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Deborah Frenkel
Prep-Grade 4
Victoria

Deborah is a writer of books, billboards, and the words on the back of cereal boxes, which to date is probably her most widely read work (and certainly the most crunchy). Her picture books include the award-winning Naturopolis (2022) and The Sydney Harbour Fairy (2023), as well as forthcoming 2024 titles The Truck Cat and 100 School Days. She’s based on Bunurong land, in Melbourne’s Inner West, but spends most of the time hanging out in her imagination.

Books by Deborah Frenkel

The Truck Cat

Best Suited 3-7 Years
The Truck Cat 
is a story about cats and humans, immigration and identity, and homes lost and found.

Some cats are house cats. Some are apartment cats.
But Tinka is a truck cat. Tinka lives everywhere.

Along with his human, Yacoub, Tinka travels roads wide and narrow, near and distant. But no matter how much they travel, home feels very far away – for both of them.

Yacoub drives his truck to make a living, learning the landscape of a new country along the way, and longing for connection. When Tinka and Yacoub are unexpectedly separated, they are determined to find their way back to each other – and, in doing so, might find more than they expected …

The Sydney Harbour Fairy

Best Suited 3-7 Years
Nanna is taking Charlie for a Girls’ Day Out. They’ll have high tea, watch the ballet, smell flowers and visit the Sydney Harbour Fairy.

Charlie does not like the sound of a Girls’ Day Out. And she especially hates fairies.
But the Harbour Fairy isn’t what Charlie expected, and her Girls’ Day Out with Nanna just got so much better.

A sparkling ode to imagination, grandmothers and finding magic in unlikely places.

Naturopolis

Best Suited 4+ Years
Look closer, look with care and you may find a forest…. Among the steel and stone canyons of the city, nature flourishes in tiny, tenacious ways. Follow the ant (Iridomyrmex purpureus) to discover the scraps of wilderness hiding in plain sight in this lyrical celebration of urban flora and fauna. Naturopolis is a wonderful acknowledgement of the unseen, and the world that awaits the viewer, eager to connect with nature. You don’t have to go far to find what is waiting for us beneath our feet.

100 School Days

Best Suited 3-7 Years
When you start school, there are a lot of firsts. Your first friend! Your first excursion! Your first sports day! As the days go by, all those firsts add up … and soon you’ve reached 100 days of school. And once you’ve reached this milestone, you know you can reach for absolutely anything.

Celebrate 100 days of school and look forward to an infinity of milestones to come!

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