Other Brother Page 16

  In his hand, he held what looked like a photo, but I realised it was a postcard. The front showed a beach landscape of pale sand and dry green hills behind the shape of a distant lighthouse. Bon smiled warmly and turned the postcard over.

  Bon’s name and Nan’s address were in large penned letters on the back. Next to it was a written note – a girl’s handwriting, with j’s that looped like number threes and a’s and e’s that curled at the ends.

  Dear Bon and Kieran, it began. As Bon handed it to me, he leaned against me a little, the way he did with Nan and Mum.

  Slowly, I took the postcard from his hand and began reading.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Simon French was born in Sydney in 1957 and grew up in the outer-western suburbs. He was encouraged to read from an early age, and along the way discovered that he liked to write as well.

  Simon’s first novel was written in the back of school exercise books, usually during class time, and was published when he was 17, just before he completed his final exams. Since then, his novels and picture books have won several awards and have been published around the world. Change the Locks was the Children’s Book Council of Australia’s Honour Book, Book of the Year: Older Readers in 1992, and Cannily, Cannily was Commended in the Children’s Book Council of Australia Awards in 1982. His novel Where in the World won a New South Wales Premier’s Literary Award in 2004.

  He spent several years as a child welfare worker and has been a teacher in rural New South Wales, Sydney and the Hawkesbury region, where he now lives.

  Other Brother is drawn in part from Simon’s experiences working with children and witnessing their friendships and interactions, as well as the diversity and complexity of family life.

  Simon is married to children’s book illustrator Donna Rawlins. They have a young son, Quinn Wen Tian.

  First published in 2012

  by Walker Books Australia Pty Ltd

  Locked Bag 22, Newtown

  NSW 2042 Australia

  www.walkerbooks.com.au

  This ebook edition published in 2013

  The moral right of the author has been asserted.

  Text © 2012 Simon French

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means – electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise – without the prior written permission of the publisher.

  National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry:

  French, Simon, 1957– author.

  Other brother / Simon French.

  For children.

  A823.3

  Subjects: Cousins — Juvenile fiction.

  Children of divorced parents — Juvenile fiction.

  Schools — Juvenile fiction.

  Friendship — Juvenile fiction.

  Families — Juvenile fiction.

  ISBN: 978-1-922077-97-4 (ePub)

  ISBN: 978-1-922244-32-1 (e-PDF)

  ISBN: 978-1-922244-33-8 (.PRC)

  Cover image © iStockphoto.com/Janice Richard

  For Quinn Wen Tian