Australian Children's Literature

This is the first in an ongoing series of posts about some of the most popular, influential, and enduring Australian children's and YA novels.  Perhaps the most popular and successful Australian young adult novel series is an invasion narrative. John Marsden ’s "The Tomorrow Series" (1993-1999), which began with Tomorrow, When the War Began , has been reprinted more than thirty times with sales of more than three million copies, translated into various languages, and adapted into a film in 2010 and a television series in 2016.  The sequel series, "The Ellie Chronicles", reveals that the force that has invaded Australia is a coalition of South Asian countries seeking the space and natural resources that are limited in their populous region.  Given the origins and evolution of Australian children’s literature throughout the nineteenth and twentieth century, it is unsurprising that an invasion narrative is one of the most notable Australian young adult novels. The ...