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'It’s the start of 2020 and Harper is filled with anticipation about being in the final year of Riverlark Primary. She wants a leadership role, the comfort of her friendship group, and to fly under the radar of Riverlark’s mean-boy.
'But one by one things go wrong. When Harper’s best friends are made school captains they are consumed by their roles, while her own role — library captain — is considered second-rate. Then something major throws life off course: her parents take overseas jobs as nurses in a war zone. Harper moves in with Lolly, a grandmother she barely knows — and her five pets, vast collection of old trinkets and very different expectations.
'Just as Harper is getting used to Lolly, the pandemic arrives, and her goodbye year is nothing like she’d hoped it would be. Strange things are happening: she wakes in the night in odd places, fixates on an old army badge that seems to have a mind of its own, and on a visit to the school library during lockdown she’s convinced she’s seen a ghost.
'Who is haunting her?
'Can she get through the anxiety of the pandemic without her mum and dad? And will Harper find a way to be happy with her goodbye year?
'The Goodbye Year explores all the trickiness and confusion of the end of primary school and a new stage of life that looms with all its uncertainties and possibilities.' (Publication summary)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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Writing The Goodbye Year
2022
single work
— Appears in: Magpies : Talking About Books for Children , September vol. 37 no. 4 2022; (p. 16)
-
Writing The Goodbye Year
2022
single work
— Appears in: Magpies : Talking About Books for Children , September vol. 37 no. 4 2022; (p. 16)
Awards
- 2024 highly commended Victorian Premier's Literary Awards — Prize for Children's Literature
- 2023 shortlisted Educational Publishing Awards Australia — Primary — Educational Chapter Book
- 2023 winner New South Wales Premier's History Prize New South Wales History Prize — Young People's History Prize
- 2023 longlisted Davitt Award — Best Children's Novel
- 2022 shortlisted Aurealis Awards for Excellence in Australian Speculative Fiction — Children's Division