Best Selling Books by Jackie French

TJ''s gran has hairy legs and arms. She also makes the best banana cake in the universe, as well as baked bananas, choc-coated bananas and Roast Lamb Surprise (which is mostly bananas) too. In fact, there is only one little problem about having a gorilla for a gran. And the little problem''s name is Linda. What will cool clever Linda think when she finds out who tJ''s gran really is? And what will she think of a pet who''s a slimy Giant Skateboarding Slug called Egbert? Will she still want to perambulate with tJ? But then again, perhaps Mr Pifflewhiskers, their teacher, is not what he seems... When wombat poachers come to Gobbledygook - it''s up to tJ and Gran, with help from Linda and Egbert - and a surprise discovery - to save the day. Join tJ and his gran the gorilla in another exciting adventure in the Wacky Families series.

Australian Children''s Laureate, book lover and dyslexia sufferer Jackie French gives a wonderful insight into how you can help your child discover a world of books. Does your child love books, but can''t stay still long enough to focus on reading one? Would you like to improve your child''s reading ability? Don''t know where to begin to stimulate a greater love of reading in your child? Award-winning author Jackie French knows what it is to struggle with reading and literacy. Drawing on her own experience with dyslexia, Jackie has written this book to help parents identify the possible reading difficulties their children may have. All children learn differently, and Jackie offers many fun and rewarding way s to help launch your child into literacy. these include games for coordination, concentration and focus as well as helpful steps to kickstart your child into reading and to foster a life-long love of books. I SPY A GREAt READER is filled with a wealth of advice, anecdotes and activities - it''s a book every parent should own.

It''s 1939, and for Georg, son of an English academic living in Germany, life is full of cream cakes and loving parents. It is also a time when his teacher measures the pupils'' heads to see which of them have the most ''Aryan''- shaped heads. But when a university graduation ceremony turns into a pro-Nazi demonstration, Georg is smuggled out of Germany to war-torn London and then across enemy seas to Australia where he must forget his past and who he is in order to survive.

Renowned author and historian Jackie French takes us back in time to Greece and Rome and explores young heroes in ancient myths and legends whose stories will now be told. Forget what you know about Cleopatra, the Egyptian queen with a fantastic hairstyle. That''s only part of the story. Before she was a ruler, Cleopatra was a girl with a fierce ambition: to become pharaoh. When twelve-year-old Cleopatra and her father, Pharaoh Ptolemy XII, flee to ancient Rome in 59 BCE after Cleopatra''s sister seizes the throne, they are in serious trouble. It''s up to Cleopatra to raise enough gold to hire an army, gain the support of powerful allies, and take back her country''s land. Three years later she had become the most famous pharaoh in history. This is the story of how that year in ancient Rome might have changed Cleopatra''s life, with daring escapes, crocodiles, pirates, shipwreck and encountering the intrepid Captain Fileas and Myra, the slave determined to be free. From one of Australia''s best-loved authors comes the first title in an exciting new series that explores the Ancient World. PRAISE ''... delightful romp through antiquity'' - Books+Publishing

The story of the famous Burke and Wills expedition ... as it has never been told before. The humans call him ''Bell Sing'', but to the other camels he is known as ''He Who Spits Further Than the Wind''. Transported from the mountains and deserts of the ''Northwest Frontier'' (present-day Pakistan and Afghanistan), Bell Sing accompanies explorers Burke and Wills as they try to cross Australia from south to north. Bell Sing has never had a high opinion of humans -- or horses. And this expedition is the worst-managed caravan he''s ever been in. Camel handler Dost Mahomet and soldier John King are also beginning to wonder if their leader is competent ... or crazy. Bell Sing can smell water over the sandhills on the horizon ... and freedom too. Can the expedition succeed? And who -- if anyone -- will survive? This is the gritty and true story about one of the most extraordinary and iconic events in Australia''s history. PRAISE FOR THE ANIMAL STARS ''an irreverent and informative charmer'' - Sunday Age ''What a delight to read this book! ... could inspire much original history reading by young readers'' - Book News ''This is history brought to life for the younger reader'' - Reader''s Feast Book Guide

A story about dreams, beliving in yourself ... and a dancing kangaroo. From the award-winning duo of Diary of a Wombat comes another hilarious tale of a bush animal you''ll never forget.Josephine is a kangaroo - who loves to dance. Her little brother, Joey, tells her that kangaroos don''t dance, they hop - but Josephine continues to point her toes and leap through the air.When a ballet troupe comes to town and both the lead ballerina and understudy are injured, Josephine''s talents are called upon to help save the day. Can she do it and, more importantly, does it matter that she''s a kangaroo?A very funny picture book that looks at the importance of believing in yourself and realising your dreams.Ages 4- 9

