Jennifer June Rowe, (born 4 April 1948), is an Australian author. Her

crime fiction Crime fiction, detective story, murder mystery, mystery novel, and police novel are terms used to describe narratives that centre on criminal acts and especially on the investigation, either by an amateur or a professional detective, of a crime, ...

for adults is published under her own name, while her

children's fiction Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. Modern children's literature is classified in two different ways: genre or the intended age of the reader. Children's ...

is published under the pseudonyms Emily Rodda and Mary-Anne Dickinson. She is well known for the children's fantasy series '' Deltora Quest'', '' Rowan of Rin'', '' Fairy Realm'', ''

Teen Power Inc. {{Unreferenced, date=December 2009 ''Teen Power Inc.'', now known as ''Raven Hill Mysteries'' is a book series, series of books created by notable Australian author Jennifer Rowe, Emily Rodda, even though many of the books are actually penned by ot ...

'', the Rondo (series), ''Rondo'' trilogy and ''The Three Doors'' trilogy, and her latest ''His Name Was Walter''.

Biography

Jennifer Rowe was born in Sydney, New South Wales, on 2 April 1948, and raised with two younger brothers in Sydney's North Shore (Sydney), North Shore. Her father was Jim Oswin, the founding general manager of ATN7 in Sydney, and was responsible for classic 1960s TV shows such as ''My Name's McGooley, What's Yours?'' and ''The Mavis Bramston Show''. She attended the Abbotsleigh, Abbotsleigh School for Girls on the Upper North Shore (Sydney), Upper North Shore of Sydney. She attained her Masters of Arts in English Literature at the University of Sydney in 1973. Her first job was assistant editor at Paul Hamlyn publishing. She later worked at Angus and Robertson Publishers, where she remained for fourteen years as editor, senior editor, managing director, deputy publisher and finally publisher. During this time she began writing children's books under the pseudonym Emily Rodda (her grandmother's name). Her first book, ''Something Special'', was published in 1984 and won the Australian Children's Book Council Book of the Year for Younger Readers Award. She went on to win that award a record six times.Biography
at EmilyRodda.com From 1984 to 1992, Rowe continued her career in publishing, then as editor of the ''Australian Women's Weekly'' while writing novels in her 'spare time'. In 1994 Rowe became a full-time writer. She now divides her working day between consultancies for book publishers and her own writing. She lives in the Blue Mountains (Australia), Blue Mountains in New South Wales with her husband Bob Ryan and her four children. She enjoys reading murder mystery novels, which have inspired her to add mysterious plots and hidden clues to her works. Rowe's Verity Birdwood Murder mystery, murder mysteries for adults, written under her own name are: ''Grim Pickings'' (1988) (made into Grim Pickings, an Australian TV mini-series), ''Murder by the Book'', ''Death in Store'', ''The Makeover Murders'', ''Stranglehold'', and ''Lamb to the Slaughter''. Later she also wrote about Homicide Detective Tessa Vance in ''Suspect'' (also published as ''Deadline'') and ''Something Wicked'', and both books were incorporated as episode story lines in the Australian TV-show ''Murder Call''. Rowe also edited a collection of crime stories ''Love Lies Bleeding'' and contributed to the 1997 "Crimes for Summer" collection, ''Moonlight Becomes You''.

Emily Rodda

The most notable of her children's works, authored under the pseudonym Emily Rodda, are the series Deltora Quest (series), ''Deltora Quest'', ''

'', '' Fairy Realm'', ''Star of Deltora'' and Rowan of Rin (series), ''Rowan of Rin''. The pseudonym is based on her grandmother's name. The ''Deltora Quest'' series has been published in Australia, New Zealand, the United States, Canada, Japan, Italy, Brazil, China, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Indonesia, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey and the United Kingdom, with total worldwide sales across all books in excess of 18 million.Scholastic Australian News
at Scholastic.com.au A Deltora Quest (anime), ''Deltora Quest'' anime series was broadcast on Japanese television in early 2007. Among her other successful novels is the 1990 science fiction novel ''Finders Keepers (Rodda novel), Finders Keepers'', which was made into a television series called ''The Finder (Australian TV series), The Finder'', and the ''Teen Power Inc.'' series (re-published as ''The Raven Hill Mysteries''), a mystery series involving six teenagers. Both of these are written for young adults. Rodda's ''Star of Deltora'' series is set in the same world as ''Deltora Quest'', ''The Three Doors'' and ''Rowan of Rin'', and focuses on a girl, Britta, who wants to be a trader like her father and sail the nine seas. The first book, ''Shadows of the Master'', was released on 1 August 2015, the second book, ''Two Moons'', on 1 November 2015, the third book, ''The Towers of Illica'', on 1 April 2016, and the fourth and final book, ''The Hungry Isle'', on 1 September 2016. Rodda has written two children's fantasy novels released by HarperCollins Australia: ''The Shop at Hooper's Bend'' was released on 7 August 2017, and ''His Name Was Walter'' was released on 27 July 2018.

