April Newsletter
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2025 Kids’ Story Writing Competition
It’s that time of year again! Time to dust off your pens, pencils, keyboards, chalk or quill and ink – whatever your tool of choice – and GET WRITING!!
This is the 10th YEAR we have run our Kids’ Story Writing Competition (we have no idea where the time went either), but we can’t wait to see what wonderous adventures you create for us this time around. This year we continue the theme of a sentence prompt to be included in your story or poem.
“As I opened the letter, a ticket fell out…”
As usual, the competition is being run for Mornington Peninsula Preps to Year 12s, with all of Term 2 to draft and hone your stories, and entries closing on Sunday 27 July.
Winners will be announced at an in store event with special guest author, Amelia Mellor, on Saturday 16 August (the very start of Children’s Book Week). And guess what? Amelia grew up on the Peninsula and became a real life published author! So who knows?! With practice and patience and lots of creativity, maybe this could be the start of your writing careers as well…
Check out the full Entry Guidelines and competition details as well a link to last year’s winners for some inspiration: HERE.
HAPPY WRITING!!
Author Spotlight:
Grantlee Kieza
Grantlee Kieza OAM is an award-winning journalist and the highly acclaimed, bestselling author of more than twenty biographies.
Kieza held senior editorial positions at The Daily Telegraph, The Sunday Telegraph and The Courier-Mail for many years and was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for his writing. He is a Walkley Award finalist, a 2025 ABIA shortlisted author for Biography of the Year, a 2025 Indie Award shortlisted author for Non-fiction, the No. 1 history author in Australia in 2024.
His books include national bestsellers Mr and Mrs Gould, Sister Viv, Flinders, The Remarkable Mrs Reibey, Hudson Fysh, Lawson, Banks, Macquarie, Banjo, Mrs Kelly, Monash and Bert Hinkler.
His latest book Annette Kellerman, Australian Mermaid is released on 2 April.
In store Wednesday 2 April
Annette Kellerman, Australian Mermaid
Champion swimmer, trailblazer and film idol – the adventurous life of our first Hollywood superstar, by the bestselling author of Sister Viv, Mrs Kelly, Hudson Fysh, Banks and Banjo
Born into a daring, musical family in 1886, Annette Kellerman was a force of nature and made for the stage – her first love – and encouraged to defy social norms from a young age. But after she was diagnosed with rickets as a child she took up swimming for therapy, and soon she became an Australian champion, beating boys, breaking records, and astonishing huge crowds by diving from great heights. By 1905, Annette was 18 and on her way to England in an attempt to swim the Channel and challenge endurance records in the Thames. Kellerman famously scandalised the public with a one-piece swimming costume that exposed her legs and arms, but her promotion of it changed fashion forever and popularised the sport for women as they were freed from cumbersome neck-to-knee outfits.
Annette thrilled audiences in London with a vaudeville act, and her underwater ballet routines, combined with her beauty and athleticism, helped her become known on both sides of the Atlantic as ‘The Perfect Woman’. Hollywood embraced her and she became the first great sex symbol of silent films, with her risque and provocative costumes – and sometimes no costume at all. Annette was also one of the highest paid entertainers of her time and her story was immortalised in a lavish, Oscar-nominated Hollywood production starring Esther Williams. But despite all her fame Annette always saw the promotion of health, fitness and independence for women as her biggest and most lasting achievement, and her influence and spirit changed the lives of millions.
Books of the Month
FICTION
Reviewed by Kate
I’ve been a fan of Chris’s writing for some time – such an original thinker and his writing always surprises me and opens my mind in some unexpected way. This suspenseful speculative novel had me in its grasp from the first few pages, toyed with a backstory detour in the middle and then finished with a bang. Challenging reading at a time when the world seems to be teetering on many a precipice, but a cracking story. Enjoyed by all Farrells staff who have read it so far, despite our varied tastes – if speculative fiction is not normally your thing, I’d encourage you to give this one a go.
Orpheus Nine by Chris Flynn
An unputdownable supernatural thriller about a mysterious global event, set in an Australian rural town.
It began in every town and city at the same time, in every dark and twisted corner of our world. One third of the earth’s citizens were asleep at the time. Their awakening was marked by horror and confusion. Just about everyone else had their routine interrupted as they witnessed the event with eyes wide open. They prayed it was a dream.
In the small, sleepy town of Gattan, population 7448, it happened at eleven o’clock on a Saturday morning. At the local soccer field, only one boy, aged ten years and one week, remained standing as the brothers, sisters and parents of his teammates realised the horror they were witnessing. Their screams split the sky. One hundred and thirty million died that first day.
Every day since, on the morning of a child’s ninth birthday, it happens again. No one knows why. The ongoing horror becomes known as Orpheus Nine and bereft parents cruelly labelled Orpheans. Global leaders have no answers as chaos takes hold. Conspiracy theories and violence spread as scientists wrestle with the ongoing toll and anxious citizens and militant Orpheans try to take matters into their own hands.
In Gattan, the chasm between life before and after grows wider for three old friends, now parents. They struggle with waves of grief at the loss of one child, guilt at one child’s survival and anger as another child edges closer to their birthday. No matter the cost, each of the friends attempt to fight the unfathomable in their own way. But the reality is, the clock keeps ticking, the world order is crumbling and the gods are watching …
NON FICTION
Reviewed by Mahli
Unsettled is an intimate, gripping exploration of Grenville’s ancestors and her place in Australia today. She doesn’t shy away from difficult questions and truths, choosing to face her family’s colonial settler past head on. With her engrossing prose and sense of place, this is a literary pilgrimage in beautiful form.
