Maureen McCarthy Maureen McCarthy i(A10265 works by) (a.k.a. Maureen Claire McCarthy)
Born: Established: 1953 Melbourne, Victoria, ;
Gender: Female
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

Works By

Preview all
1 Mission Top Secret Maureen McCarthy , series - author
2 3 y separately published work icon Stay with Me Maureen McCarthy , Crows Nest : Allen and Unwin , 2015 8348470 2015 single work novel young adult

'Try to leave and I'll find you...

'Tess is trapped in a desperate situation - her violent partner now threatening not just Tess, but their daughter as well.

'A chance meeting offers a way out, and a road trip back to the heart of Tess's past, and the family she's left behind. But can she ever trust again?

'An electrifying story from the bestselling author of The Convent... '
1 Behind High Walls Maureen McCarthy , 2012 single work column
— Appears in: Viewpoint : On Books for Young Adults , Summer vol. 20 no. 4 2012; (p. 2-3)
1 7 y separately published work icon The Convent Maureen McCarthy , Crows Nest : Allen and Unwin , 2012 Z1886536 2012 single work novel young adult

'"I woke up with a feeling about today," Stella says dreamily. "Something truly amazing is going to happen." "To us or to the world?" I say. "To you." "To me?" I laugh. "Nothing ever happens to me, Stella." "But today it will." "Will it be good?" She looks thoughtful and then frowns. "I ... I don't know."

'Peach is nineteen and pretty happy with the way things are. She has her university work, two wildly different best friends, her sister, Stella, to look after and a broken heart to mend. But when she takes a summer job at a cafe in the old convent, her idea of who she is takes a sharp turn into the past.

'Where once there were nuns, young girls and women who had fallen on hard times, Peach discovers secrets from three generations of her family. As their stories are revealed, Peach is jolted out of her comfort zone. But does she really want to know who she is?

'Warm and real, intense and provocative, Maureen McCarthy's The Convent shows in vivid detail how fate and the choices we make ripple and reverberate through time.

'A novel to fall in love with.' (From the publisher's website.)
1 y separately published work icon When You Wish Upon a Rat Maureen McCarthy , New York (City) : Amulet Books , 2012 7320166 2012 single work children's fiction children's

'With echoes of such classic wish-gone-wrong books as Freaky Friday, Half Magic, and Coraline, this terrific novel has the potential to become a middle-grade staple.

'Eleven-year-old Ruth Craze is pretty sure she’s stuck in the wrong life. With an absentminded inventor for a father and a flighty artist for a mother, it’s always reliable Ruth who ends up doing the dishes, paying the bills, and finding lost socks. Her brothers are no help (they’re too busy teasing her), and her friends have just decided she’s not cool enough to be a part of their group anymore. So when Rodney the Rat—a slightly sinister stuffed animal that was a gift from her favorite aunt—suggests a way out, Ruth is ready to risk everything. Three wishes. Three chances to create her perfect life. A million ways to get it wrong.' (Publication summary)
1 The Ugly Sisters Maureen McCarthy , 2011 single work short story
— Appears in: The Wicked Wood 2011; (p. 135-208)
1 6 y separately published work icon Careful What You Wish For Maureen McCarthy , Crows Nest : Allen and Unwin , 2010 Z1739885 2010 single work children's fiction children's fantasy

'"There is no real risk as long as you're careful," Rodney said to Ruth. "You'll have three chances to create your perfect life. If for some reason you don't like where you've ended up, you can return. But if you choose to stay longer than one day, you'll stay in your new life for ever."

'Ruth Craze thinks life can't get any worse. She fights with her brothers, her parents driver her mad and no one ever listens to her. So when Rodney the Rat suggests a way out, Ruth is ready to risk everything. Three wishes. Three chances to create her perfect life. A million ways to get it wrong.

