UQP acquires a new middle-grade novel from award-winning author Shivaun Plozza
UQP is thrilled to announce that we’ve acquired ANZ rights for a new middle-grade work by award-winning author Shivaun Plozza.
Meet Me at the Moon Tree is the story of one girl searching for a way to connect with her dad. He was a science teacher who taught ten-year-old Carina about moon trees – special trees planted from seeds that had taken a trip around the moon before being planted on Earth – but now he’s gone and the family don’t know how to find their new equilibrium.
UQP Publisher Clair Hume says:
Moon trees form a captivating backdrop for this exquisite story about grief, mystery, science and magic. A pitch-perfect middle-grade novel – accomplished, unique and moving – Meet Me at the Moon Tree will sit comfortably beside the likes of Nova Weetman, Peter Carnavas and Zana Fraillon.
Shivaun Plozza says:
Writing Meet Me at the Moon Tree felt like coming home. Inspired by a childhood full of magical romps through the Otways forests, this story of science, grief and family sprung to life like it had been waiting to be written. I’m thrilled to be working with UQP and I hope Meet Me at the Moon Tree finds its way into the hands and hearts of many readers.
About the book
For ten-year-old Carina, there is nothing more magical than a moon tree – a tree grown from the seeds taken on the 1971 Apollo mission to the moon. Her father taught her everything she knows about them. Her father, who passed away before they had a chance to search for one together.
Since then, Carina’s family has been struggling to find a new equilibrium, each of them grieving in ways the others don’t understand. For Carina, her grief manifests as an all-consuming obsession with moon trees; so when Mum relocates the family to a small town in the Otways National Park, Carina becomes determined to find a moon tree in the forest behind her new house.
And she does. Believing that the moon tree’s magic will allow her to talk to her dad, she leaves a letter, telling him how much she misses him, asking his advice on how to keep her family from falling apart completely.
Then, one day, she receives a reply…
About Shivaun Plozza
Shivaun Plozza is an award-winning author of books for children and young adults from Geelong, Victoria. Her debut novel, Frankie, was a CBCA Notable Book and won a number of awards, including the Davitt Awards and a commendation from the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award. Her second novel, Tin Heart, sold in four foreign territories, received two starred reviews, and was nominated to ALA’S Best Fiction for Young Adults list. Her debut middle-grade novel, The Boy, the Wolf, and the Stars, was released in late 2020 in Australia and the US; a Russian edition will be released soon. A Reluctant Witch's Guide to Magic is forthcoming in July 2022 from Clarion Books and Penguin Random House Australia. She is a frequent contributor to anthologies, and when she is not writing she works as an editor and manuscript assessor.
Meet Me at the Moon Tree will be published in 2023.
For more information, please contact Louise Cornegé on louise.cornege@uqp.com.au or 07 3346 7932