Awards

* 1985 – Children's Book of the Year Award: Younger Readers, Children's Book Council of Australia (CBCA): Junior Book of the Year – ''Something Special'' * 1987 – CBCA: Junior Book of the Year – ''Pigs Might Fly'' * 1989 – Children's Book of the Year Award: Younger Readers, CBCA: Book of the Year for Younger Readers – ''The Best-Kept Secret'' * 1991 – CBCA: Book of the Year for Younger Readers – ''Finders Keepers'' * 1994 – CBCA: Book of the Year for Younger Readers – '' Rowan of Rin'' * 1995 – The Dromkeen Medal * 1997 – CBCA: Honour Book for Younger Readers – ''Rowan and the Keeper of the Crystal'' * 1999 – Dymock's Children's Choice Awards: Favourite Australian Younger Reader Book – '' Rowan of Rin'' Series * 2000 – COOL Award Winners, COOL Awards Fiction for Younger Readers Award for ''Bob The Builder and the Elves'' * 2003 – YABBA award (VIC children's choice) – ''Deltora Quest 2'' * 2002 – KOALA award (NSW children's choice) – ''Deltora Quest'' series * 2002 – Aurealis Awards: Peter McNamara Convenors' Award – Deltora Quest (series), ''Deltora Quest'' series * 2002 – WA Young Reader's Book Awards: Most Popular Book – ''Deltora Quest – The Forests of Silence'' * 2003 – COOL Awards Fiction for Younger Readers Award for the ''Deltora Quest 2'' series * 2004 – COOL Awards Fiction for Younger Readers Award for the ''Deltora Quest 3'' series * 2008 – Aurealis Awards Best Children's Novel for ''The Wizard of Rondo'' * 2012 – Children's Book of the Year Award: Younger Readers, honour, for ''The Golden Door'' * 2013 – List of CBCA Awards, KOALA Award Fiction for young readers, winner, for ''The Golden Door'' * 2014 – KOALA Award Fiction for young readers, honour, for ''The Third Door'' * 2018 – The Goodest Prize – ''The Shop at Hoopers Bend'' * 2019 – Companion of the Order of Australia for services to literature * 2019 – CBCA: Book of the Year for Younger Readers – ''His Name Was Walter'' * 2019 – Prime Minister's Literary Awards, Prime Minister's Literary Award for Children's literature – ''His Name Was Walter''

Select bibliography

Fiction as Jennifer Rowe

*''Verity Birdwood'' series (1987–1995) *''Murder Call, Tessa Vance'' series (1998) *''Angela's Mandrake & Other Feisty Fables'' (2000) [published in the UK as ''Fairy Tales for Grown-Ups'' (2002)]

Fiction edited as Jennifer Rowe

*''Love Lies Bleeding'' (Allen & Unwin, 1994), anthology of crime short fiction

Non-fiction as Jennifer Rowe

*''The Commonsense International Cookery Book'' (1978) *''The Best of Women's Weekly Craft'' (Ed. Jennifer Rowe, 1989)

Novels as Emily Rodda

*''Something Special'' (1984) *''Pigs might Fly'' (1986) (also published as ''The Pigs are flying'') *''The Best-kept Secret'' (1988) *''Finders Keepers (Rodda novel), Finders Keepers'' (1990) and sequel ''The Timekeeper'' (1992) *''

'' series (1994–1999) (re-published as ''The Raven Hill Mysteries'' 2006) *'' Fairy Realm'' series (1994–2006) (also published as the ''Fairy Charm'' series) *'' Rowan of Rin'' series (1993–2003) *''The Julia Tapes'' (1999) *'' Deltora Quest'' series (2000-2009) (3 series plus supplementary works. Includes titles also published as ''Deltora Shadowlands'' and ''Dragons of Deltora'') *''Dog Tales'' (2001) *''Squeak Street'' series (2005) *''Rondo (series), Rondo'' trilogy (2007–2009) *''The Three Doors'' trilogy (2011–2012) *''Star of Deltora'' series (2015–2016) *''The Shop at Hoopers Bend'' (2017) *''His Name Was Walter'' (2018)

"Early Readers" books as Emily Rodda

*''Bob the Builder and the Elves'', illustrated by Craig Smith (1998) (re-published as ''Bob and the House Elves'') *''Fuzz the Famous Fly'', illustrated by Tom Jellet (1999) *''Gobbleguts'', illustrated by Stephen Axelsen (2000) *''Bungawitta'', illustrated by Craig Smith (2011)

Picture Storybooks as Emily Rodda

*''Power and Glory'', illustrated by Geoff Kelly (1994) *''Yay!'', illustrated by Craig Smith (1996) *''Game Plan'', illustrated by Craig Smith (1998) *''Green Fingers'', illustrated by Craig Smith (1998) *''Where Do You Hide Two Elephants?'', illustrated by Andrew Mclean (1998) *''The Long Way Home'', illustrated by Danny Snell (2001)

Film and television

*''Grim Pickings'', television mini series (1989), based on a novel and scripted by Peter Gawler and Graeme Koetsveld. *''The Finder (Australian TV series), Finders Keepers'', children's television series (1991–1992) *''Blue Heelers'', television police drama (1996) *''Murder Call'', television drama (56 episodes, 1997 – 2000) writer and creative consultant *Deltora Quest (anime), ''Deltora Quest'' anime series for Japanese television (2007)