Deborah has been writing books for children – fiction based on fact – since 2003. Most of her stories focus on how children face up to challenges and hardships. Her latest book, Secret Celebrity, is a novel about a girl, Ana, who is trafficked from Mozambique. The story follows Ana’s escape from the house she is taken to, her efforts to find her father – a farmworker in South Africa – before the trafficker catches up with her, and the friendship she makes along the way. Secret Celebrity is published by Hodder Education and is available from 30 January 2009.

Planet Mouse Adventures

In 2007 the first in a series of stories about the adventures of a 12-year-old by called Mouse was published. When My Dad Comes Home is a story about trust. Mouse’s dad gets a temporary job and has to go away. While he is gone, Mouse’s mother becomes very sick and a rumour spreads that she has AIDS. Mouse starts to worry that his dad won’t come home and his mom will die.

Four more books in the Planet Mouse series were published in February 2009. These are:

• My Sister is Missing – the story of how Mouse’s little sister, Cassie, is kidnapped and the race against time to find her.
• Looking for Clues is about how Mouse and his best friend, Pops, get on the trail of a corrupt policeman after Mouse’s brother is arrested.
• Seeing Stars focuses is about how Mouse get his mates out of danger using his star-gazing skills and then wins an astronomy prize that makes even Pops excited.
• Accidents Happen finds Mouse and Pops getting bored at the beach and going off in search of adventure – with dramatic consequences.The Mouse books are published by Shuter & Shooter (Pietermaritzburg.).

Other titles for children include:

A Better World, reader on HIV/AIDS,

rights and responsibilities

(Heinemann 2004)

Friends for Life

(co-authored with Noreen Ramsden), 

a reader on HIV/AIDS 

(Heinemann 2003)

Deborah is also the author of

Stolen Childhood, the true 

story of two girls who battled

their way through the criminal

justice system to see their

attacker convicted and sentenced.

(Children First 2003)

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