'A gloriously life-affirming adventure from a much-loved storyteller.' (From the publisher's website.)
1 12 y separately published work icon Somebody's Crying Maureen McCarthy , Crows Nest : Allen and Unwin , 2008 Z1536789 2008 single work novel young adult

'When Alice looks up and sees Tom staring at her, everything closes down around them and becomes very still. No one is breathing. No one else is in the room. Tom feels as if he can see right into the soul of Alice Wishart. It lies open before him, like a wide, long pane of glittering glass. So delicate and beautiful and ... ready to break.

'Three years have passed since the murder of Alice's mother, but still the killer is unknown. Alice, her cousin Jonty and his friend Tom are drawn together by the mystery, but what is each of them hiding? Will their secrets bind them tighter or tear everything apart?' (Publisher's blurb)
1 Australian Story : Two Talks from Reading Matters Maureen McCarthy , Scot Gardner , 2007 single work criticism
— Appears in: Magpies : Talking About Books for Children , July vol. 22 no. 3 2007; (p. 4-8) McCarthy discusses her attraction to and connection with the Australian landscape. Gardner also discusses the Australian landscape and its role in Australian children's fiction. He cites a number of Australian children's authors, a family history of oral storytelling, and the landscape, as influencing his narrative style.
2 15 y separately published work icon Rose By Any Other Name Maureen McCarthy , East Melbourne : Allen and Unwin , 2006 Z1324309 2006 single work novel young adult

'Don'tcha just hate the way you get caught up in stuff without really wanting to? Then it goes a bit further, and suddenly you're one of those jerks you hate because . . . you can't be trusted. ROSE WANTS NOTHING MORE THAN TO GET AWAY. Last year she'd had it all: pre-law in the fall, a budding romance, and her best friend, Zoe. Now Zoe will never forgive her, her family is crumbling, and the secret that's been boiling up inside her is bubbling a little too close to the surface. All Rose needs to escape are an old van, her surfboard, the road, the ocean, and . . . mom? When Rose's mother jumps in the passenger seat right as Rose is about to set off, her trip takes an unexpected turn, filled with nagging memories of last year, and the looming scandal that refuses to be ignored. A twisting plot that keeps you guessing, told from the viewpoint of a realistically flawed yet snarky main character, makes this a book that just can't be put down.' (Publication summary)
1 Another Time Another Place Maureen McCarthy , Geraldine Brooks , Bernard Cohen , Gary Crew , Boori Pryor , Dorothy Porter , Tim Flannery , Matthew Reilly , Sonya Hartnett , Cecilia Dart-Thornton , Robyn Annear , 2002 single work essay
— Appears in: The Age , 28 December 2002; (p. 1, 4) Collection of 13 short essays, 11 of which are written by prominent literary Australians. They were responding to the question if they could time travel, where would they go? Their answers include to the The Last Supper, to be present to prevent the conception of Adolf Hitler and to go back 160 million years to see dinosaurs.
2 8 y separately published work icon When You Wake and Find Me Gone Maureen McCarthy , Ringwood : Penguin , 2002 Z973223 2002 single work novel young adult Everything is coming together for twenty-year-old Kit. She loves her new subjects at uni, she has some great friends, her big country family is safely three hours drive away, and the lecturer she's been idolising for months seems interested in her. Kit's life is taking off! But then there's an accident, the family calls Kit back, and suddenly all her certainties are shattered. Kit takes off to Ireland in search of answers. What she finds is a past dominated by violence, a present where history still lives and a man who can help her understand... - back cover
3 7 y separately published work icon Flash Jack Maureen McCarthy , Ringwood : Puffin , 2001 Z858993 2001 single work novel young adult

'When burglars break into Jack's house, they take all his stuff.

'Now he's got no skateboard, no TV, no music, nothing. All his brothers do is fight, his mum thinks they all need counselling, his dad's trying to set an example, but hey, who's interested? Jack just wants to get out of that house.

'So he does.

'And he meets Diana.

'And her dog.

'And her grandma, who wears tiger-skin bikinis.

'They're all pretty vicious.