We’ve all got wacky families, it’s just that some are wackier than others – find out just how wacky some families can be in the sixth book of this hilarious series. We''ve all got wacky families, it''s just that some are wackier than others - find out just how wacky some families can be in the sixth book of this hilarious series. Drackie is no ordinary kid. He lives on Vampire Island, where every night is dark and stormy. Soon he''ll be old enough to turn into a bat and live in his own castle. Drackie has just had the best birthday ever. His parents have given him what he''s always secretly wished for - a toad. And not just any toad, a vampire toad, he''s called Fang. then the unthinkable happens, Fang is toad-napped and a ransom of $100,000 is asked for by the International Society of toad thieves. the only clue is a bright pink feather. A clue that leads to Auntie Chook. But who is Auntie Chook? And why doesn''t anyone in Drackie''s family wish to talk about her?

A special new edition of the much-loved modern classic -- celebrating 20 years of Australia''s best-loved wombat, Mothball MondayMorning: Slept. Afternoon: Slept. Evening: Ate.Scratched. Night: Ate. A typical day. Don''t be fooled. this wombat leads a very busy and demanding life. She wrestles unknown creatures, runs her own digging business, and most difficult of all - trains her humans. She teaches them when she would like carrots, when she would like oats and when she would like both at the same time. But these humans are slow learners. Find out how one wombat - between scratching, sleeping and eating - manages to fit the difficult job of training humans into her busy schedule. PRAISE FOR DIARY OF A WOMBAT: ''One read and Diary of a Wombat was an instant favourite, as it is with children across the country'' - Kids'' Book Review

Take a closer look at Australia''s best-known marsupials. Why does Australia have animals that are so different from others anywhere else in the world? Why do ''roos and wallabies have such big tummies? Who were the kangaroos with fangs that lived 10 million years ago? What''s the best way to become invisible (to kangaroos, at any rate)? Which wallaby is a ''living fossil'' - the same as the wallabies that grazed 10 million years ago? Why do joeys eat their mother''s droppings? Fnd out in this fascinating new book! PS: What do you call a kangaroo with a flower behind their ear and a big grin? A happy hippy hoppy. Ages 7-12

Captain Cook''s goat is the first of many historical animals to bring the past to life. the HM Bark Endeavour is sailing to tahiti to map the transit of Venus, but there are rumours that once the task is completed, Lieutenant James Cook has a set of secret orders - orders that command him to search for the Great South Land. Isaac is twelve and has joined the crew of the Endeavour as a master''s servant, good for scrubbing decks and not much else. He''s certainly not considered good enough to fetch hay for the Goat who will provide fresh milk for Cook and his officers. And this goat even has more experience at sea than Isaac - she has already sailed around the world once, watching the ocean and lands slip by from her spot on the quarterdeck. Over the months on board the Endeavour, a friendship grows between the Goat and Isaac, one that will last through shipwreck, bushfire and illness. A friendship that helps in the discovery of exotic new lands ... Ages 9 - 13

THE DIARY OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, GENTLEMAN is part comedy, part love story, the threads of Shakespeare''s life drawn from his plays. Could the world''s greatest writer truly put down his pen forever to become a gentleman? He was a boy who escaped small town life to be the most acclaimed playwright of the land. A lover whose sonnets still sing 400 years later; a glover''s apprentice who became a gentleman. But was he happy with his new riches? Who was the woman he truly loved? The world knows the name of William Shakespeare. This book reveals the man - lover, son and poet. Based on new documentary evidence, as well as textual examination of his plays, this fascinating book gives a tantalising glimpse at what might have been: the other hands that helped craft those plays, the secrets that must ever be hidden but - just possibly - may now be told. Ages 12+

''French knows how to conjure [an] imagined past, full of detail about how people lived during particular periods and within particular cultures'' -- Viewpoint Martin lives in the city with his mum. He''s come to walk the boundaries of the farm that''s been in his family for generations. It sounds easy, especially as he''ll own the land when he gets back. Martin''s great-grandfather, Ted, doesn''t even want him to walk around the farm''s fences, just up the gorge and along the hills. But up in the gorge Martin meets Meg from almost a century ago and Wullamudulla from thousands of years in the past. Despite their differences they discover that they''re all on the same journey ... and that walking the boundaries means more than following lines on a map. PRAISE FOR NANBERRY: BLACK BROTHER WHITE ''For really, really good Australian young-adult (and middle-grade) historical fiction, Jackie French has always been a winner ... With Nanberry: Black Brother White she delivers an excellent fictionalised account of the First Fleet''s settlement at Sydney Cove ... a powerful novel'' -- Australian Bookseller & Publisher, 5 stars ''She is one of few masters who can embed historic characters in rattling good tales, and her meticulous research is seamlessly inserted so that you live the detail rather than learn it. Even if you are not into history, Nanberry will hook you in ... Irresistible for history buffs of any age'' -- Good Reading Magazine, 5 stars ''I''ve been telling all my friends to read this book, and to give it to their kids to read. It''s absolutely engrossing'' -- Herald Sun

A book that tries to answer all the big questions about life, death and the universe - a mixture of science and philosophy put in simple terms that 10- to 12-year-olds can understand.

A modern tale of truth and lies woven with a story from the past. Luke lives in modern-day Australia with his mother and stepfather, Sam. He is burdened by a guilty secret: Sam has helped him to cheat in an entrance exam for a prestigious school.Lulach lives in ninth-century Scotland with his mother and stepfather, Macbeth. Macbeth becomes a great king and restores peace to the land.Luke dreams about Lulach and Macbeth at night. He is also studying the play Macbeth at school and in Shakespeare''s version, Macbeth is a villain who murders the rightful king. Why did Shakespeare lie about who Macbeth really was? When is it okay to lie and when should you tell the truth? Similarly to Hitler''s Daughter, Macbeth and Son challenges the reader to consider the actions of people, both in the past and present, and from a seemingly simple storyline, Macbeth and Son arrives at the morally complex question of ''What is truth? And how important is it?'' AWARDS Shortlisted - 2007 CBCA Book of the Year Awards (Younger Readers)

The second book in a series that explores little-known history about Australia''s fascinating past. Barney Bean is keen to make his fortune and he hears a secret; a sailor''s secret about the treasure of the colony. But how can chasing whales make you rich? Is adventure at sea worth leaving everything he loves? Written by award-winning author Jackie French and superbly illustrated by Mark Wilson, this second book in The Secret Histories series explores how the early colony survived with the wealth from whaling, a little-known secret from Australia''s past.

The year is 1859 and the goldfields are filled with diggers -- and danger! Orphaned twelve-year-old Tigg is the Bandicoot Bushranger, the youngest bushranger on the Ballarat goldfields in 1859. When a robbery goes wrong, Tigg must flee in disguise as one of the tens of thousands of Chinese men and boys braving heat, thirst, starvation and murderous attacks on the long road from Robe in South Australia to the goldfields in Victoria. But even further danger threatens. Who has offered a large sum of money for Tigg''s capture? And is the mysterious Henry Lau a friend or enemy? To be safe, Tigg must solve the greatest mystery of all. Who is Tigg? AWARDS CBCA Notable Book 2025

A story of transportation and life in a new world from Australia''s Children''s Laureate At the tender age of eight, chimney sweep Tom Appleby is convicted of stealing and sentenced to deportation to Botany Bay. As one of the members of the First Fleet, he arrives in a country that seemingly has little to offer - or little that the English are used to, anyway. Luckily, not long after tom''s arrival in the colony, the fair and kind Sergeant Stanley decides to take on tom as a servant. Together Tom, Sergeant Stanley and his son, Rob, build a house, set up an orchard and a vegetable garden for themselves - and thrive, unlike many others in the new colony. Jackie French weaves Tom''s story in with the story of the development of Australia. She tells of a colony that, despite its natural abundance, cannot offer what the colonists want - familiarity. While the people''s health is better than it ever was in England, their morale is low as they wait for news from home. PRAISE FOR NANBERRY: BLACK BROTHER WHITE ''For really, really good Australian young-adult (and middle-grade) historical fiction, Jackie French has always been a winner ... With Nanberry: Black Brother White she delivers an excellent fictionalised account of the First Fleet''s settlement at Sydney Cove ... a powerful novel'' -- Australian Bookseller & Publisher, 5 stars ''She is one of few masters who can embed historic characters in rattling good tales, and her meticulous research is seamlessly inserted so that you live the detail rather than learn it. Even if you are not into history, Nanberry will hook you in ... Irresistible for history buffs of any age'' -- Good Reading Magazine, 5 stars ''I''ve been telling all my friends to read this book, and to give it to their kids to read. It''s absolutely engrossing'' -- Herald Sun