Newcastle author has four reasons to smile
Newcastle author has four easons to smile
NEWCASTLE author Lizzie Wilcock has four reasons to smile.
This month, she will release her fourth
book Give Me Four Reasons. Ms Wilcock’s first book, a novel for young adults called Losing It, was published in 2006.
Her second novel Grieve, also for young adults, was published in 2007.
Both were shortlisted for major literary
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prizes. Ms Wilcock took time off from writing after the birth of her daughter in 2007, but 2011 has her writing career back on track. Her third novel Extinction: The Day the
World Ended was released in March this year. An adventure story for children aged 10-plus, Extinction: The Day the World Ended (part one in a two-book series) has been a sell-out in bookstores. Extinction 2: The Explosive Conclusion will be released in August. While Ms Wilcock was waiting for her publishers Scholastic Australia to send her a contract for the Extinction series, she was approached by rival publisher Little Hare and asked to write for them.
“The commissioning editor Margrete Lamond asked me to write an award-winning novel for 10 to 14 year olds. The pressure was on right from the start. It’s too early to know whether Give Me Four Reasons will win awards,” she said. “But it’s already had a lot of interest from overseas publishing houses at the Bologne Children’s Book Fair.” Give Me Four Reasons tells the story of
12-year-old Paige Winfrey. Paige has been best friends with Elfi and Rochelle ever since she can remember. On the last day of primary school they make a vow to stay friends forever. But when Paige begins high school after the summer, she accidentally falls in with the “popular” crowd and things start to
NEW RELEASE: Lizzie Wilcock with four-year-old daughter Isla. get complicated.
Can Paige stay true to her old friends when her new friends don’t like them? And can she stay true to herself when she isn’t sure who she is anymore?
Give Me Four Reasons deals with the themes of friendship, belonging, family separation, coping with change, self-concept and identity. MsWilcock, a teacher at New Lambton Public School, began writing the story on the last day of the school year in 2008 after watching her year 6 students run out of the playground with excitement for the future, but also with great sadness at what they were leaving behind.
“I wondered how they would cope in the big world of high school, especially if they were leaving established friendship groups behind,” she said.
“I based my characters in Give Me Four
Reasons on a mix of students I had taught, and I spoke to teenage girls about their experiences of beginning high school. These girls gave my characters their voices and my story its authenticity.”
14 THE NEWCASTLE POST Wednesday, July 6, 2011
view the digital edition online at
www.newcastlepost.com.au
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