POOL shortlisted in the Young Adults Category of the 2008 Victorian Premier's Awards.

"a brilliant book ... dazzling"

Kirsty Murray, judge YA Category.

POOL receives award at CBC 2008!

POOL has recently been declared a Notable Book for Older Readers at the CBC 2008 Awards.

To find out more about POOL you can click the image below.

New Extreme Adventures website launched by Puffin!

Puffin (my publisher) have put together a fantastic new website for the Extreme Adventures series. It includes hot-off-the-press info, action packed games and very cool competitions. The site can be found at: www.puffin.com.au/extreme.

Scorpion Sting: Extreme Adventures
Notable Australian Children’s Book – Younger Readers
2007 CBC Awards

Judge’s report: “Brothers Sam and Nathan’s desert expedition becomes an extreme adventure when a frightening series of rumblings and cracks turn into a cave-in. Sam suddenly finds he has to rescue the brother he has always followed and admired. He perseveres through scorpions, Min Min lights, gunfire and hot blinding sand. ‘Holy guacamole!’ D’Ath does this so well and the pace only lets go long enough for a new menace to appear out of the desert night. A fun frenetic read.”

Australian Design Awards 2007

Highly Commended, Best Designed Children's Series - Extreme Adventures (Puffin) designed by Dave Altheim.

Crocodile Attack: Extreme Adventures
Notable Australian Children's Book - Younger Readers
2006 CBC Awards
5th April, 2006

Judge's Report: "Crikey! This first book in the Extreme Adventures series moves rapidly through a kidnap by a crim on the run, a car crash, crocs and a raging river. The writer knows how to grip a reader: credibility is stretched as far as it can go, but snaps back with a satisfyingly breathless, action-packed journey."

Hurtled along by action

Extreme Adventures Series
By Justin D’Ath

I felt some trepidation when I picked up the first two books in Justin D’Ath’s Extreme Adventures series. Scanning the back cover of the first, I was informed that “An action-packed rollercoaster ride, Crocodile Attack is the first book of a thrilling new series”, and was instantly overcome by a crushing lethargy. Once between the covers, I was surprised and delighted to find pacy and chiselled prose, cascading streams of plot rushing forward with inexorable momentum, high excitement and great humour.
The nearest equivalents to these slim volumes are the uniquely Australian (and almost forgotten) horror novels of Kenneth Cook, in which a rogue element, say, a giant pig, or a colossal and malign fish, rises from its surroundings and inflicts a reign of terror. This is exactly what happens in Extreme Adventures. Sam Fox, the 14-year-old hero, faces the effects of catastrophic flooding in Crocodile Attack and in Bushfire Rescue contends with a terrible conflagration.
The action is precipitated by criminality - a hold-up in the first, cattle theft in the second. An elemental force - a giant croc or a mad bull - confronts Sam and, burdened by either his young niece or by injury, he will squeak through.
This may sound formulaic. The books’ virtue, however, is that the velocity of the narrative steamrolls any such considerations, as the reader leaps from one disaster into the waiting jaws of the next.

Sydney Morning Herald
29th October 2005