Steven Herrick

Jesse is an eleven-year-old boy tackling many problems in life, especially fitting into a new school. Luckily, he meets Kate. She has curly black hair, braces, and an infectious smile. Kate wants to Save the Whales and needs Jesse's help. But they haven't counted on Hunter, the school bully, who appears to enjoy hurling insults at random. With Hunter's catchphrase...

A special reissue of a bestselling and award-winning Australian classic from popular author Steven Herrick. The Simple Gift tells the story of a runaway teenage boy, an old hobo, and a rich girl whose paths intersect in an abandoned train yard. Each character carries their own personal baggage. Through early mornings, long walks, and cheap coffee, they discover that, no...

A powerful prose novel from one of Australia's most awarded authors. Isaac is running from his old life when he steps off the bus in a small town. He doesn't plan on sticking around and has nowhere to stay, but a local café owner's kindness offers him a chance to change his story. Then Isaac meets Sophie and learns he's...

A powerful and heart-stopping young adult novel from a master storyteller. This is Steven Herrick at his best. There are worse things than school. Luke sleepwalks through his days wagging school, swimming at the reservoir and eating takeaway pizza. That is until Charlotte shows up. Rumour is she got expelled from her city school and her family moved to the...

“People like you and me, Jonah, we drag down the price of everything we touch.” Life for Jonah and Manx means fishing for mullet at the lake, watching their schoolmates party on Friday night and wishing they had the courage to talk to Ella and Rachel. But now their lakeside town is being sold off, life doesn't seem so simple....

It’s every young person’s dream to hit the road. Jack and Annabel set out and find fifty acres of unpicked apples and a farmer who’ll let them live in his shed. A brilliant companion to Love, Ghosts and Nose Hair, Steven Herrick’s new novel perfectly captures the difficult search for identity in an isolated place.

Cowards don't always hide. Sometimes they're so gutless they need to stand out. Eddie doesn't want to be in school, he wants to work in the mine. But his dad won't go down the coal pits and he won't let his sons go either. Nothing much happens in Burruga, except for fights at the pub. Then one Friday night a...

In a country town, in a school just like yours, the kids in Class 6A tell their stories. There's Mick, school captain and sometimes trouble-maker, who wants to make the school a better place, while his younger brother Jacob just wants to fly. There's shy and lonely Laura who hopes to finally fit in with a circle of friends, while...

Jack is 16. He's obsessed with the beautiful Annabel, the ghost of his mother and nose hair. This is a bitter-sweet comedy written in verse for young adults.

Jake's dad saw the wolf, before Jake was born. They say wolves don't live in this country, yet in the night Jake hears it howling, long and lonely. When Jake and Lucy hike to Sheldon Mountain in search of the wolf, Jake is out to prove his dad right or wrong; Lucy is escaping her father's cruelty. Both are tested—physically,...

Twelve-year-old Sam has soccer fever. He lives with eccentric Auntie Amshara and Ronaldo his dog. His best friend is Goose, Captain of the local soccer team...that is, until soccer crazed Jessica Bowles moves next door. Sam soon discovers that there's more to life than just soccer...In this gently comic verse novel for younger readers Steven Herrick continues to capture the...

Each day after school, Steven's sons would come home and tell him about their day. These stories became poems and these poems became fodder for the many school talks Steven gives around the country each year. Topics include food, animals, school, friends, sport (esp. soccer!), dogs and anything and everything relevant to kids. For this new book, Steven has taken...

A memorable YA novel about the tough and tender sides of growing up in a small country town. Fourteen-year-old Harry has a knack for wriggling out of trouble, but escaping the constraints and memories that keep him trapped is not so easy, until it's a matter of life or death. By the River is a compelling story of adolescence, resilience,...

Jayden Hayden, wordsmith, a.k.a rhyming boy, doesn't have a dad—just a mum obsessed with Jayden Finch, the footballer, and an embarrassing name that gets him teased. When a school father-son day is announced, Jayden's quest for answers becomes a puzzle he needs to solve, and quickly. Could Jayden Finch be more than just a footballer? With the help of his...