Unsettled by Kate Grenville
What does it mean to be on land taken from others?
‘What does it mean to be on land that was taken from other people? Now that we know how the taking was done, what do we do with that knowledge?’
Kate Grenville is no stranger to the past. Her success and fame as a writer exploded when she published The Secret River in 2005, a bestseller based on the story of her convict ancestor, an early settler on the Hawkesbury River.
More than two decades on, and following the defeat of the Voice referendum, Grenville is still grappling with what it means to descend from people who were, as she puts it, “on the sharp edge of the moving blade that was colonisation”.
So she decides to go on a kind of pilgrimage, back through the places her family stories happened, and put the stories and the First People back into the same frame, on the same country, to try to think about those questions. This gripping book is the result of that journey.
KIDS & YA
Reviewed by Jemma
Heartfelt, bittersweet and wholesome. Hopeful and grief filled – obviously I cried!! A super cute read for middle graders, sad but poignant.
How to Sail to Somewhere by Ashleigh Barton
A beautiful and deeply moving story about friendship, family, hope and the power of the ocean, for middle-grade readers who love a mystery, from popular children’s author Ashleigh Barton.
Beatrice Glass – Bea – lives in a tiny fishing village that’s sleepy all year until the summertime, when the tourists flock in and most of the locals leave. But summer is also when Bea’s favourite person in the entire world, her fun and hilarious uncle, Byron, comes to stay.
On their last day together the previous summer, Byron had given Bea an intriguing antique book containing a map of Somewhere, a mysterious island off the coast, and promised that next summer they’d sail to Somewhere together for their best adventure yet.
That was last year. Now summer has arrived, but Byron hasn’t. And now it looks like he never will.
Are the book and Byron’s disappearance linked? Byron has left some clues for Bea – a scavenger hunt of sorts designed to bring her and her new friend, Arabella, together and give Bea one last magical summer. Could Somewhere hold the key to both Bea’s and Arabella’s future?
A story of lost and found, of friendship, family, hope and the power of the ocean.
April New Release Highlights
Fiction
Non-Fiction
Kids & YA
Staff Spotlight:
Suzie
Your favourite place to read a book?
I have a very big swivel chair at home, where I curl up in (usually with my cat Felix attached to my side) and look out onto my garden.
Which book character or author would you prefer to be trapped in an elevator with?
I am going to answer this question in two different ways. Firstly I would choose Kane from The Year of the Locust by Terry Hayes, as with his resourcefulness and tactical thinking he would be able to get us out of a precarious situation with ease. This is looking at being caught in an elevator as being a dire situation. The other (positive) spin is having someone I’m happily stuck with for an indeterminate period of time. My answer to this would be Trent Dalton as he is an amazingly positive person with great stories to tell.
Hardback, paperback, eBook or audiobook?
Yes, yes, yes and yes. All are really good for me for any situation. It is the worst nightmare if I am stuck anywhere without a book, so having my phone for eBooks and for Libro (audio) is invaluable for the times I don’t have a physical book at hand. Paperback is my usual preference, but there is something reverential about holding a Hardcover for a particularly special book.
What was the last book you loved?
The Salt Path by Raynor Winn. Whilst Raynor and husband were going through some harrowing life challenges, I was inspired by their turning a horrible situation into something positive. I personally find walking cathartic so was very inspired by their journey and what they learnt about themselves and their resilience along the way.
Greatest book of all time?
Over a couple of years I have repeatedly heard how A Little Life was a must must must read book and would shake me to my very core. Looking at the size of the book it was one I continuously put aside waiting for a time when I could feel up to such a big challenge. After finally reading it I can categorically say it is the best book I have ever read and still stays with me to this day. I thank everyone who encouraged me to read it and agree with how much it has affected me. Yes I felt destroyed, confronted and pulled apart as my heart was invested with all of the characters but was achingly attached to Jude. This doesn’t happen very often to me, but when I finished the book I was speechless and immobile for the next half hour. A few years later, this book still sits beside my bed, willing me to jump in and read it again.
One fun fact about you?
After watching the film “Hemingway and Gellhorn” I have become quite obsessed with both Ernest Hemingway and Martha Gellhorn. I have collected as many editions of both of their writings (and select biographies) as I can.
Staff Spotlight:
Kate S
Your favourite place to read a book?
Snuggled up on the couch with a cat or three.
Which book character or author would you prefer to be trapped in an elevator with?
The Weasley twins (from Harry Potter). They could probably magic me out of the elevator, but if not they would definitely keep me entertained.
Hardback, paperback, eBook or audiobook?
Definitely paperback. I love the feel of a physical book in my hands.
What was the last book you loved?
Runt by Craig Silvey – delightful, wholesome fun for readers of all ages.
What was the last book you loved?
Elizabeth Bennett from Pride and Prejudice – I love her fierce feminist attitude.
Greatest book of all time?
The Secret History by Donna Tartt. I couldn’t put it down
One fun fact about you?
I have a massive book collection – I own well over a thousand books.
Events
Book Club
Global Book Crawl
THE MORNINGTON PENINSULA
BOOK CRAWL
Join book lovers around the world this April and
embark on an adventure through the Peninsula’s
indie bookshops with the Global Book Crawl.
Antipodes Bookshop (Sorrento)
Dear Reader Bookshop (Tyabb)
Farrells Bookshop (Mornington)
Petersen’s Bookstore (Hastings)
Rosebud Book Barn (Rosebud)
Competitions
Gifts of the Month
Other Services
