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Danielle Binks
Author | Grade 5- Year 12
Victoria

Danielle Binks is a Melbourne-based writer and literary agent with Jacinta di Mase Management. She is the author of bestselling middle-grade book The Year the Maps Changed, and the award-winning young adult books; Begin, End, Begin: A #LoveOzYA Anthology as well as The Monster of Her Age. Her latest middle grade novel is Six Summers of Tash and Leopold. Danielle also teaches Fiction & Young Adult Writing in the Associate Degree of Professional Writing and Editing at her alum, RMIT University.

Books by Danielle Binks

Six Summers of Tash and Leopold

Best Suited 8-12 Years
Leopold and Alytash – Leo and Tash – are neighbours who used to be best friends, but aren’t anymore, for reasons that Leo doesn’t entirely understand. But now it’s the last week of Year Six and Tash is standing in Leo’s front yard with a misdelivered letter – and a favour to ask.

It’s a request that will set off a chain of events in their little crescent in Noble Park, a suburb that is changing, and fast.

In the process of solving an unfolding neighbourhood mystery and helping Ms Shepparson, a reclusive neighbour with a tragic past, Leo and Tash each have to confront fault-lines in their own recent histories and families. They will discover that friendships can grow and change, that bravery takes many forms, and that, most of all – whatever the future holds – friends and family are what matter.

The Monster of Her Age

Best Suited 13+ Years old
How do you ruin someone’s childhood? You let them make-believe that they are a monster. But sooner or later, the mask must come off… Ellie Marsden was born into the legendary Lovinger acting dynasty. Granddaughter of the infamous Lottie Lovinger, as a child Ellie shared the silver screen with Lottie in her one-and-only role playing the child monster in a cult horror movie. The experience left Ellie deeply traumatised and estranged from people she loved. Now seventeen, Ellie has returned home to Hobart for the first time in years. Lottie is dying and Ellie wants to make peace with her before it’s too late. But forgiveness feels like playing make-believe, and memories are like ghosts. When a chance encounter with a young film buff leads her to a feminist horror film collective, Ellie meets Riya, a girl who she might be able to show her real self to, and last comes to understand her family’s legacy – and her own part in it. A story of love, loss, family and film – a stirring, insightful novel about letting go of anger and learning to forgive without forgetting. And about embracing the things that scare us, in order to be braver.

The Year the Maps Changed

Best Suited 11+ Years
When a group of Kosovar-Albanian refugees are brought to a government ‘safe haven’ not far from Sorrento, their fate becomes intertwined with the lives of Fred and her family in ways that no one could have expected. A middle-grade coming-of-age story inspired by true events about the bonds of family, the weight of grief and the power of compassion.

Begin, End, Begin: A #LoveOzYA Anthology

Best Suited for ages 14+ years
With brilliantly entertaining short stories from beloved young adult authors Amie Kaufman, Melissa Keil, Will Kostakis, Ellie Marney, Jaclyn Moriarty, Michael Pryor, Alice Pung, Gabrielle Tozer, Lili Wilkinson and Danielle Binks, this all-new collection will show the world exactly how much there is to love about Aussie YA.

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