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A. J. Betts A. J. Betts i(A117032 works by) (a.k.a. Amanda Betts)
Born: Established: 1975 Bundaberg, Bundaberg area, Maryborough - Rockhampton area, Queensland, ;
Gender: Female
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BiographyHistory

A. J. Betts is an Australian young adult author. Originally from Queensland, A.J. Betts relocated to Perth in 2004, and in 2019 is based near Fremantle.

In addition to being a writer, Betts is an English teacher of school aged children confined to cancer wards in hospitals. This experience influenced her award-winning novel Zac and Mia, which has been adapted for television in the United States.

Betts book Hive has also been shortlisted for multiple awards including the Inkys, ABIA, and the Queensland Literary Awards.

Betts completed her a PhD on 'wonder' in life and fiction from Edith Cowan University in 2019, and in 2018, won the Western Australian Premier's Fellowship. 

Exhibitions

Most Referenced Works

Awards for Works

y separately published work icon Rogue Sydney : Pan Macmillan Australia , 2019 16432095 2019 single work novel young adult

'There was no going back; there was no choice, anymore. I'd chosen out and this was it: hot-cold, dry-wet, bright-dark and lonely.

'Hayley has gone rogue.

'She's left everything she's ever known - her friends, her bees, her whole world - all because her curiosity was too big to fit within the walls of the underwater home she was forced to flee.

'But what is this new world she's come to? Has Hayley finally found where she can belong?

'Or will she have to keep running?'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

2020 shortlisted APA Book Design Awards Best Designed Children's and Young Adult Series for 'Hive' and 'Rogue'. Designed by Astred Hicks, Design Cherry.
y separately published work icon Hive Sydney : Pan Macmillan Australia , 2018 13724645 2018 single work novel young adult

'All I can tell you is what I remember, in the words that I have.

Hayley tends to her bees and follows the rules in the only world she has ever known.

Until she witnesses the impossible: a drip from the ceiling.

A drip? It doesn't make sense.

Yet she hears it, catches it. Tastes it.

Curiosity is a hook.

What starts as a drip leads to a lie, a death, a boy, a beast, and too many awful questions.' (Source: Publisher's blurb)

2021 shortlisted West Australian Young Readers' Book Award Older Readers
2019 shortlisted Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA) Australian Book of the Year for Older Children
2019 shortlisted Inky Awards Gold Inky
2019 CBCA Book of the Year Awards Notable Book
2019 shortlisted Indie Awards Young Adult
y separately published work icon Zac and Mia Melbourne : Text Publishing , 2013 6106145 2013 single work novel young adult (taught in 1 units)

'The last person Zac expects in the room next door is a girl like Mia, angry and feisty with questionable taste in music. In the real world he wouldn't--couldn't--be friends with her.

'But in hospital different rules apply, and what begins as a knock on the wall leads to a note--then a friendship neither of them sees coming.

'You need courage to be in hospital; different courage to be back in the real world. 
In one of these worlds Zac needs Mia. And in the other Mia needs Zac.

'Or maybe they both need each other, always.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

2015 shortlisted West Australian Young Readers' Book Award Older Readers
2014 shortlisted Queensland Literary Awards Young Adult Book Award
2014 winner APA Book Design Awards Best Designed Young Adult Book
2014 winner New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards Ethel Turner Prize for Young People's Literature
2014 longlisted Inky Awards Gold Inky
2012 winner Text Prize for Young Adult and Children’s Writing Won for the original manuscript.
2014 winner Crystal Kite Award Australian and New Zealand Division
2014 winner Crystal Kite Award Crystal Kite Member's Choice Award Crystal Kite Award
Last amended 6 Sep 2019 08:09:07
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