The Books Children’s Authors Buy: Lian Tanner

Who best to recommend books for the kids in your life than some of Australia’s leading children’s authors and illustrators? Better Reading asked for their recommendations to make your hunt for the perfect book that much easier.

We chatted to Lian Tanner the beloved author of the Keepers series and recently released (and vividly exciting) first book in new series The Rogues. Lian shared with us the books she recently purchased for some voracious young readers:

Dragonfly Song by Wendy Orr.

An utterly beautiful book. I was so entranced by the language and the story that I read it in a day. Cinderella stories are always appealing, but this one is extra special.

A Most Magical Girl by Karen Foxlee.
Gorgeously written with a bold use of language and a gripping story. Annabel is such a great character, trying so hard to cling to the world she knows, and being dragged willy nilly away from it.

The Fall by Tristan Bancks.
I haven’t read this yet, but I loved Tristan’s ‘Two Wolves’, and have confidence that this will be just as good.

The Extremely Inconvenient Adventures of Brontë Mettlestone by Jaclyn Moriarty.
This book was like a puzzle, only I didn’t realise it until near the end, when everything suddenly started to fall into place in the most intriguing way. Funny and warm-hearted.

The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl: Squirrel Meets World by Shannon Hale and Dean Hale.
I stumbled across this accidentally, and it was the funniest book I’d read in ages. Probably verging on YA, but still very readable for younger readers.