Riddle Gully Secrets

Riddle Gully Secrets – WAYRBA Shortlist 2018!

1st June 2016; Fremantle Press

With an outbreak of goodwill and happiness striking Riddle Gully, budding reporter Pollo di Nozi fears she’ll never find the juicy news story she needs. But when Pollo and Will stumble upon a pair of strange campers in the forest, a whole newspaper’s worth of story leads and secrets is revealed.

With hidden treasure, devilish disappearances, cunning crooks, and tangled family pasts, unravelling them pushes Pollo and Will to the limit.

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Riddle Gully Runaway

Riddle Gully Runaway 

1 August 2014; Fremantle Press

It’s springtime in Riddle Gully – and there’s a thief on the loose. Everything points to Benson Bragg, Mayor Bullock’s hip-hop-crazy nephew. When Benson leaves town in a hurry, youth reporter Pollo di Nozi, Will Hopkins and their stubborn woolly sidekick Shorn Connery go on a cross-country chase. But amid false leads, freaky places and love-struck sheep, can they track down a desperate kid who doesn’t want to be found?

This upbeat adventure story explores the question: If you do something bad, can you still be a good person? (Hint: the answer is yes!)

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Mystery at Riddle Gully

Mystery at Riddle Gully – WAYRBA Shortlist 2016!

(In e-book and paperback)

1 May 2012; Fremantle Press

Pollo di Nozi, reporter-in-training, has a nose for news. Strange things are happening in Riddle Gully and Pollo smells a major scoop. With Shorn Connery, her sheepish sidekick, Pollo is determined to track down the Graffiti Kid. But is Will, the new boy in town, conspiring with the pushy mayor and a strange Transylvanian to send her sniffing up the wrong trail?

Pollo is desperate. She needs a story and will do just about anything to get it. Her reluctant offsider, Will, has moved in with his mum and new stepfather and is up to his ears in trouble. Together, Pollo and Will make a pretty good, if misguided, team … for a while. This fast-paced, funny, multi-layered story is packed with adventure, mystery, false leads and bats! …

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Spider Lies

Spider Lies

2009; Fremantle Press

Things aren’t looking good for ‘arachnerd’ Connor. Wart, the weird new girl at school, thinks she’s his friend. But worse than that, he just might be going as kooky as Millie, the old lady next door. Night after night he feels as though something is watching him. He’s sure something’s out there … And his pet spider, Alf, seems to agree. Meanwhile, there’s been a boo-boo at NASA concerning a colony of spiders raised by Connor’s class and sent into space on a NASA shuttle. Because of the lies he’s told, Connor is at home alone. Now he must rely on NASA’s hapless Herman Hatch to help steer him through a potential environmental disaster.

A girl who sticks Kool Mints up her nose, a dotty next-door neighbour and her rickety old dog — it’s not exactly the team Connor would have picked to save the world. But together the four prove surprisingly resourceful …

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Worlds Next Door

Worlds Next Door

Published in 2010 by FableCroft Publishing

Jen’s story ‘Through the Break’ appears in Worlds Next Door, an Australian anthology of speculative fiction stories for 9 to 13 year olds. Published by FableCroft Publishing and edited by Tehani Wessely, Worlds Next Door contains stories by 25 Australian authors, each story illustrated by Australian artists. Many of the authors are award-winning and well-known writers of children’s fiction, and the anthology is compiled to be enjoyed by kids and adults alike …

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