Jennifer Rowe
Encyclopedia
Jennifer June Rowe is an Australia
n author
. Her crime fiction
for adults is published under her own name, while her children's fiction is published under the pseudonym
s Emily Rodda and Mary-Anne Dickinson. She is well known for the children's fantasy series Deltora Quest, Rowan of Rin
, Fairy Realm
and Teen Power Inc.
, and recently the Rondo trilogy
.
, Australia, and raised with two younger brothers on Sydney's North Shore. Her father was Jim Oswin, the founding general manager of ATN7 in Sydney, and was responsible for classic 1960s TV shows such as My Name's McGooley, What's Yours?
and The Mavis Bramston Show
.
She attended the Abbotsleigh School for Girls
on the upper North Shore of Sydney. She attained her Master of Arts
in English Literature
at the University of Sydney
in 1973. Her first job was assistant editor
at Paul Hamlyn
publishing. She later worked at Angus and Robertson Publishers where she remained for fourteen years as Editor, Senior Editor, Managing Director, Deputy Publisher and finally Publisher. During this time she began writing children's books under the pseudonym Emily Rodda (her grandmother's name). Her first book, Something Special, was published in 1984 and won the Australian Children's Book Council Book of the Year for Younger Readers Award. She has now won that award a record five times.
From 1984 to 1992, Rowe continued her career in publishing, then as Editor of the Australian Women's Weekly
, while writing novels in her 'spare time'. In 1994 Rowe became a full-time writer. She now divides her working day between consultancies for book publishers and her own writing. She lives in the Blue Mountains in New South Wales, Australia with her husband Bob Ryan.
Rowe's acclaimed Verity Birdwood
murder mysteries for adults, written under her own name are: Grim Pickings (1988) (made into an Australian TV mini-series), Murder by the Book, Death in Store, The Makeover Murders and Strangehold. Later she also wrote about Homicide
Detective
Tessa Vance in Suspect (also published as Deadline) and Something Wicked, and both books were incorporated as episode story lines in the Australian TV-show Murder Call
. Rowe also edited a collection of crime stories Love Lies Bleeding and has contributed to the 1997 "Crimes for Summer" collection Moonlight Becomes You.
Total worldwide sales across all the Deltora Quest series have now exceeded 10 million. It has been published in Australia, New Zealand, the USA, Canada, Japan, Italy, Brazil, China, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Indonesia, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey and the UK. A Deltora Quest anime series
was broadcast on Japanese television in early 2007.
Among her other successful novels is the 1990 science fiction
novel Finders Keepers which was made into a television series called The Finder
, and the Teen Power Inc. series (re-published as The Raven Hill Mysteries), a mystery series involving six teenagers, both of which are written for young adults.
Her newest books are the Rondo
series: The Key To Rondo
, The Wizard of Rondo
and The Battle for Rondo. The Key to Rondo is her third most successful book and the newly published book The Wizard of Rondo is already sixth. Her best selling book series is the Deltora Quest series.
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
. Her crime fiction
Crime fiction
Crime fiction is the literary genre that fictionalizes crimes, their detection, criminals and their motives. It is usually distinguished from mainstream fiction and other genres such as science fiction or historical fiction, but boundaries can be, and indeed are, blurred...
for adults is published under her own name, while her children's fiction is published under the pseudonym
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
s Emily Rodda and Mary-Anne Dickinson. She is well known for the children's fantasy series Deltora Quest, Rowan of Rin
Rowan of Rin
The Rowan of Rin series is a series of five children's fantasy novels by Australian author Emily Rodda. The series follow the adventures of a shy village boy, Rowan...
, Fairy Realm
Fairy Realm
Fairy Realm is a series of ten children's fantasy novels by Australian author Jennifer Rowe, writing under the pseudonyms Mary-Anne Dickinson, and Emily Rodda. Rowe is also the author of bestselling books of Deltora Quest and Rowan of Rin series. In the U.K...
and Teen Power Inc.
Teen Power Inc.
Teen Power Inc., now known as Raven Hill Mysteries is a series of books created by notable Australian author Emily Rodda, even though many of the books are actually penned by other authors who receive credit on the inside title page. The series, originally published in the mid-90s is being...
, and recently the Rondo trilogy
Rondo (series)
The Rondo series is a children's fantasy fiction trilogy written by Jennifer Rowe under the pen name Emily Rodda....
.
Biography
Rowe was born in SydneySydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
, Australia, and raised with two younger brothers on Sydney's North Shore. Her father was Jim Oswin, the founding general manager of ATN7 in Sydney, and was responsible for classic 1960s TV shows such as My Name's McGooley, What's Yours?
