Jaclyn Moriarty facts for kids
Jaclyn Moriarty is an amazing Australian writer, famous for her books for young adults. She has won cool awards like the Davitt Award and the Aurealis Award for Best Children's Fiction.
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About Jaclyn Moriarty
Jaclyn Moriarty was born in Perth, Australia, in 1968. She grew up in the north-west suburbs of Sydney. She has four sisters and one brother. Two of her sisters, Liane and Nicola, are also popular novelists!
Jaclyn studied English and Law at the University of Sydney. She then continued her studies at Yale University and Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.
Before becoming a full-time writer, Jaclyn worked as a lawyer for four years. The famous Australian author Garth Nix helped her get her first book, Feeling Sorry for Celia, published. Jaclyn has a young son named Charlie and lives in Sydney.
The Ashbury/Brookfield Series
The Ashbury/Brookfield Series is a collection of four novels. They are not direct sequels, but they are all connected! The stories are about different students who go to either the fancy private school, Ashbury High, or the local public school, Brookfield High.
Many students appear in more than one book, but each novel tells a different story. What's really cool is that all the stories are told through the characters' own writing, like letters, emails, or even exam papers!
Books in the Ashbury/Brookfield Series
Here are the books in this series, in the order they were published:
- Feeling Sorry for Celia (2000)
- Finding Cassie Crazy (2003) (This book was also called The Year of Secret Assignments in the US)
- The Betrayal of Bindy Mackenzie (2006) (Also known as Becoming Bindy Mackenzie in the UK, and The Murder of Bindy Mackenzie in the US)
- Dreaming of Amelia (2009) (Also known as The Ghosts of Ashbury High in the US)
The Colours of Madeleine Trilogy
This trilogy is a bit different because it adds a touch of fantasy! It still has some of Jaclyn Moriarty's unique writing style. For example, characters speak in their own voices in different chapters, and there's a fun sense of humor. The plot also keeps you guessing, as things you thought were true might change!
The exciting part of this trilogy is the idea of a parallel world, almost like a fairyland. This world is connected to ours through "cracks" where letters or even people can travel. But, as always with Moriarty's books, nothing is quite what it seems!
Books in The Colours of Madeleine Trilogy
- This trilogy won the Ethel Turner Prize for Young People's Literature at the New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards in 2015.
Kingdoms & Empires Series
This is another fantastic series by Jaclyn Moriarty, full of adventures!
Books in the Kingdoms & Empires Series
- The Extremely Inconvenient Adventures of Bronte Mettlestone (2017)
- The Slightly Alarming Tale of the Whispering Wars (2018) ISBN: 9781760297183 – This book won the 2019 Griffith University Children's Book Award at the Queensland Literary Awards.
- The Stolen Prince of Cloudburst (2020) ISBN: 9781760875060 – This book was nominated for the 2021 Children's Book of the Year Award: Younger Readers and the 2021 Children's Book Award at the Queensland Literary Awards.
- The Astonishing Chronicles of Oscar from Elsewhere (2021) ISBN: 9781760526368
- The Impossible Secret of Lillian Velvet (2023) – This book was nominated for the 2024 Children's Indie Book Award and the 2024 Griffith University Children's Book Award at the Queensland Literary Awards.
Other Novels by Jaclyn Moriarty
Here are some other great books Jaclyn Moriarty has written:
- I Have a Bed Made of Buttermilk Pancakes (2004)
- The Spell Book of Listen Taylor (2007) – This is a young adult version of I Have a Bed Made of Buttermilk Pancakes.
- Gravity is the Thing (2019) ISBN: 9781760559502
