Cirrus@Austlit

For its 2016 Writer in Residence Program, The Essington School, Darwin, employed adult and children's author Joanne Van Os to work with ten students from Years 4, 5, and 6 over an 18-week period. During that period Van Os assisted the students with their creative writing, and helped develop the narrative for each of their children’s picture book stories. Local artist Joan Andropov was also employed to illustrate the stories.

The books are aimed at children from three to six years of age. Each features a different, common, Northern Territory animal found around Darwin or in the city's suburban backyards.

[Source: Essington Bulletin 11 March 2016]

'In 1916 twin brothers Denny and Connor Ronan are eager to get to the war before it's all over; Bridie O'Malley, their childhood friend and the woman they both love, watches them leave, understanding too late that war is about more than heroes and handsome boys in uniform.

Nearly a century on from the disastrous battle of Fromelles, forensic anthropologist Kat Kelso, Bridie's great granddaughter, is in France identifying the recovered bodies of lost Australian soldiers. The discovery of her own relative amongst the dead men begins the unravelling of a hundred years of family history, lies and secrets.' (Publisher's note)

'Jem's world has been turned upside down by a family crisis, and then it gets worse. Just when it all seems too hard, along comes Ella, Jem's great-aunt, who's also a solo round-the-world sailor. She decides that what Jem, his sister Maddy and brother Tyler need is a sea change. But is seasickness the only thing that Jem adds to his list of woes?

'What's the mystery that Ella is chasing? Why does Jem keep having strange and troubling dreams, and what could they mean? And who is stalking them all?' (From the publisher's website.)