Children's Literature Champions 2024
The Children's Literature Champions chosen for 2024 are Tamara Moss and Norman Jorgensen.
These authors bring a wealth of knowledge and passion and have been selected for their incredible works, their diversity of experience, and their ability to form strong connections with our community.
Tamara Moss
Tamara Moss grew up in Perth, Western Australia. She has a BA majoring in Asian Studies and a teaching diploma, which she used to teach primary school for ten years.
Inspired by her students’ love of adventure, Tamara wrote the Lintang series, beginning with Lintang and the Pirate Queen. The three books follow twelve-year-old Lintang as she joins a pirate crew on the high seas, facing mythical creatures and travelling to fantastical lands.
Tamara also writes adult crime and thrillers under the name Tamara M. Bailey.
Norman Jorgensen
Norman, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the Young Readers Book Awards in 2020, has written thirteen children’s and YA books and has won many awards, including the Book of the Year Award.
He has also been won four children’s choice awards, the Crystal Kite Award from his peers, and The Henry Burgh Award in the USA. His life has been about books, having owned a bookshop, worked as a publisher’s agent and sold books to schools. In Flanders Fields, Jack’s Island, The Last Viking and The Smuggler’s Curse, his historical titles, have sold thousands of copies.
The fictional characters in Norman’s historical novel, The Smuggler’s Curse, survive sea battles, mix with authentic freedom fighters, fight the Dutch colonial army and are nearly killed many times over in actual locations in Sumatra and Broome in 1897.
Writing about real locations and historical events in Australian history, while young readers demand the full technicolour, blood n’ guts version can be challenging, but classic story-telling laced with humour and vivid descriptions can usually overcome dryness.
About the Children's Literature Champion Program
The City of South Perth’s Children’s Literature Champion Program has been running since 2020 as a means to connect local authors with library programs and encourage a love of reading and literacy development in young people.
Throughout the year, our Champions will run workshops and host events, integrating learning and quality literature into the library calendar. You'll be able to meet our Champions at various events - the South Perth Young Writers Award (SPYWA), during book week, school holiday workshops, and at other important events throughout the year.
