I’m delighted to reveal the gorgeous cover of Four Up In Lights, the third and final in the fun little chapter-book series I’ve created with the wonderful illustrator Cheryl Orsini. The series, which has been very popular with young readers, is about the funny, fast-paced adventures of four friends who just happen to be vintage vehicles–two cars, a motorbike and a tractor–and I’ve really loved writing it, and loved, too, collaborating with Cheryl, who has made our four friends come to such lively, characterful and endearing life! Four Up In Lights will be released in September by Christmas Press, and is a sequel to Four On The Run(2020) and Four All At Sea (2021).
Isn’t the cover just beautiful! And below the cover you can also see the books as a set–they look pretty good together, don’t they!
I am delighted to reveal the fabulous cover of Cock-A-Doodle-Doo, my forthcoming picture book with Kathy Creamer, to be published by Little Pink Dog Books in June 2022. Isn’t it fantastic!
Here’s the blurb of the book:
Richie the rooster loved waking up the farm each morning. He loved it so much that he began to crow earlier and earlier. Again and again! Stop, everyone cried. But Richie wouldn’t stop. Until one day…
A hilarious story about how sometimes you can have too much of a good thing, by the acclaimed author and illustrator team who also created See Monkey and Join the Armidale Parade.
This was a story that was such fun to write, and pure joy to see the wonderfully riotous, colourful and characterful visual world Kathy has created for the noisy but endearing rooster Richie, his long-suffering friends on the farm–and the sneaky intruder with the red coat 🙂 I think readers are going to have a lot of fun with it, too. Can’t wait till it comes out!
Find out more and pre-order the book at the Little Pink Dog Books website, here.
I am excited to reveal the absolutely stunning cover of my forthcoming historical novel for middle-grade readers, Sydney Under Attack, which is set in late May and early June 1942, at the time of the Japanese midget submarine attacks in Sydney Harbour.
The book will be published in March 2022 by Scholastic Australia, it was edited by Clare Hallifax, and the cover was designed by Chad Mitchell. Isn’t it striking!
Here’s the blurb of the book:
In 1942, 12-year-old Nick lives in Rose Bay, Sydney, with his mum, dad and sister, and dreams of becoming a writer like his dad. But with the world at war, Nick is constantly on alert for anything that seems out of the ordinary and then late one night he sees it! A plane! But no-one believes him! Then, the unimaginable happens. Sydney is attacked! And Nick starts noticing people behaving strangely. Is it just his imagination or something more sinister?
I hope readers will much enjoy this novel, which is as much a mystery and spy story as it is historical novel and war story. Nick was a great character to write–he is so lively, energetic, and imaginative, even if he does sometimes gets hold of the wrong end of the stick 🙂 And it was a fascinating book to research, too–trawling through documents, archival films and photos, and Sydney newspapers of the time (thank you, Trove!)
The book is part of Scholastic’s Australia’s Second World War series–it’s the third one, in fact. And I wrote the first in that series, too, War and Resistance, which was published in 2019. Sydney Under Attack also has a link not only to War and Resistance, but to another novel of mine, 1914, published in 2014, which was part of another series Scholastic published, Australia’s Great War. The three novels are linked through one French-Australian family, the Jullians, who appear in different roles in each of the three books, as main characters in the first two, across two generations, and as important but not main characters in the the third. It has been absolutely amazing to have been able to do that and keep the link through the three books!
I am absolutely delighted to reveal the gorgeous cover of my upcoming audiobook, A Hundred Words for Butterfly, which will be published by Spineless Wonders Audio in just a couple of weeks: September 13. Isn’t it beautiful!
The cover is designed by the wonderful Bettina Kaiser, and later this week I’ll be publishing a fascinating interview with her about how she went about creating it. Today is all about celebrating an important milestone in the journey of my book: and I’m so thrilled about just how strikingly Bettina has captured the essence of the feeling and atmosphere of A Hundred Words for Butterfly!
More lovely book news, and another gorgeous cover reveal: this time for my forthcoming book with Lorena Carrington, Magical Tales from French Camelot, which will be out late this year, with Serenity Press. Like French Fairy Tales, our previous title together, it focusses on stories from the French tradition, this time from the Middle Ages, and the extraordinary work of the great Arthurian writers of the twelfth century in France. My new translations and retellings of some of my favourites of these stories are accompanied by Lorena’s glorious, enchanting and atmospheric illustrations, like the beautiful one on the cover below. It has been an unalloyed joy and pleasure to work with Lorena again and we are both delighted to be published again by the fantastic team at Serenity Press.
Here’s a bit more about the book:
The legend of King Arthur began in Britain. But it is in twelfth-century France that the stories really took off, with gifted writers creating a panoply of vivid new characters and elements such as Lancelot, Perceval, the Grail and the doomed love between Lancelot and Guinevere, within a richly imagined, action-packed world of adventure, magic, romance and mystery. Women as much as men are important characters in the French stories, there’s an intriguing take on shapeshifters and other supernatural beings, and fascinating glimpses of the patterns and customs of medieval life as well as explorations of conscience and the true nature of courage. In the process these extraordinary medieval writers, such as Chrétien de Troyes and Marie de France, created a whole new immensely popular genre of literature whose appeal and influence endures to this day.
