Justin D’Ath

Justin  is the author of over 30 books for children and young adults, including the hugely popular Extreme Adventures series.

I grew up in a house of books – well, three houses really, since the family moved twice as it grew larger; and the books went with us, of course.  There’s a black and white photo of me, aged about 2, posing in front of our old blue Kombi during one of those moves. The rear of the Kombi is stacked with books.

Although you can’t see their covers, somewhere in that 1950s mobile library are the two Jungle Books, by Rudyard Kipling. I had the good luck, several years and one house-move later, to share a bedroom with my two elder brothers. Billy was a keen reader and an even keener story-teller, and often after lights-out he would recount to Philip and me a second-hand version of what he’d been reading that day. And this is how I first became acquainted with Mowgli’s wolf pack, with Shere Khan the tiger, with Baloo, Bagheera and Kaa; and with (always my favourite) that brave little mongoose, Rikki-Tikki-Tavi.

When I was old enough to read the stories myself, I rediscovered the Jungle Books through Kipling’s own voice and those of his characters – and enjoyed them all over again. And I still do. I have a 1932 hardback copy of The Two Jungle Books , still with its slip jacket,  that I found in a Sunday market 12 months ago and which I dip into from time to time.  But in my heart, I still enjoy Billy’s version best.

Justin’s  latest book is ‘Mission Fox, Horse Hijack’ from Puffin 2011. Find out more by visiting Justin’s website: www.justindath.com

Ian Irvine

Today’s Guest Blogger is Ian Irvine, one of our foremost fantasy writers and the author of the best-selling ‘Three Worlds’ sequence.

We didn’t have TV until after I finished the HSC, in 1968, and my primary form of entertainment from the age of 4 was reading. I devoured books, thousands and thousands of them, indiscriminately, and the books I most enjoyed were tales of adventure and derring-do in exotic places.

Among them, many of my favourites were the Biggles stories from the Second World War. And of all of the Biggles books, the one that stands above all others is Biggles in the Baltic, first published in 1940. Read More | Comments

Scot Gardner

Today’s Guest Blogger is Scot Gardner. Scot is a much loved and much lauded writer for young people. His many books since include ‘Burning Eddy’, which was short-listed for both the CBCA and NSW Premier’s Literary awards.

As a kid, I read about the world. I memorised the Latin names of Australia’s deadliest snakes and could name all the birds that frequented our neighbourhood. I loved Cayley’s ‘What Bird is That?’ but I’d never read it from cover to cover, just flicked until I could pick a raptor in flight. I still have my coverless and dog-eared copy, but the first book I truly read—that hooked me and took me away—was a novel by an obscure American writer. The librarian at school handed me the copy—the one with the hand-drawn boy wearing the falconry glove and the Peregrine falcon in stoop. ‘My Side of the Mountain’ by Jean Craighead George. The librarian had handed me books before, but this was the first story. I took it home, lost myself and found myself between the pages. It’s a story about a boy who runs away from home and shelters in a hollow tree, lives off berries and nuts and has a falcon who hunts rabbits for him.  Autonomy. A glorified Northern hemisphere reflection of my antipodean summers. I was seventeen. I never had a falcon. From that moment on, when I spotted one in the sky, I’d hold up my wrist and whistle … just in case.

Scot’s latest book is ‘The Dead I Know’, from Allen and Unwin. For more, visit Scot’s website.