Highly Commended – Children’s books

The Book of Chance

Author:  Sue Whiting

Publisher: Walker Books

The Book of Chance by Sue Whiting is a fictional retelling of a true crime that was committed in 1998 and solved in 2017 for readers aged about 10-14 years. It begins in the present with Chance Callahan at Wollongong Police Station after discovering that her life is a lie. The structurally arresting narrative that builds tension and suspense through a ticking clock countdown and cliff-hangers, then cuts to thirty-seven days earlier when a knock at the door precipitates the collapse of Chance’s family life. These events are echoed by her Mama’s journal, the other ‘Book of the Chance’, which seems to tell the truth but is it the whole truth?

https://www.walkerbooks.com.au/books/The-Book-Of-Chance-9781760651367