Spotlight: ‘The Other Side of Dawn – John Marsden’
A few days ago I got an e-mail in my mailbox about John Marsden’s “The Other Side of Dawn”. I knew I’d heard the author’s name before but I couldn’t quite pinpoint where or when. Other some googling I found what I was looking for. John Marsden wrote the ‘Tomorrow’ series. I read these books when I was young and absolutely adored them. I devoured all seven of them and (as always with a good series) I wanted more! It seems like Quercus is re-releasing the books, so it’s a perfect time to get other teens/adults to read these books. The last book in the series “The Other Side of Dawn” will be re-released the 7th of November and I can’t recommend them enough.
You might also know the first book “Tomorrow When the War Began” as a movie (you can find the trailer at the bottom of the post).
About the author – John Marsden:
John Marsden was born in Victoria, Australia in 1950. He went to many different primary schools, and from an early age enjoyed the journeys into magical worlds that reading could provide. His teachers in Grade 4 and Grade 6 encouraged him to write, and at the age of nine he decided he wanted to become an author.
For seven years he attended The King’s School Parramatta, a strict military school in Sydney, and from there went on to the University of Sydney. However, he soon decided that a career in law looked too boring, so he dropped out and drifted around for nearly 10 years, trying different jobs, and earning just enough money to support himself.
When he was 28, he began a teaching course, which he loved from the start. Embarking on a teaching career, he also became more and more interested in writing, and in 1987 succeeded in getting his first book, “So Much to Tell You”, published. A string of huge hits followed, highlighted by the Tomorrow series and Ellie chronicles. John has now sold more than 2 1/2 million books in Australia alone, but is an international best-seller, with many major awards to his credit.
About ‘The Other Side of Dawn’:
The war is at a turning point. The enemy is growing weaker, and more desperate. And so is Ellie.
As the conflict intensifies around her, she is captured and separated from her friends.
Overwhelmed by all she has lost, Ellie wonders if she has the strength to survive the final conflict – and if she can live with the consequences of everything she has done.
About the Tomorrow series:
The Tomorrow series is a series of seven young adult invasion novels written by Australian writer John Marsden, detailing a high-intensity invasion and occupation of Australia by a foreign power. The novels are related from the first person perspective by Ellie Linton, a teenage girl, who is part of a small band of teenagers waging a guerrilla war on the enemy soldiers in the region around their fictional home town of Wirrawee. The name of the series is derived from the title of the first book, Tomorrow, When the War Began.
The books in the series were originally published from 1993–99, by Pan Macmillan and have been reprinted sixteen times. A sequel series, The Ellie Chronicles, was later published from 2003–06. The follow-up series concerns itself largely with the attempts of society and the protagonist to regain a normal level of functioning in the face of the psychological damage sustained during the war.
John’s interest in education has never waned. In 1998 he bought the Tye Estate, 850 acres of natural bush, on the northern edge of Melbourne, and later added the property next door. For eight years he ran enormously popular writers’ courses and camps at Tye, before starting his own school there, Candlebark, in 2006.
Candlebark is a P-8 school, which has been described by John as “somewhere between Steiner and The Simpsons”. Its friendly lively and positive atmosphere has resulted in such early success that it has a four-year waiting list.
Links:
Goodreads | Author’s Website | Buy the book
Trailer:
