museum of Australia's collection. Ideal for ages 8 and up, this book offers a captivating way to explore history through engaging narratives that bring the past to life.

This is the story of women who fought during WWI, but not as nurses or ambulance drivers. In 1917, sixteen-year-old Jean McLain is working as a post-office assistant in England. But when she wins a national Morse code competition, the British army makes a request Jean cannot refuse – to take a secret position as a signaller in France. If...

Renowned for her historical fiction titles, Jackie French now tells the story of the brilliant and famous evacuation of Gallipoli. Sixteen-year-old Nipper and his Gallipoli mates Lanky, Spud, Bluey and Wallaby Joe are starving, freezing and ill-equipped. By November 1915 they know that there is more to winning a war than courage. The Gallipoli campaign has been lost. Nipper has...

Most Australians know of Simpson and his donkey, who became heroes at Gallipoli, even among the Turkish forces. Few know where the donkey came from, or what happened to him after World War I. Or that another man carried on rescuing the wounded with the donkey after Simpson died. This is the story of a small unassuming donkey. It's also...

As the bushfire swallowed up the world they knew, a wombat shared her burrow with other animals. Longlisted in the 2021 Australian Book Industry Awards and a 2021 Children's Book Council Notable Book. As the flames of a bushfire approach, one small wombat shelters with other animals in her burrow. But that is just the beginning of their journey to...

A special anniversary edition of the popular modern classic. Celebrating twenty years of Australia's favourite sheep, Pete. Shaun the shearer doesn't have a sheepdog. He has Pete. And Pete is no ordinary sheep. From Jackie French and Bruce Whatley, the award-winning duo of the bestselling Diary of a Wombat, comes a story about what can happen when you do things......

The story of the famous Burke and Wills expedition... as it has never been told before. The humans called him Bell Sing, but to the other camels, he is known as He Who Spits Further Than the Wind. Transported from the mountains and deserts of the Northwest Frontier (present-day Pakistan and Afghanistan), Bell Sing accompanies explorers Burke and Wills as...

The award-winning team behind Diary of a Wombat have joined forces again to create another highly amusing picture book. Pete the Sheep features Sean, a shearer, who instead of a sheepdog to help him, has got a sheep sheep—Pete. After being rejected by the other shearers and their dogs, Sean and Pete set up a sheep salon in town. Sheep...

Six mysterious passengers and seven dark secrets. Who can be trusted? It's a dark and dangerous journey for the Cobb and Co night mail coach, but when his coach-driver father is injured, young Jem Donovan must take the reins. Surely a boy like Jem can't handle a team of four horses and guide the coach on a rough bush track...

An empowering and exhilarating look at the girls who went before us, and the way they shaped the world. Ming Qong is convinced that girls have changed the world throughout history. So when Ming is thrust back in time to Belgium during WWI, only to be rescued from a burning cellar by Marie—an experienced spy at only twelve years of...

In this fifth and final book in The Girls Who Changed the World series, Ming Qong discovers who she is, and that she, too, will change the world. Ming has travelled through history to meet girls who have changed the world. However, this time is different as Herstory, History's sister, promises to reveal to Ming something of her own past:...

The third book in the best-selling Jackie French historical series that places girls centre stage. Ming Qong is convinced that girls have changed the world throughout history. She's faced danger and adventure when Herstory sent her to the past to witness girls' bravery in the incredible feats left out of 'histories'. Now Ming asks Herstory for another time-travelling quest –...

An empowering and exhilarating look at the girls who went before us, and the way they shaped the world. Twelve-year-old Ming Qong is convinced that girls must have changed the world, even if they are rarely mentioned in history books. So when Ming gets the chance to go back in time, she imagines herself changing destinies from a glittering palace...

The fourth book in the best-selling Jackie French historical series that places girls centre stage. Ming and Ada Spark the Digital Age features Ming Qong, who is convinced that girls have changed the world throughout history. History's sister, the mysterious Herstory, believes that the more you know about the past, the better you can understand the future. She now sends...

A modern tale of truth and lies woven with a story from the past. Luke lives in modern-day Australia with his mother and stepfather, Sam. He is burdened by a guilty secret: Sam has helped him to cheat in an entrance exam for a prestigious school. Lulach lives in ninth-century Scotland with his mother and stepfather, Macbeth. Macbeth becomes a...

Celebrating the 10th anniversary of this wonderful story about dreams, believing in yourself... and a dancing kangaroo. Josephine Wants To Dance features Josephine, a kangaroo who loves to dance. Her little brother, Joey, reminds her that kangaroos don't dance, they hop. Nevertheless, Josephine continues to point her toes and leap through the air with determination. When a ballet troupe visits...

'A COMPELLING, BEAUTIFULLY CRAFTED NOVEL FOR YOUNG READERS' — Daily Telegraph This is the story of Johannes, and Frau Timmins, and the strange girl now known as 'Helga'. It is also the story of how they survived the death camps, the vast wilderness faced by refugees in World War II, and eventually found happiness in Australia. This moving and compelling...

An 'Ice Age' meets Diary of a Wombat story Dippy and the Dinosaurs follows Dippy the diprotodon, the BIGGEST and friendliest wombat who lived 100,000 years ago. Dippy has dug a new hole. A BIG hole, which leads him to a strange new world - and even stranger new friends. But do these giant creatures really just want to play?...

All of Australia's dingoes may be descended from one South-East Asian 'rubbish dog' who arrived here over 5,000 years ago. This is a story about the first dingo. It is also the story of Loa, who heads off across the sea in his canoe when the girl he loves marries another. He takes only his spears and a 'rubbish dog',...

Celebrating the twentieth anniversary, this is the story of Mothball, one of the world's most famous wombats - and where it all began. She is small. She is scared. She is lost. She is a baby wombat who needs a home. She is Mothball, a wombat destined to become famous. This is the (almost) true story of one small wombat...

A wonderful collection of stories by one of our most successful authors. All of Jackie French's books are in demand, and this will be no exception. These stories give children an insight into Australian history and contemporary life in a very personalised way, as they are drawn from Jackie's own family histories and experiences: a grandmother who danced with Ben...

The second book in a series that explores little-known history about Australia's fascinating past. Barney and the Secret of the Whales finds Barney Bean keen to make his fortune when he hears a secret—a sailor's secret about the treasure of the colony. But how can chasing whales make you rich? Is adventure at sea worth leaving everything he loves? Written...

The new title in the critically acclaimed series that explores Australia's early Colonial secret history In 1798, orphaned Barney Bean now has a flourishing farm in the New South Wales colony and everything he ever dreamed of... except his childhood friend Elsie. But when Elsie falls ill and Barney rushes to be by her side, he finally learns the deadly...

A powerful novel from master storyteller Jackie French The soldiers she saved called her the Angel of Waterloo. The husband she loved and lost called her Hen. The patients she treated in secret called her Auntie Love. She was Henrietta Bartlett, a surgeon's daughter, a survivor of the Napoleonic Wars. But now the battlefield is just a blood-soaked memory, and...

It's 1854, and the Ballarat goldfields are a place of dreams and rebellion as Sam, a homeless teenager, is called back to the past to join the Puddlehams, who run the best little cook shop on the diggings. The Puddlehams dream of buying a hotel with velvet seats, while others dream of freedom from the British crown, away from the...

Shortlisted CBC Book of the Year (Older Readers), ACT Book of the Year, and YABBA. The people call Prince Narmer 'the Golden One'. Handsome and talented, he is destined to be King of Thinis, the greatest town in Egypt and, for Narmer, the centre of the world. Then a devastating accident forces him to give up his right to the...

Three women from very different backgrounds, bound by friendship, separated by destiny It was impossible, but in full view of the church, the Governor and wedding guests ... The bride had vanished. Some girls are born to be loved, some are born to be useful. Some girls are born to be bad. Indulged and wealthy Kat Fitzhubert is seemingly 'sold...

It's 1789, and as the new colony in Sydney Cove is established, Surgeon John White defies convention and adopts Nanberry, an Aboriginal boy, to raise as his son. Nanberry is clever and uses his unique gifts as an interpreter to bridge the two worlds he lives in. With his white brother, Andrew, he witnesses the struggles of the colonists to...

A special anniversary edition of a modern classic. Winner of the CBCA Book of the Year for Young Readers. The bombs were falling, the smoke was rising from the concentration camps, but Hitler's daughter knew nothing of this. All she knew was the world of lessons with Fraulein Gelber, the hedgehogs she rescued from the cold, and the exciting visits...

The third title in the Matilda saga, which began with A Waltz for Matilda and followed with The Girl from Snowy River. A true crossover that becomes a terrific holiday read for our literary adult market. A page-turning, heart-warming family saga set in the Snowy Mountains during the Depression in the 1930s. Blue Laurence has escaped the prison of her...

Winner of the CBCA Book of the Year for Young Readers Did Hitler's daughter, Heidi, really exist? What if she did? The bombs were falling and the smoke rising from the concentration camps, but all Hitler's daughter knew was the world of lessons with Fraulein Gelber and the hedgehogs she rescued from the cold. Was it just a story, or...

As a puppy, Snarf is fortuitously rescued by a young girl called Hekja when he is badly injured. Both are then captured by raiding Vikings and transported to 'Vinland' with Freydis Ericsdottir, half-sister of Leif Ericson (who is usually credited with 'discovering' America). Both Freydis and Leif are the children of Eric the Red, who founded the Greenland colony. This...

The year is 1919. Thirty years have passed since the man from Snowy River made his famous ride. But World War I still casts its shadow across a valley in the heart of Australia, particularly for orphaned sixteen-year-old Flinty McAlpine, who lost a brother when the Snowy River men marched away to war. Why has the man Flinty loves returned...

It's 1939, and for Georg, son of an English academic living in Germany, life is full of cream cakes and loving parents. It is also a time when his teacher measures the pupils' heads to see which of them have the most 'Aryan'-shaped heads. But when a university graduation ceremony turns into a pro-Nazi demonstration, Georg is smuggled out of...

A delightful and entertaining peek into the life of one very busy wombat! MondayMorning: Slept. Afternoon: Slept. Evening: Ate. Scratched. Night: Ate. A typical day. Don't be fooled. This wombat leads a very busy and demanding life. She wrestles unknown creatures, runs her own digging business, and most difficult of all - trains her humans. She teaches them when she...

A delightful and entertaining peek into the life of one very busy wombat! Ages: 3-7 Monday Morning: Slept. Afternoon: Slept. Evening: Ate. Scratched. Night: Ate. A typical day. Don't be fooled; this wombat leads a very busy and demanding life. She wrestles unknown creatures, runs her own digging business, and most difficult of all - trains her humans. She teaches...

In 1894, twelve-year-old Matilda flees the city slums to find her unknown father and his farm. But drought grips the land, and the shearers are on strike. Her father has turned swaggie and he's wanted by the troopers. In front of his terrified daughter, he makes a stand against them, defiant to the last. "You'll never catch me alive, said...

The 'War to end all Wars', as seen through the eyes of three young women War is being fought on a horrific scale in the trenches of France, but it might as well be a world away from sixteen-year-old New Zealander Midge Macpherson, at school in England learning to be a young lady. But the war is coming closer: Midge's...

Brilliant in construct, compelling and extraordinarily moving, this is a book that speaks to each of us and reminds us that while we mightn't be refugees, we are all newcomers to this country and that everyone has a story worth hearing. When a boat carrying a group of asylum seekers is sunk by a freak wave, Faris wakes from the...

From bestselling author Jackie French comes a compelling story of murder, mystery, and mutiny on the high seas - and a love so intense it can overcome two different cultures. You never know what the sea will give you ... or what it will take back. When Mair McCrae follows her island tradition and hunts for a husband cast up...

From bestselling author Jackie French comes a book about the secrets we carry, those that we unearth - and those that are too dangerous to tell. The once impoverished medical student Agnes Glock is now the fabulously wealthy Mrs Mulberry. Her estate in the mountains is magnificent, a haven for those too ravaged by the Great War to cope with...

The first in a new series that focuses on a secret part of our history From best-selling and award-winning author Jackie French comes a new series for younger readers called The Secret Histories. This first book in the series, Birrung the Secret Friend, tells the story of a young Indigenous girl, Birrung, who befriends orphaned Barney and his friend Elsie....

