''Syd Sixpence'' is a 1982

children's book 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 ...

by Australian author

Joan Lindsay Joan à Beckett Weigall, Lady Lindsay (16 November 189623 December 1984) was an Australian novelist, playwright, essayist, and visual artist. Trained in her youth as a painter, she published her first literary work in 1936 at age forty under a ...

, featuring illustrations by

Rick Amor Rick Amor (born 3 March 1948 ) is an Australian artist and figurative painter. He was an Official War Artist for Australia. Life and work Rick Amor was born in Frankston, Victoria, Australia. He has a certificate in art from the Caulfield I ...

. Its plot follows an

anthropomorphic Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology. Personification is the related attribution of human form and characteristics t ...

sixpence coin who is thrown into the ocean, and his subsequent adventures on the ocean floor. It was Lindsay's last published work before her death in 1984, and her only work of children's literature.

Plot

The narrative follows Syd, an

Australian sixpence, who finds himself on the ocean floor. The book details his search for his friend, Tramline. While in the ocean, Syd meets a family of winkles who subsist on seaweed, encounters a fish who is a

magician Magician or The Magician may refer to: Performers * A practitioner of magic (supernatural) * A practitioner of magic (illusion) * Magician (fantasy), a character in a fictional fantasy context Entertainment Books * ''The Magician'', an 18th-ce ...

, and a performing octopus who kidnaps Syd and forces him into a performing

circus A circus is a company of performers who put on diverse entertainment shows that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, dancers, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, magicians, ventriloquists, and unicyclist ...

, from which Syd must plot an escape.

Release

The book was published in Australia by Kestrel in 1982, and was published again in November 1985 by

Penguin Penguins (order (biology), order List of Sphenisciformes by population, Sphenisciformes , family (biology), family Spheniscidae ) are a group of Water bird, aquatic flightless birds. They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere: on ...

Puffin Puffins are any of three species of small alcids (auks) in the bird genus ''Fratercula''. These are pelagic seabirds that feed primarily by diving in the water. They breed in large colonies on coastal cliffs or offshore islands, nesting in crev ...

Storybook Series.

References

1982 Australian novels 1982 children's books Australian children's novels Novels by Joan Lindsay {{child-book-stub