Above: Mountain District Christian School teacher and author Elizabeth Fensham with some of her students, who she used as her test audience when adding the final touches to her book Helicopter Man, which has also been shortlisted the awards. From left: Daniel McNeil, Ms Fensham, Kallista Fooks and Tyne Simpson.By Tania Martin
TWO Hills authors are set to go head to head in a battle of the prose for the Children’s Book of the Year awards.
Well-known children’s author Catherine Bateson from Belgrave and Elizabeth Fensham from The Patch have been shortlisted in the Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) awards in the Book of the Year: Young Reader category.
The two will also go up against some stiff competition in renowned children’s writer Paul Jennings.
Ms Bateson is no stranger to the CBCA awards, winning Book of the Year: Young Reader in 2002, but said it was a great honour to be shortlisted again this year.
She started her career as a poet, but after years of wanting to become a novelist she tried her hand at children’s fiction.
Since then Ms Bateson has written eight novels for young adults including Millie and the Night Heron, which was shortlisted for the awards.
She said Millie and the Night Heron was about a girl whose mother had just split up with another one of her boyfriends and decided to move to a country town.
“It is about starting life over in a new town,” she said.
Ms Bateson said being shortlisted in the CBCA awards after winning in 2002 was a tremendous honour and something she wasn’t expecting.
Meanwhile, Mountain District Christian School teacher Elizabeth Fensham has had her first published children’s book, Helicopter Man, shortlisted in the awards.
Ms Fensham said Helicopter Man was about a boy and his mentally ill father who had a fear of helicopters and thought they were spying on him.
She said the inspiration for the story came from her personal experience with people suffering from mental illness.
Ms Fensham said it was a privilege that her first book had been chosen for the awards.
The CBCA awards will be announced on Friday, 18 August during Children’s Book Week.
