Lian Tanner
Lian Tanner has been dynamited while scuba diving and arrested while busking. She once spent a week in the jungles of Papua New Guinea, hunting for a Japanese soldier left over from the Second World War. She likes secrets, old bones, and animals that are not what they seem. Nowadays she lives by the beach in southern Tasmania.
Lian's bestselling fantasy series The Keepers won two Aurealis Awards for Best Australian Children's Fantasy and has been translated into eleven languages. Her second series, The Hidden, has been published in Australia/New Zealand and North America. Lian's third series, The Rogues, is set in the same world as The Keepers, and has been translated into Spanish.
Lian's first picture book 'Ella and the Ocean' (illustrated by Jonathan Bentley) won the 2020 NSW Premier's Award for Children's Literature and the 2022 Tasmanian Literary Award for Children's Books. A Clue for Clara won the 2021 Sisters in Crime Davitt Award for Best Children's Crime Novel, and its sequel, Rita's Revenge, was shortlisted for the 2022 NSW Premier's Award for Children's Literature.
“The people of jewel," said Olga Ciavolga,"treat their children like delicate flowers. They think they will not survive without constant protection. But there are parts of the world where young boys and girls spend weeks at a time with no company except a herd of goats. They chase away wolves. They take care of themselves, and they take care of the herd. And so, when hard times come - as they always do in the end - those children are resourceful and brave. If they have to walk from one end of the county to the other, carrying their baby brother and sisters, they will do it. If they have to hide during the day and travel at night to avoid soldiers, they will do it. They do not give up easily." The tunnel took a sharp right-hand turn and, for a moment, the old woman s voice was lost. Something dropped onto Goldie's arm, and she opened her mouth to yelp - and thought of those children carrying their baby brothers and sisters through the night - and closed her mouth and kept going. She rounded the corner in time to hear Olga Ciavolga murmur,"Of course, I am not saying that it is a good thing to give children such heavy responsibility's. They must be allowed to have a childhood. But they must also be allowed to find their courage and their wisdom, and learn when to stand and when to run away. After all, if they are not permitted to climb the trees, how will they ever see the great and wonderful world that lies before them?”
“Does that mean you're a thief too?''Yep.''What did you steal?'For a moment, she thought he wasn't going to answer. Then he said, 'Myself.”
“Don't try to push [fear] away,' he said. 'If you fight it, you make it stronger. You gotta great it politely, like an unwanted cousin. You can't make it leave you alone, but you can do what you have to do, in spite of it.”
“Goldie closed her eyes and tried not to think about how she had nearly died, waiting for someone to come along and save her. She shivered. 'I'll never do that again,' she thought. 'Next time I'll save myself.”
“But there are some things, child, that you should steal. That you must steal, if you have enough love and courage in your heart. You must snatch freedom from the hands of the tyrant. You must spirit away innocent lives before they are destroyed. You must hide secret and sacred places.”