The Lorikeet Tree: A moving story of family, loss and love from master storyteller Paul Jennings, author of Unreal!: First Love, Sibling Trouble and the healing Power of Nature
This thought-provoking upper middle grade story from master storyteller Paul Jennings is a moving story of family, loss and love, told with his trademark humour and empathy.
Emily loves the bush and the native animals on her family's reforested property, particularly the beautiful rainbow lorikeets that nest in one of the tallest trees. But then her father is diagnosed with a terminal illness, and Emily's world enters a tailspin.
Her twin brother, Alex, refuses to accept the truth. His coping mechanism is to build elaborate additions to his treehouse in the superstitious belief that it will avert disaster � leaving Emily to deal with harsh reality on her own.
When Alex secretly adopts a feral kitten, going against everything that's important to Emily, the siblings' emotions reach boiling point � with potentially dangerous consequences for them all.
Nominated for The Yoto Carnegie Medal and longlisted for the UKLA Award 2024
Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ database.
Paul Jennings was born in Heston near London, and at the age of 6 emigrated to Melbourne, Australia on a boat. He was on the boat for 5 weeks with his family. He attended Bentleigh West Primary School and Caulfield Grammar School.
After graduating from school, he went to Frankston Teachers College (now part of Monash University) and became a teacher. He taught students at Frankston State School, Kangaroo Flat State School, the Turana Youth Training Centre, and the Royal Children's Hospital State School in Mount Eliza. He later went on to study at the Lincoln Institute of Health Science (now part of LaTrobe University) and became a speech pathologist, then worked as a Lecturer in Special Education at Burwood State College (now part of Deakin University). In 1979 he became Senior Lecturer in Language and Literature at Warrnambool Institute of Advanced Education (now part of Deakin University).
In 1985, Jennings' first book of short stories, Unreal! was published, during which he worked as a lecturer and wrote part-time; in 1989, he made the decision to devote his full time to writing. Many of his short stories, published between 1985 and 1991, were also adapted into the first and second series of the popular Australian television show Round the Twist.