Viking an imprint of Penguin 2007
Edited by Dmetri Kakmi
www.penguin.com.au/lookinside/

Have you even wondered what your favourite authors were like as children?

When We Were Young is a book of true stories.
A magical farmhouse, a sad teddy, a kooky Christmas, a curious rooster, a crazy cat, a haunted mansion, a flattened brother, an unforgettable footy match, wild ponies that make dreams come true…and many, many more.

Some of the stories are funny, some a little sad and some are spooky like my story, The Witch in the Mansion. This real life adventure was the inspiration behind my novel, The Pearl of Tiger Bay.

When We Were Young is one of 250 outstanding international children’s books selected for The White Raven prize at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair for 2008.

The selection is made by the International Youth Library Association out of thousands of books submitted each year and will appear in their catalogue and the exhibition in Bologna.

Reviews:

‘The editor of this superb collection of childhood memories is a senior editor at Penguin Books. It was his inspired concept to approach a batch of authors asking them to write about their childhood experiences. He believed that there could well be a continuity between events of their childhood and the genre in which they now work. In a way this is true, but the adult reader will be able to detect how enduring traits of character carry over into the individual’s writing. ‘Give me a child of seven and I will show you the man’. So it is with this brilliant collection.’
Maurice Saxby Reading Time Vol 52 No 1

‘It is not nostalgia that permeates the collection; it is the writers’ frankness about themselves and their lives that makes When We Were Young so worthwhile.’
Mike Shuttleworth Saturday Age