Duncan Ball | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | February 1941 (age 80) Boston, Massachusetts |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Genre | Children's literature |
| Notable works | Selby series |
| Spouse | Jill |
| Children | 2 |
| Website | |
| www | |
Duncan Ball (born February 1941) is an American-born Australian author who has written the children's series Selby (about a talking dog named Selby who tries to keep his secret away from his owners) and Emily Eyefinger (about a girl who has an eye on her finger).
Duncan was born in February 1941 in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, and was one of three children. When he was four, his family moved to Alaska, where he went to primary school. In his teens, Duncan moved to Madrid, Spain where he learned to speak Spanish. He finished high school in the United States, studied at Northeastern University and, later, at the University of Paris (Sorbonne). He has a degree in Mathematics from Boston University.
Ball moved to Sydney in 1974 and worked as an industrial chemist. He wrote a novel for adults and later changed jobs to editor of the School Magazine at the Department of Education of New South Wales. He continued to work there for a few years, then resigned to become a full-time author, a profession which he continues today. [1] Also for a few years he worked part-time for the South Australian Film Corporation looking for literary works to be adapted for film and television.
Duncan has written about eighty-five books, all but one of them are children's books, as well as plays and television scripts. His second children's book was Selby's Secret , which was published 6 March 1985. It is about a dog named Selby, who learned to talk while watching TV and struggles to keep his ability a secret (he must do this so his owners, the Trifles, do not put him to work around the house). Since this first book, 15 collections of the adventures of Selby have been published, as well as Selby's Selection and The Joke's on Selby, both featuring Selby's best antics, and two joke books.
In 1997, Duncan wrote the first Emily Eyefinger book, which is about a girl named Emily who has an eye on the end of her finger. Ten books have been published in this series. Duncan has also written the Piggott books, featuring the antics of a timid and thoughtful boy, Bert Piggott, and his good friend and child actress, Antigone Attwood. Duncan also wrote some picture books including "Jeremy's Tail" (illustrated by Donna Rawlins) and "My Dog's a Scaredy Cat" (illustrated by Craig Smith.
His latest book is a book of funny poems called "My Sister Has a Big Black Beard".
Ball's wife Jill is a musician and a librarian. Duncan has two adult sons, Eliot and Ian, by his first wife, Vivian, and three grandsons.
The Ghost and... books:
The Case of... books:
Illustrated by Allan Stomann
Collected volumes:
Illustrated by Craig Smith
Collected volumes:
Books co-written as John St Claire [2] with Emily Rodda as the Teen Power series in Australia and Raven Hill Mysteries in the UK:
Scholastic Corporation is an American multinational publishing, education and media company that publishes and distributes comics, books and educational materials for schools, parents, and children. Products are distributed via retail and online sales and through schools via reading clubs and book fairs.
Moses "Morris" Lurie was an Australian writer of comic novels, short stories, essays, plays, and children's books. His work focused on the comic mishaps of Jewish-Australian men of Lurie's generation, who are invariably jazz fans.
Jennifer June Rowe,, is an Australian author. Her crime fiction for adults is published under her own name, while her children's fiction 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., the Rondo trilogy and The Three Doors trilogy, and her latest His Name Was Walter.
Deltora Quest is the collective title for three distinct series of children's fantasy books, written by Australian author Emily Rodda. It follows the adventures of three companions as they journey across the fictitious land of Deltora, endeavouring to recover the seven gems stolen from the magical Belt of Deltora and defeat allies of the evil Shadow Lord. The series was first published in Australia in 2000, and has since been published in more than 30 countries. The series has sold over 18 million copies worldwide, including over 2 million in Australia. It is published by Scholastic in Australia and the United States. In most countries, the series is illustrated by Marc McBride.
Walter Dean Myers was an American writer of children's books best known for young adult literature. He was born in Martinsburg, West Virginia, but was raised in Harlem. A tough childhood led him to writing and his school teachers would encourage him in this habit as a way to express himself. He wrote more than one hundred books including picture books and nonfiction. He won the Coretta Scott King Award for African-American authors five times. His 1988 novel Fallen Angels is one of the books most frequently challenged in the U.S. because of its adult language and its realistic depiction of the Vietnam War.
Paul Collins is an Australian writer and editor who specializes in science fiction and fantasy.
Selby's Secret is the first children's novel in the Selby series by Australian writer Duncan Ball, and was first published in 1985. It was reissued in 2004.
Allan Stomann is an Australian cartoonist and illustrator. He is best known for illustrating children's books, notably the long-running and award-winning Selby the Talking Dog series by author Duncan Ball. His work reached a wide audience through the popular children's school songbooks published by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in the 1970s and 1980s, and cartoons in the Australian Women's Weekly in the early 1980s.
Marilyn Singer is an author of children's books in a wide variety of genres, including fiction and non-fiction picture books, juvenile novels and mysteries, young adult fantasies, and poetry.
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The Federation of Children's Book Groups Children's Book Award is a set of annual literary prizes for children's books published in the U.K. during the preceding calendar year. It recognises one "Overall" winner and one book in each of three categories: Books for Younger Children, Books for Younger Readers, and Books for Older Readers. The selections are made entirely by children, which is unique among British literary awards. It was previously known as the Red House Children's Book Award.
The Indies Choice Book Award is an American literary award that was inaugurated at BookExpo America 2000. The American Booksellers Association (ABA) rededicated the award in recognition of a new era in bookselling, as well as the important role the Book Sense Picks List has played for independent booksellers in discovering and spreading the word about books of quality to all stores, and readers, nationwide. Throughout the year, Book Sense independent booksellers from across the country nominate for inclusion in the monthly Book Sense Picks the books that they most enjoyed hand-selling to their customers. The books on each list represent a combined national and local staff pick selection of booksellers' favorites from more than 1,200 independent bookstores with Book Sense.
Keith Leopold was an Australian author of English, French and German language adventure novels for children and young adults, and German Language Reference books. He was born in East Maitland, New South Wales in 1920 and died in 1999.
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Emily Eyefinger is a series of children's books written by Duncan Ball and illustrated by Craig Smith. They are about a girl who was born with an eye on the end of her finger.
Jen Storer is an Australian children's author. Many of her works have been short-listed for major Australian awards such as, the Prime Minister's Literary Awards, the Children's Book Council of Australia Book of the Year and the Aurealis Awards. Her works feature strong female characters, humour, adventure and, occasionally, elements of horror.
Jahnna N. Malcolm is the pen name of Jahnna Beecham, born March 30, 1953 in Wichita, Kansas, and Malcolm Hillgartner, born February 4, 1952 in Indianapolis, Indiana. They are American authors of over 130 works of juvenile and young adult fiction, most notably the series "The Jewel Kingdom", and "Bad News Ballet". They also wrote the best-selling juvenile horror books "Scared Stiff" and "Scared to Death". They have won several awards including a Parent's Choice award. Their books have been translated into French, Italian, Indonesian, Polish, Spanish and Norwegian.
Pauline Cartwright is a writer of novels, picture books, stories and poems for children. She was awarded the Choysa Bursary in 1991 and the University of Otago College of Education / Creative New Zealand Children's Writer in Residence Fellowship in 2003. She lives in Alexandra, New Zealand.
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