'And suddenly, life is anything but boring.(Publication summary)
2 9 y separately published work icon Chain of Hearts Maureen McCarthy , Ringwood : Penguin , 1999 Z77809 1999 single work novel young adult "At seventeen, Sophie is a mess. Her best friend is dead and her boyfriend has gone. She's dropped out of school, sleeps through the day, eats all night and refuses to see anyone. Her family has had enough. But Sophie is about to embark on the strangest journey of her life. It will take her back into her family's past, back to the origins of the bitter rift between her mother and her Aunt Fran, to her Uncle Jimmy and the Vietnam War, and finally to the girl in the painting and the story haunting all their lives." (Source: Publisher's website)
1 1 y separately published work icon In Between Maureen McCarthy , Ringwood : Penguin , 1998 Z62928 1998 single work novel young adult Four adolescents from different ethnic backgrounds which include Turkey, Macedonia and Cambodia, struggle to cope with the challenge of parents, school, friendships and life in general in multicultural Australia. (Source: LibrariesAustralia)
1 Plenary Address : Making It Real Maureen McCarthy , 1997 single work criticism biography
— Appears in: Making It Real : Proceedings of the Fourth Children's Literature Conference 1997; (p. 5-13)
1 y separately published work icon Winning Stories from the 11th Judah Waten National Story Writing Competition Thomas Shapcott (editor), Maureen McCarthy (editor), Box Hill : Whitehorse Manningham Regional Library Corporation , 1996 Z438742 1996 anthology short story
2 21 y separately published work icon Queen Kat, Carmel and St Jude Get a Life Maureen McCarthy , Ringwood : Puffin , 1995 Z567003 1995 single work novel young adult This is a wonderfully passionate & absorbing novel exploring the lives of three very different girls in their first year out of school, who share an inner city house. All three girls come from the same small country town. Katrina, privileged, beautiful, & sophisticated, is the daughter of a wealthy medical family; Carmel, from a struggling farming family is overweight & inhibited, but has a gift for music, & Jude, a medical student, is the daughter of a Chilean doctor who was murdered when she was two. -- from Trove record
1 form y separately published work icon Ocean Girl Barbara Bishop , Shane Brennan , Colin Budds , Ian Coughlan , Everett de Roche , Annie Fox , Graham Hartley , Peter Hepworth , Peter A. Kinloch , Helen MacWhirter , Maureen McCarthy , Alison Nisselle , David Phillips , Carole Wilkinson , Linden Wilkinson , Jenny Sharp , Lois Booton , Judith Colquhoun , Kate Henderson , Michael Joshua , Neil Luxmoore , ( dir. Colin Budds et. al. )agent Australia : Jonathan M. Shiff Productions , 1994-1998 Z1844402 1994-1998 series - publisher film/TV science fiction children's

Ocean Girl follows the adventures of Jason and Brett Bates, who move with their mother (a reasearch scientist studying whale song) to an underwater research station near Port Douglas. There, they accidentally meet Neri, a young girl with super-human strength, the ability to breathe underwater, and an affinity for communicating with whales. As the series progresses through four seasons, the Bateses (and the audience) learn more about Neri's arrival on Earth, her home planet, and the ecosystem of their own home planet.

Ocean Girl, one of the earliest productions to come out of Jonathan M. Shiff Productions, is creator Jonathan Shiff's first science-fiction program; his name has subsequently become synonymous with children's science-fiction and fantasy television programs, through such shows as Cybergirl and H2O.

Ocean Girl is ecological science fiction, in that it uses the genre of science fiction to explore the consequences of exploiting Earth's resources. For example, as the program progresses, Dr Dianne Bates (mother of protagonists Jason and Brett) shifts from her early role as cetologist to a more active role as environmental protectionist, in response to the increasing threat of building large underwater constructions in the delicate ecosystem around ORCA. Similarly, season four shows the devastating effects of a 'Red Virus' on the oceans of Neri's home world.
1 Ways of Seeing : Stories from Different Angles. Maureen McCarthy , 1994 single work
— Appears in: Ways of Seeing : Story from Different Angles : Proceedings from the Second National Conference of Children's Book Council of Australia, 1994 1994; (p. 65-68)
X