The year is 1859 and the goldfields are filled with diggers -- and danger! Orphaned twelve-year-old Tigg is the Bandicoot Bushranger, the youngest bushranger on the Ballarat goldfields in 1859.When a robbery goes wrong, Tigg must flee in disguise as one of the tens of thousands of Chinese men and boys braving heat, thirst, starvation and murderous attacks on the...

'French knows how to conjure [an] imagined past, full of detail about how people lived during particular periods and within particular cultures'-- Viewpoint Martin lives in the city with his mum. He's come to walk the boundaries of the farm that's been in his family for generations. It sounds easy, especially as he'll own the land when he gets back....

She eats. She sleeps. She scratches. She goes to school... She sleeps. She eats. She scratches - and finds a hole. When Mothball discovers a new hole, it unexpectedly leads her to the local school. the children learn that wombats love carrots and grass, while Mothball learns that lunch boxes contain very few carrots, that sports sheds can be a...

The Goat Who Sailed The World by Jackie French introduces Captain Cook's goat as the first of many historical animals to bring the past to life. The HM Bark Endeavour is setting sail for Tahiti to map the transit of Venus. However, there are rumours that once this task is completed, Lieutenant James Cook has a set of secret orders:...

The much-loved sequel to the bestselling Diary of a Wombat. He sleeps. He eats. He gets bored. He creates havoc wherever he goes! He's Mothball's baby—and he's even cuter, naughtier, and more determined than his mum. Created by writer Jackie French and illustrator Bruce Whatley, the award-winning duo of the international bestseller Diary of a Wombat.

The school sports day is on and Mothball wombat is competing! She eats. She sleeps. She scratches. But can this wombat win? From the award-winning, bestselling creators of Diary of a Wombat. This is a book about a wombat ... winning. Yes, Mothball has become an athlete, albeit a little accidentally. In her never-ending quest for carrots Mothball stumbles upon...

Self-sufficient gardens are beautiful—a ramble of productivity, and a profusion of smells and colour. Jackie will help you to create a 'Garden of Eden' in your own backyard. Backyard Self-Sufficiency provides practical advice on establishing your garden and ensuring its productivity throughout the seasons. With Jackie French's guidance, transform your outdoor space into a lush haven that not only provides...

Anniversary edition of the first book Jackie French published with A & R. This is where a truly remarkable career began. Rain Stones and the other stories in this collection reveal that the country is a magical place, that there is an extra dimension to be found by those whose minds and hearts are open to the possibility. Michael knows...

'GRIPPING, EMOTIONAL AND MOVING'-- New Idea There have been fires before, but not like this. In 1978, as the hot wind howls and the grass dries, all who live at Gibber's Creek know their land can burn. But when you love your land, you fight for it. For Jed Kelly, an even more menacing danger looms: a man from her...

Celebrating the 20th anniversary of the best-selling and beloved story about Josephine the dancing kangaroo and the importance of believing yourself. Josephine loves to dance.The emus show her how to point her toes.The eagles teach her how to soar to the music of the wind. Then the ballet comes to the sleepy town of Shaggy Gully and Josephine learns that...

From the award-winning creators of Flood, Fire, Cyclone, Drought, and Pandemic. Down below the giant rumbled, all around us buildings crumbled, Newcastle began to shake ... Quake! yelled someone. Out! Earthquake!

Down below the giant rumbled, All around us buildings crumbled, Newcastle began to shake ... Quake! yelled someone. Out! Earthquake! From the award-winning creators of Flood, Fire, Cyclone, Drought and Pandemic.

The war carried the Spanish flu across the world. Faces grew masks. Shops and schools wore signs that said, ‘Closed’. Families nursing the sick drew their curtains together to say their house was quarantined... From the award-winning creators of Flood, Fire, Cyclone and Drought, comes this powerful story of humanity prevailing during a pandemic.

From the award-winning creators of Flood, Fire, Cyclone, Drought, Pandemic, Earthquake and Tornado... Grass—and wheat—lands spread to the horizon, and so did we, with too few ibis to control us. We could rage across the land. We ate the grass, the leaves, the wheat...

From the award-winning creators of Flood, Fire, Cyclone, Drought, Pandemic, Earthquake and Plague. I was born of twisting air, touching ground and spinning there. Do not laugh, just feed me thunder, I will soar and roar and plunder ...