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DAVID RISH

Tasmanian children's writer and dramatist

Published stories

Look for stories by David in :

Hybrid Publishers, 2008, 978-1-876462-57-4, RRP $22.95

Edited by Paul Collins with a foreword by Isobelle Carmody

Trust Me! Features 46 contributions by some of Australia’s best known children’s authors, poets and illustrators. Original stories, poems and art cross all genres: mystery, romance, crime, fantasy, SF, humour and more. Contributors include: David Rish, Andy Griffiths, Shaun Tan, Gary Crew, Phillip Gwynne, Catherine Bateson, Steven Herrick, Allan Baillie, Sofie Laguna, Leigh Hobbs, Marc McBride, James Roy, Mitch Vane, Michael Wagner, Kerry Greenwood, David Metzenthen and many others.

Cover illustration reproduced by permission of the publisher.

Tales from the Dark Side (Longman Spinouts, Sydney, 2002, 0733932428)

Fright Night (Longman Spinouts, Sydney, 2002, 073393241X)

Kid's night in! edited by Jessica Adams, Juliet Partridge and Nick Earls (Puffin, Camberwell, Vic., 2003)

Roberta the Robot in The New Useful Book: Songs and Ideas from ABC Play School (ABC Books, Sydney, 1995, 0733304230)
Also performed on Playschool.

Published books

Stars for Stewie (Pearson Education, Melbourne, May 2004, 0123507898, Awesome! 3 Series, $10.95)

Extraordinarily Ordinary

Ashton Scholastic, Sydney, 1998, 1863889892

This book is a comedy with lots of really groanable jokes, a cast of believable, likeable & humorous characters. In the story Jess and Simon attempt to save George from being sent to another school when his parents decide his work is not up to scratch. They do so by exploiting the possible psychic skills of their ultra-shy classmate, Emily Coat, to manipulate the world to their advantage. Of course things go terribly wrong and it looks as though they’ll fail in the quest to save George but then ... Well, I’m not going to tell you what happens, you’ll have to read the book to find out, ha-ha-ha!!!!

(Incidentally David studied parapsychology as part of his psychology degree but he has not made up his mind whether ESP is real or if it’s a load of old hokum. And, incidentally again, he had to eat many, many icy poles before deciding orange ones were the best ones to feature in his story. Sometimes research can be lots of fun!!!!)

Cover illustration reproduced by permission of the publisher.

Casey's Case small.jpg Casey's Case

Mimosa, Hawthorn, 1995, 0732715601

David’s first and so far only book for the educational market is a fast paced detective story. He invented a new word to describe it. 'Spience' is a portmanteau word from 'spy' and 'science', the main elements in his book. Quite a few students have told him on his various school visits that this is their favourite of all his books. He initially thought he might write a series of stories about a boy who - on moving into a new flat - discovers a series of old cases from a mysteriously disappeared private detective, the flat’s previous occupant. He hopes that another story he was planning from that series becomes another book to be called, publisher willing, No Laughing Matter.

Cover illustration reproduced by permission of the publisher.

Other books by David

Sadly David’s first six books (including the Family Award winning Mongrel below) all published by Harper Collins are no longer in print. If you want to read them you have to find them in your school or local library, but you can also pester the publisher and if enough requests come in they may reprint his early works.

Sophie's Island (Sydney, 1990, 0207167044) - A girl tries to come to terms with the death of her baby brother

Detective Paste (Sydney, 1991, 0207171742) - Dreamy Melissa Paste believes that the local toyshop proprietor has murdered his wife but no-one will believe her.

Portrait of Dog (Sydney, 1993, 0207175438) - A paint box in a junk shop leads Rob to an old house where a runaway girl, Dog, shows him how a slightly less careful life can be a much more rewarding life.

A dozen eggs (Sydney, 1993, 0207181063) - Rad and Annie are different, Rad because he doesn't care, Annie because her intelligence is going to take her out of her small town. On the day before starting Year Ten, Rad tells Annie that he is leaving school and that he is going to break each of the dozen eggs and then, when the final one is smashed, their relationship will be over. A moving love story.

Targett (Sydney, 1991, 0207185352) - When Gordon takes his stay-at-home sister up into the bush, she is scared out of her wits. Then an accident befalls him and Anne has to cope on her own.

Also available as an audio book (Royal Blind Society Audio Books, Audio ISBN 1863875174, Narrated by Tara Morice, 3 cassettes. Shortlisted for the 1995 3M Talking Book Award).

Mongrel (Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1995, 0207187576) - No one asked Judy Bishop if she wanted to live in Euduka with the grandfather she’d never previously met. Despite her Mum's assurances that the move will be fun (and temporary and good for her!) Judy is determined to hate every moment: the school, the hick town, the locals, and their so-called sweet country attitudes. All she wants to do is get out of there. But then she finds Ed — a dog on the brink of death. And the country life she despises teaches her more about love and friendship than she ever could have imagined.

David has several projects currently under consideration and bites his nails every time the post arrives.