Star
When Star’s mum, Nell, begins to fall in love with Charlie and he moves in properly, Star isn’t sure how she feels about it.
Mimi and the Blue Slave
When grief strikes, you need an ally. For Mimi, that ally is Ableth, the wildly disobedient blue slave.

Catherine Bateson is a poet and writer for young adults and younger readers.
She lives in Kallista with her husband, a rescue dog called Winter, a wide assortment of tropical fish and whichever children have moved back home as well as her octogenarian mother.
Latest News
The Hodgepodge, a writer's journal
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Why you should gobble up Shirley Jackson’s work…
1. ‘The Lottery’ when it was published in The New Yorker in 1948, inspired 1300 people to write in to the magazine. Some were baffled, others outraged and a small percentage wanted to know where in America did this appalling event take place. 2. This short story exemplifies Jackson’s approach to horror. She pushes the […]
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Rebecca in 5 Bites
1. If you think about opening a story with a dream, think again. Daphne du Maurier’s opening of Rebecca has it down to perfection. Mrs de Winter the second’s dream of Manderley combines the surrealism of the dreamscape with a carefully crafted sensory exploration of the wild encroaching on civilisation. The descriptions of the garden […]
Book Reviews
5 stars-
Star is an endearing first person narrator who will have the reader cheering for good things to happen to her. At times she is, as her mother accuses, self centred, but this adds to the sense of realism...
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The rivalry between Sydney and Melbourne is explored and gently rocked. Catherine Bateson points out that home is where family and friends are, that the rest is just bonus...
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