Books for young and not so young people!

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It’s a BOOK TRAILER BONANZA!

Check out my latest releases!
WOLLEMI: SAVING A DINOSAUR TREE (Oct 2023)
WHEN GRANDMA BURNT HER BRA (Sept 2023)
CLOUDSPOTTING (March 2023)
THE HAPPINESS JAR (February 2023)

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Here’s some snaps I have taken along the way!

Some happy snaps over my 30-year career as a writer.
The journey is the real reward, not the destination!

A sample of reviews over the years….

This year’s winner (The Happiness Jar) is a compelling story about awakening and renewal. Written in a beautiful and direct style, its journey of transformation takes us from the Australian city, to remote country, to the crowded streets of India. Its characters are wonderfully and vividly drawn: raw and never sentimental. Through their experiences, Samantha Tidy prompts us to reexamine our understandings of grief, legacy, honesty and family. The Happiness Jar is a powerfully constructed and at times surprising work: a thread that runs back and forth in time between different cultures, places and points-of-view. Above all, it is a satisfying, original and engaging novel with a unique perspective, and a worthy winner in 2014.
— Judges Comments, ACT Writing and Publishing Award for Fiction 2014
So far I have four favourite books this year.....Delicious, The Light Between Oceans, And the Mountains Echoed and The Language of Flowers....however The Happiness Jar is now my number one “recommend”......read it....the story, the characters and the message are unforgettable....thx Samantha
— Jennifer V Kennett, Amazon.com.au
When fiction and non-fiction come together in perfect harmony, something magical happens... With poignant and pared back text, much of the story is told through the beautiful illustrations that are filled to the brim with the most amazing details of the time.

This is definitely a book to take your time with. There is so much to look at, so much to discuss. And at the heart of it is a true story about a grand vision for a city and what it took to see it turned into reality. Schools and classrooms will love this story. It’s entertaining and interesting, and it will teach kids about a remarkable period in Australian history.

But it’s also a book for homes. It’s a lovely tale to read with your kids, to show them that big dreams can come true, and the evidence is one of Australia’s most iconic structures.

Beautifully written and illustrated, this is a special picture book about a very special bridge.
— Shay Wardrop, Kids' Book Review
A fantastic book for home libraries, wherever you live.
— Sarah Steed, Kids' Book Review
Samantha Tidy is a writer of deep sensitivity, always engaged in finding ways to bring us together and celebrate our goodness as human beings. Her previous works speak loudly of this and Our Bush Capital shows us, the residents of Canberra, in a human light. We crave to be seen as community, not as an adjunct of federal parliament, and this book surely and deftly does this.
— Barbie Robinson, Living Arts Canberra
Samantha Tidy and Fiona Burrows take the creation of a national icon, the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and strip it back to a streamlined, succinct story of a need, an idea in 1890, and ultimately, in 1932, a reality....The story is one of hopes, dreams, stamina, and celebration, but is told in concise statements... A subtle nonverbal sub-story (reminiscent of Jeannie Baker’s Belonging and Window).
— Books + Publishing
This is one of the best Australian novels related to what Tidy calls the “war nobody would talk about.” Tidy does a marvelous job creating and bringing alive the alien world of Australia for this American reader. Her prose is so evocative I could feel the ever-present flies crawling on my eyes and ears as I read the book. I highly recommend this book to those who know little or nothing of Australia’s contribution to what we imprecisely call the American War in Vietnam.
— Vietnam Veteran's Magazine of America

I acknowledge the Ngunnawal country on which I write and live. I pay my respects to elders, past, present and emerging. I walk a path of respect, reconciliation and learning.