This beautiful new collection of stories translated and retold by Sophie Masson and illustrated by Lorena Carrington will introduce you to some of the most striking tales and extraordinary characters and places from the French Arthurian tradition, transporting you into a gripping, magical world like no other.
I’m really delighted to reveal the fantastic cover of Four All at Sea, my forthcoming chapterbook with the fabulous illustrator Cheryl Orsini, to be published by Christmas Press in September. It’s a sequel to our 2020 chapterbook, Four on the Run. Isn’t it the most gorgeous cover! Four all at Sea was such a fun book to write, like Four on the Run–I just love writing about these four friends who just happen to be machines, and their crazy adventures!
To give you a little taste of what the book’s about, here’s a short outline:
After the adventures of Four on the Run, Maxie, Lady, Flash and Fergie are set for a new life as film stars and a luxury cruise overseas. But when they are washed overboard in a storm and land on a desert island, it seems their troubles are only just beginning! Because somebody else is there–someone who is not very friendly—a rusty old tank that thinks there’s still a war on! They need to escape from the island and get back to their ship and very worried Mrs Brown. …but how?
Thrilled to reveal the atmospheric cover of my upcoming YA novel, The Ghost Squad, to be released by the wonderful publisher, MidnightSun Publishing, in February 2021. Isn’t it gorgeous!
Here’s the blurb:
Imagine a world where all seems normal yet nothing is -a world very much like our own yet jarringly unlike. A world where two clandestine organisations, the Ghost Squad and the Base, are engaged in a secret battle for control of information so dangerous it could literally change life as humans
have always known it…
A bold, exciting novel with thrilling twists and turns, The Ghost Squad is a novel that will keep readers guessing – and keep them awake at night!
And here’s a little video I made for the publisher, introducing The Ghost Squad:
It’s been under wraps for quite a while but now that it’s officially up on the publisher’s website, I am delighted to announce the forthcoming appearance of Santagram, my picture book with illustrator Shiloh Gordon, which will be published by Hardie Grant Egmont in October, ready for the Christmas market. And here is the joyful, lively, and characterful cover–isn’t it wonderfully appealing! Shiloh has created a fabulous visual world full of magic, humour and fun, perfect for a story that I so much enjoyed writing: it was just pure, playful pleasure! And what’s more–look closely at the cover, there is going to be a real letter and envelope with it! For someone who absolutely loves The Jolly Postman, that is a dream come true 🙂
Here’s the blurb for the book:
Santa’s mailbox is overflowing.
Santa loves getting letters, but the elves are FED UP with sorting through the huge piles of mail.
Surely an app would be better – quick, easy and heaps of fun! They’ll call it ‘Santagram’.
But once the letters stop arriving, will they be missed?
Can Santa use social media? And should he? This is a Christmas story with a twist that will have the whole family laughing out loud.
The book can be pre-ordered at lots of different bookshops and retail outlets, check the list out here.
I am delighted to reveal the gorgeous cover of Four on the Run, my chapterbook for young readers, illustrated throughout by the wonderful Cheryl Orsini. The fabulous cover illustration is by Cheryl of course, and the lively design is by Authors’ Elves. The book is coming out with Christmas Press in September.
I absolutely loved writing this fun little book, about the adventures of a quartet of lovable vintage vehicles who run away from home, and I was thrilled when Cheryl, whose illustrations of friendly, characterful vehicles I’ve loved in others of her books, agreed to illustrate my story.
Here’s the blurb of the book:
Maxie, Fergie, Flash and Lady are good friends who live in Mrs Brown’s farm shed. Life isn’t exciting, but they’re happy. Until the day they learn that Mrs Brown wants to sell them–to the scrap yard! So they decide to run away, and life suddenly becomes very exciting for the four lovable machines in a series of adventures that puts them in more trouble than they ever imagined!
Written by award-winning author Sophie Masson, with lively, appealing pictures by acclaimed illustrator Cheryl Orsini, Four On the Run is a fresh, funny and original chapter book which is great fun both for reading aloud and for young readers to read by themselves.
Absolutely delighted to be able to reveal the gorgeous cover of my forthcoming book, French Fairy Tales, illustrated by the wonderful Lorena Carrington, to be published by Serenity Press in late October this year!
The book is a collection of five French fairy tales which I’ve chosen, translated and retold. Each means something special to me, and they come from different parts of France, including those where my family originates. Some are stories that have never been translated into English before, and some you might think you know well but which in these entirely newly translated and retold versions will, I think, surprise, and hopefully, delight you!
This project has been a dream of mine for a long time, and creating the retellings was such a pleasure. I am just so thrilled that Serenity Press not only loved them, but also paired me with such a fantastic artist as Lorena, whose extraordinary illustrations, inspired not only by the stories but by her own visits to France, so astonishingly bring to enchanting visual life the magic of these beautiful tales.
Feathers of the Firebird 