My Name's McGooley, What's Yours?
My Name's McGooley, What's Yours? was a popular Australian situation comedy series produced by ATN7 from 1966 to 1968.The situation involved a young couple, Wally and Rita Stiller , living in Balmain with Rita's father Dominic McGooley . Also in the regular cast was Stewart Ginn, and later Noeline...
and The Mavis Bramston Show
The Mavis Bramston Show
The Mavis Bramston Show was a popular and award-winning Australian TV satirical sketch comedy series of the mid-1960s.-Introduction:The tremendous impact that The Mavis Bramston Show had in Australia in the mid-1960s was heightened because of its unique place in the history of the Australian TV...
.
She attended the Abbotsleigh School for Girls
Abbotsleigh
Abbotsleigh School for Girls is an independent, Anglican, day and boarding school for girls, located in Wahroonga, on the Upper North Shore of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia....
on the upper North Shore of Sydney. She attained her Master of Arts
Master of Arts (postgraduate)
A Master of Arts from the Latin Magister Artium, is a type of Master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The M.A. is usually contrasted with the M.S. or M.Sc. degrees...
in English Literature
English literature
English literature is the literature written in the English language, including literature composed in English by writers not necessarily from England; for example, Robert Burns was Scottish, James Joyce was Irish, Joseph Conrad was Polish, Dylan Thomas was Welsh, Edgar Allan Poe was American, J....
at the University of Sydney
University of Sydney
The University of Sydney is a public university located in Sydney, New South Wales. The main campus spreads across the suburbs of Camperdown and Darlington on the southwestern outskirts of the Sydney CBD. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and Oceania...
in 1973. Her first job was assistant editor
Editing
Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible, and film media used to convey information through the processes of correction, condensation, organization, and other modifications performed with an intention of producing a correct, consistent, accurate, and complete...
at Paul Hamlyn
Paul Hamlyn
Paul Hamlyn, Baron Hamlyn of Edgeworth, CBE , was a German-born British publisher and philanthropist.-Family:...
publishing. She later worked at Angus and Robertson Publishers where she remained for fourteen years as Editor, Senior Editor, Managing Director, Deputy Publisher and finally Publisher. During this time she began writing children's books under the pseudonym Emily Rodda (her grandmother's name). Her first book, Something Special, was published in 1984 and won the Australian Children's Book Council Book of the Year for Younger Readers Award. She has now won that award a record five times.
From 1984 to 1992, Rowe continued her career in publishing, then as Editor of the Australian Women's Weekly
Australian Women's Weekly
The Australian Women's Weekly is an Australian monthly women's magazine published by ACP Magazines, a division of PBL Media based in Sydney. Audited circulation in 2009 exceeded 500,000 copies monthly, making it the largest magazine in Australia.-History:...
, while writing novels in her 'spare time'. In 1994 Rowe became a full-time writer. She now divides her working day between consultancies for book publishers and her own writing. She lives in the Blue Mountains in New South Wales, Australia with her husband Bob Ryan.
Rowe's acclaimed Verity Birdwood
Verity Birdwood
The Verity Birdwood series is a series of six murder mystery novels by Jennifer Rowe. Verity Birdwood is a "scrappy TV researcher" who detects criminals in novels set against Australian backgrounds.-Titles:...
murder mysteries for adults, written under her own name are: Grim Pickings (1988) (made into an Australian TV mini-series), Murder by the Book, Death in Store, The Makeover Murders and Strangehold. Later she also wrote about Homicide
Homicide
Homicide refers to the act of a human killing another human. Murder, for example, is a type of homicide. It can also describe a person who has committed such an act, though this use is rare in modern English...
Detective
Detective
A detective is an investigator, either a member of a police agency or a private person. The latter may be known as private investigators or "private eyes"...
Tessa Vance in Suspect (also published as Deadline) and Something Wicked, and both books were incorporated as episode story lines in the Australian TV-show Murder Call
Murder Call
Murder Call was an Australian television series, created by Hal McElroy for the Southern Star Entertainment and seen on the Nine Network between 1997 and 2000. The idea to the series was born by the books of Tessa Vance by Jennifer Rowe: Suspect/Deadline and Something Wicked...
. Rowe also edited a collection of crime stories Love Lies Bleeding and has contributed to the 1997 "Crimes for Summer" collection Moonlight Becomes You.
