Thunderwith

A powerful novel about hope and the human spirit’s ability to finally win through. - Courier Mail, Brisbane

Hathorn deftly injects a sense of wonderment into this intense, very real story. Readers cannot help but be swept up on the action and emotion. - American Publishers Weekly

A believable plot featuring a shattering climax and a satisfyingly realistic resolution. - Horn Book

… a powerful book with complex characters and a strong story. - West Australian

The parallels between the restorative powers of fantasy are juxtaposed against the cleansing, recuperative power of nature; the symbolic strength to be found in nature is as much to be observe in Libby Hathorn’s imagery as is the concomitant power of the imagination. - Children’s Book Council of Australia

A rich absorbing novel, the author sweeps readers into a tumult of emotions with her teenage protagonist… Rarely do the sensibilities of an adult character emerge so vividly in a young adult novel. Aboriginal stories fleck the narrative, and vivid descriptions of the environment …add flavour to the book. but ultimately it is the strong characters and the universal problems of adjustment that will tug young adults into the memorable world of Thunderwith. - Quadrant

…a captivating poignant story. - School Library Journal, United States

…a beautifully sensitive story… Hathorn has shown an outstanding empathy for teen age readers. - Canberra Times

Libby Hathorn is an award-winning author and poet of more than eighty books for children, young adults, and adult readers. Her recent picture book No! Never!, written with her daughter Lisa Hathorn-Jarman, won the CBCA Children’s Picture Book of the Year Award, Younger Readers, 2021. Translated into several languages and adapted for both stage and screen, her work has won honours in Australia, the United States, Great Britain and Holland. She is the recipient of the ABIA Pixie O’Harris Award, 2022, and the Lady Cutler Award, 2020, for distinguished services to Australian children’s literature. In 2014 she won The Alice Award, a national award given to ‘a woman who has made a distinguished and long term contribution to Australian literature’. In 2017 she won the Asher Award, a peace prize, for A Soldier, a Dog and a Boy.

Libby is a keen educator who has lectured part-time at Sydney University and is devoted to being an ambassador for poetry anywhere and everywhere. She has been a National Ambassador for Reading and often acts as a judge for various literary prizes, including the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards.