As Get Reading!’s Guaranteed Australian author for March, reading advocate and blockbuster
children’s author Susannah McFarlane will be touring the country for a series of fun, free
workshops for children, designed to hook even the most reluctant readers.

As the author of three blockbuster children’s series for beginner and reluctant readers – EJ12 Girl Hero,
Boy vs Beast (co-¬‐created with Louise Park), and the Little Mates alphabet books – and
the original concept creator of both the Zac Power and Go Girls series for tweens, Susannah
has been credited by many parents and educators with kick-¬‐starting a love of reading in
even their most resistant readers. Susannah’s trick to inspiring kids to read is simple.

“The key is to give kids stories they want to read, with age appropriate content and language,” Susannah
says.“Instead of giving kids books that we adults think they should be reading, I try to create stories
that kids love and parents trust.” That the books are loved by kids all over the country is reflected
in their incredible sales to date – in the two years since the first series was released, EJ12,Boy
vs Beast and Little Mates have collectively sold nearly half a million copies through stores,book
clubs and book fairs, and have often been chosen as ‘children’s choice’ books. In December 2011
alone, Susannah sold a book a minute in Australia, an amazing figure in the current market.

The series,published by Scholastic Australia, are:
• EJ12 Girl Hero, an adventure series for girls aged 7–10, featuring Emma Jacks as Special Agent
EJ12 who cracks codes and foils evil plans all over the world.
Now it’s the girls’ turn to save the world!
• Boy vs Beast, a fast-¬‐paced, high-¬‐energy battle adventure for boys aged 6–8. With a low word
count and simple sentence structure, it takes reading to young boys on their terms.
• Little Mates, a fabulously fun alliterative alphabet series for under 5s featuring Australian animals
illustrated by Lachlan Creagh.

To celebrate Susannah’s Get Reading!tour her three new books released in March
–
EJ12 Girl Hero #12: Secret Safari,
Boy Vs Beast #13: Battle of the Mega-¬‐Mutants: Torlavasaur,
and Boy Vs Beast #14: Battle of the Mega-¬‐ Mutants: Chillterratan
–
have been given the “Get Reading!Guarantee”.

Look out for the silver stickers in bookstores and libraries

GetReading!’s year‐round author touring program is a national initiative in addition
to the usual annual month‐long campaign, and aims to inspire more Australians to read while promoting
Australian authors and their books via events in metropolitan and regional centres.
Get Reading! is an Australian government initiative developed through the Australia Council for
the Arts.

Visit www.getreading.com.au for more information.

For further information or to arrange an interview with Susannah McFarlane please contact Ali Crisp on 0408
020 506 or [email protected], or Bethany Clark on 0418 859 008 or [email protected].

Jen Murnaghan

Fullers Bookshop, Hobart

Tasmanian Independent Bookseller of the Year 2002-2011

Australian Bookseller of the Year 2002

131 Collins St, Hobart, TAS 7000 Australia

(ph) 03 6234 3800 (fax) 03 6234 3866

Find Fullers and Fullers Ferrets on Facebook

www.fullersbookshop.com.au
Fullers Bookshop