Emily Rodda
The most notable of her children's works, authored under the pseudonym Emily Rodda, are the series Deltora Quest, Teen Power Inc. Fairy Realm and Rowan of Rin. The pseudonym is based on her grandmother's name.Total worldwide sales across all the Deltora Quest series have now exceeded 10 million. It has been published in Australia, New Zealand, the USA, Canada, Japan, Italy, Brazil, China, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Indonesia, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey and the UK. A Deltora Quest anime series
Deltora Quest (anime)
is a Japanese anime series based on the series of children's books of the same name, written by Australian author Emily Rodda. It was announced by Rodda herself at Sydney's Book Council of Australia Conference and at an ABC Kids convention. The series was produced by Genco and SKY Perfect Well Think...
was broadcast on Japanese television in early 2007.
Among her other successful novels is the 1990 science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
novel Finders Keepers which was made into a television series called The Finder
The Finder
The Finder, also known as Finders Keepers, is an Australian children's television show, directed by Scott Hicks, that first aired on 28 October 1991, based on a book by Emily Rodda...
, and the Teen Power Inc. series (re-published as The Raven Hill Mysteries), a mystery series involving six teenagers, both of which are written for young adults.
Her newest books are the Rondo
Rondo (series)
The Rondo series is a children's fantasy fiction trilogy written by Jennifer Rowe under the pen name Emily Rodda....
series: The Key To Rondo
The Key to Rondo
The Key to Rondo is the first book of the Rondo series written by Australian author Jennifer Rowe, under the pseudonym Emily Rodda.-Plot summary:...
, The Wizard of Rondo
The Wizard of Rondo
The Wizard of Rondo is a children's fantasy novel written by Emily Rodda. It was first published in 2008 and is the second book in the Rondo series. It is the sequel to The Key to Rondo and is followed by The Battle for Rondo....
and The Battle for Rondo. The Key to Rondo is her third most successful book and the newly published book The Wizard of Rondo is already sixth. Her best selling book series is the Deltora Quest series.
Awards
- 1985 - Children's Book Council of Australia (CBCA): Junior Book of the Year - Something Special
- 1987 - CBCA: Junior Book of the Year - Pigs Might Fly
- 1989 - CBCA: Book of the Year for Younger Readers - The Best-kept Secret
- 1991 - CBCA: Book of the Year for Younger Readers - Finders Keepers
- 1994 - CBCA: Book of the Year for Younger Readers - Rowan of RinRowan of RinThe Rowan of Rin series is a series of five children's fantasy novels by Australian author Emily Rodda. The series follow the adventures of a shy village boy, Rowan...
- 1995 - The Dromkeen MedalDromkeen MedalThe Dromkeen Medal is a literary prize awarded annually by the Courtney Oldmeadow Children's Literature Foundation for those who have advanced children's literature in Australia.-List of prize winners:*1982 Lu Rees*1983 Maurice Saxby...
- 1997 - CBCA: Honour Book for Younger Readers - Rowan and the Keeper of the CrystalRowan and the Keeper of the CrystalRowan and the Keeper of the Crystal is a children's fantasy novel by Australian author Emily Rodda. It is the third book in the Rowan of Rin series.-Plot summary:...
- 1999 - Dymock's Children's Choice Awards: Favourite Australian Younger Reader Book - Rowan of RinRowan of RinThe Rowan of Rin series is a series of five children's fantasy novels by Australian author Emily Rodda. The series follow the adventures of a shy village boy, Rowan...
Series - 2000 - COOL AwardsCOOL Award WinnersThe COOL awards is an annual children's choice award voted on by students in Canberra, the Australian Capital Territory, Australia. Children are encouraged to read and vote for their favourite books...
Fiction for Younger Readers Award for Bob The Builder And The Elves - 2003 - YABBA award (VIC children's choice) - Deltora Quest 2Deltora Quest 2Deltora Quest 2 is a series of children’s fantasy books, written by Australian author Emily Rodda. It follows the adventures of three companions as they journey outside the magical land of Deltora to rescue the many prisoners held captive by the evil Shadow Lord...
- 2002 - KOALA award (NSW children's choice) - Deltora Quest Series
- 2002 - Aurealis Awards: Peter McNamara Convenors' Award - Deltora QuestDeltora QuestDeltora Quest may refer to:*Deltora Quest *Deltora Quest...
Series - 2002 - WA Young Reader's Book Awards: Most Popular Book - Deltora Quest - The Forests of Silence
- 2003 - COOL AwardsCOOL Award WinnersThe COOL awards is an annual children's choice award voted on by students in Canberra, the Australian Capital Territory, Australia. Children are encouraged to read and vote for their favourite books...
