Esteemed Canberra children’s author Tracey Hawkins’ new book, The Riddle of Tanglewood Manor, couldn’t have been released at a more relevant time, such is the subject matter.

A middle-grade novel for children aged eight to 13, in it, two young brothers travel in time from the present day to 1919; the end of World War One as the Spanish Flu arrived in Australia.

Book one in a planned trilogy, Hawkins described the work as a “time-warp story for kids” that blends adventure, mystery, and a few laughs and scares along the way.

It contains an educational element by including some Australian history.

Having started writing prior to COVID-19, Hawkins told Canberra Daily she didn’t set out to write a book about pandemics.

“I went back and looked at it and had a lot of moments I wrote in it that lent itself to the boys being not well in their travel times,” she said.

“I just started to think that possibly it lent itself more to maybe a touch of the Spanish flu.”

Since then, Tanglewood Manor has evolved to include COVID-19, used in parallel with the Spanish Flu. In doing so, Hawkins has tapped into the zeitgeist without timestamping it.

“I think a lot of people know a little about it (the Spanish Flu), but don’t realise it was really quite a devastating pandemic.”

Hawkins put ‘hours of research’ into 1919

The author invested many hours researching Australia’s Spanish Flu outbreak, and life at the time more broadly, to ensure factual accuracy.

“People think writing a children’s book is pretty simple, but it’s not,” she said, “It’s been lots of fun with lots of looking at historical times.

“I didn’t live in 1919, so I’ve got to go back and check things … You’ve got to have your facts correct because you’ve always got to do teachers’ notes to accompany any book.”

Hawkins began writing children’s literature around 20 years ago. Having worked as a teacher and a policewoman, she quit the force after the birth of her first child.

Now an award-winning children’s author published nationally and internationally, Hawkins found her passion for storytelling while making up bedtime stories for her kids.

From there, she took a course in creative writing for children, where her talent was so apparent that her teacher encouraged her to submit work to publishers. That led to her first picture book, Max Meets a Monster, being published.

A launch event for The Riddle of Tanglewood Manor will be held at The Book Cow in Kingston on Saturday 29 January 3pm. Bookings via Eventbrite.

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