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Jackie French Jackie French i(A7058 works by) (a.k.a. Jacqueline French; Jacqueline Anne French)
Born: Established: 1953 Sydney, New South Wales, ;
Gender: Female
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BiographyHistory

Jackie French was born in Sydney and grew up in Brisbane, completing her education at the University of Queensland. In her early twenties she moved to a property in the Araluen Valley on the edge of the Deua wilderness, New South Wales, and later developed a career as a writer.

French's books for children and young adults have been well-received, winning many awards, including several from the Children's Book Council of Australia. Her works regularly appear on the Kids Own Australian Literature Awards (KOALA) and Young Australian Best Book Awards (YABBA) shortlists which are nominated by readers. She has spoken numerous times to groups of children and adults, and has frequently run writing workshops. Her writing and workshops often combine her concern for social issues with her love of nature.

French has published many gardening books and has been a columnist for Women's Weekly, Earth Garden, the Sydney Morning Herald and the Sunday Canberra Times. She appeared regularly on the television show Burke's Backyard. Her garden forms a significant part of her professional website, on which she describes herself as an author and ecologist.

French has been the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Children's Ambassador, and patron of several of organisations including Cool Club (an ACT library program to encourage children to read), At Home with Books (a program to encourage reading with foster children) and Wildcare (a project that looks after injured wildlife). She has also been a director of The Wombat Foundation.

French was the 2011 National Literacy Ambassador for National Literacy and Numeracy Week. In late 2013, she was selected as the Australian Children’s Laureate for 2014-2015. In 2015, she was Senior Australian of the Year. She has been the ACT Children’s Week Ambassador, 2011 Federal Literacy Ambassador, patron of Books for Kids, YESS, joint patron of Monkey Baa Theatre for Young People with Susanne Gervais and Morris Gleitzman, and a director of The Wombat Foundation.

Most Referenced Works

Notes

  • Voted number 18 in the Booktopia Top 50 Favourite Australian Authors for 2018

Personal Awards

2022 winner Society of Women Writers, New South Wales, Awards The Alice Award
2016 winner Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA) The Pixie O'Harris Award
2016 recipient Order of Australia Member of the Order of Australia (AM) For significant service to literature as an author of children's books, and as an advocate for improved youth literacy.

Awards for Works

y separately published work icon The Great Gallipoli Escape Sydney : HarperCollins Australia , 2023 25996444 2023 single work children's fiction children's historical fiction

'Sixteen-year-old Nipper and his Gallipoli mates Lanky, Spud, Bluey and Wallaby Joe are starving, freezing and ill-equipped. By November 1915 they know that that there is more to winning a war than courage. The Gallipoli campaign has been lost.

'Nipper has played cricket with the Turks in the opposing dugout, dodged rocket fire and rescued desperate and drowning men when the blizzard snow melted. He is one of the few trusted with the secret kept from even most of the officers: how an entire army will vanish from the Peninsula over three impeccably planned nights.

'Based on first-hand accounts of those extraordinary last weeks of the Gallipoli campaign, this is the fascinating 'lost story' of how 150,000 men – and their horses and equipment – were secretly moved to waiting ships without a single life lost. An unforgettable story told through the eyes of a boy who lied about his age to defend his country.' (Publication summary)

2024 CBCA Book of the Year Awards Notable Book Younger Readers
2023 longlisted HNSA Historical Novel Prize Children and young adult
y separately published work icon Ming and Hilde Lead a Revolution Sydney : HarperCollins Australia , 2023 25769437 2023 single work children's fiction children's

'Ming Qong is convinced that girls have changed history throughout the world.

'She's faced danger and adventure when Herstory sent her to the past to witness girls' bravery in the incredible feats left out of 'histories'. Now Ming asks Herstory for another time-travelling quest – this time, one that is less confronting.

'Ming finds herself in relative luxury, heading to an unknown destination on a ship carrying royal Saxon sheep, travelling with the girls who care for them.

'What do female shepherds have to do with history? And is it even possible for sheep to be royal?

'As Ming knows only too well, change is never easy, so how can one girl – and a sheep – change the world?' (Publication summary)

2024 CBCA Book of the Year Awards Notable Book Younger Readers
y separately published work icon Plague Lindfield : Scholastic Australia , 2023 25433215 2023 single work picture book children's 'Grass and wheat-lands spread to the horizon, and so did we, with too few ibis to control us. We could rage across the land. We ate the grass, the leaves, the wheat.' (Publication summary)
2024 CBCA Book of the Year Awards Notable Book Picture Books
Last amended 13 Feb 2020 10:55:36
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