Fiction for Younger Readers Award for the Deltora Quest 2 series - 2004 - COOL AwardsCOOL Award WinnersThe COOL awards is an annual children's choice award voted on by students in Canberra, the Australian Capital Territory, Australia. Children are encouraged to read and vote for their favourite books...
Fiction for Younger Readers Award for the Deltora Quest 3 series - 2008 - Aurealis Awards Best Children's Novel for The Wizard of Rondo
Fiction by Jennifer Rowe
- Verity BirdwoodVerity BirdwoodThe Verity Birdwood series is a series of six murder mystery novels by Jennifer Rowe. Verity Birdwood is a "scrappy TV researcher" who detects criminals in novels set against Australian backgrounds.-Titles:...
series (1987-1995) - Tessa VanceTessa VanceSenior Detective Tessa Vance is a fictional character from a series of detective novels by Jennifer Rowe and TV show Murder Call.-Background:...
series (1998) - Angela's Mandrake & Other Feisty Fables (2000) [published in the UK as Fairy Tales for Grown-Ups (2002)]
Fiction edited by Jennifer Rowe
- Love Lies Bleeding (Allen & Unwin, 1994), anthology of crime short fiction
Non-fiction by Jennifer Rowe
- The Commonsense International Cookery Book (1978)
- The Best of the Australian Women's Weekly Craft (Ed. Jennifer Rowe, 1989)
Novels by Emily Rodda
- Something Special (1984)
- Pigs might Fly (1986) (also published as The Pigs are flying]])
- The Best-kept Secret (1988)
- Finders KeepersThe FinderThe Finder, also known as Finders Keepers, is an Australian children's television show, directed by Scott Hicks, that first aired on 28 October 1991, based on a book by Emily Rodda...
(1990) and sequel The Timekeeper (1992) - Teen Power Inc.Teen Power Inc.Teen Power Inc., now known as Raven Hill Mysteries is a series of books created by notable Australian author Emily Rodda, even though many of the books are actually penned by other authors who receive credit on the inside title page. The series, originally published in the mid-90s is being...
series (1994-1999) (re-published as The Raven Hill Mysteries 2006) - Fairy RealmFairy RealmFairy Realm is a series of ten children's fantasy novels by Australian author Jennifer Rowe, writing under the pseudonyms Mary-Anne Dickinson, and Emily Rodda. Rowe is also the author of bestselling books of Deltora Quest and Rowan of Rin series. In the U.K...
series (1994-2006) (also published as the Fairy Charm series) - Rowan of RinRowan of RinThe Rowan of Rin series is a series of five children's fantasy novels by Australian author Emily Rodda. The series follow the adventures of a shy village boy, Rowan...
series (1994-2003) - The Julia Tapes (1999)
- Deltora Quest series (2000-2005)
- Dog Tales (2001)
- Squeak Street series (2005)
- RondoRondo (series)The Rondo series is a children's fantasy fiction trilogy written by Jennifer Rowe under the pen name Emily Rodda....
series (2007-2009) - The Three Doors series (the first book The Golden Door published 2011)
"Early Readers" books by Emily Rodda
- Bob the Builder and the Elves, illustrated by Craig Smith (1998) (re-published as Bob and the House Elves)
- Fuzz the Famous Fly, illustrated by Tom Jellet (1999)
- Gobbleguts, illustrated by Stephen Axelsen (2000)
- Bungawitta, illustrated by Craig Smith (2011)
Picture Storybooks by Emily Rodda
- Power and Glory, illustrated by Geoff Kelly (1994)
- Yay!, illustrated by Craig Smith (1996)
- Game Plan, illustrated by Craig Smith (1998)
- Green Fingers, illustrated by Craig Smith (1998)
- Where Do You Hide Two Elephants?, illustrated by Andrew Mclean (1998)
- The Long Way Home, illustrated by Danny Snell (2001)
Film and television
- Grim Pickings, television mini series (1989), based on a novel and scripted by Peter Gawler and Graeme Koetsveld
- Finders KeepersThe FinderThe Finder, also known as Finders Keepers, is an Australian children's television show, directed by Scott Hicks, that first aired on 28 October 1991, based on a book by Emily Rodda...
, children's television series (1991 - 1992) - Blue Heelers, television police drama (1994)
- Murder Call, television drama (56 episodes, 1997 - 2000) writer and creative consultant
- Deltora Quest anime seriesDeltora Quest (anime)is a Japanese anime series based on the series of children's books of the same name, written by Australian author Emily Rodda. It was announced by Rodda herself at Sydney's Book Council of Australia Conference and at an ABC Kids convention. The series was produced by Genco and SKY Perfect Well Think...
for Japanese television (2007)