Christine Harris has always loved books. As a child, she escaped into other worlds by pretending to be a character in each story. She still does this, but with her own stories.
She wrote her first book when she was nine, propped in the branches of her Nanna Mavis’s nectarine tree. It was never published, but Christine believes that somewhere in the jungle, the imaginary girl from that story with the big lungs and fake leopard skin bikini still swings from the tree to tree with Tarzan.
As an adult, Christine enrolled in an external writing course with TAFE. Living in an isolated area of South Australia then, she wrote her assignments in the kitchen, on an old typewriter with a crooked letter ’s’. ‘My tutor, David Harris, gave me an A. So I married him.’
Sixteen years later, Christine has written more than thirty-five books, ranging from picture books to novels for young adults. She has been a judge for writing competitions, and has written manuscript reviews. She is a member of the Royal Geographical Society and is on the State Library of South Australia Advisory Panel.
Christine’s books have been shortlisted for the Children’s Choice awards in South Australia, the Northern Territory and Western Australia, and the Children’s Peace Literature Awards. Many are Children’s Book Council of Australia Notable Books and in 2002, Jamil’s Shadow was shortlisted for Book of the Year, Younger Readers. She has also won Best Horror Novel in the Aurealis Awards. In 2003, I Don’t Want to Go to School, the picture book she created with Craig Smith, was selected for National Simultaneous Storytime.It was read in libraries all around Australia on the same day.
‘I hope that young readers will share the thrill of my characters’ adventure and feel their fears, tenderness and excitement,’ says Christine. She believes that everything she has read or experienced is stored in her subconscious and filters into her writing. Sometimes she enlists the help of young readers. For Countdown, she visited schools and asked boys and girls what would happen if they discovered the Earth was about to be destroyed by an asteroid. Their responses became the basis for the four main characters.
Likewise, for the Spy Girl series, Christine completed months of research before she began writing.’ I have two notebooks full of scribbles, pasted articles and diagrams,’ she says. ‘I have a plan of Jesse’s room, character sketches, and physical descriptions for all main characters.’
This series also involved hours of research into child prodigies, how underground groups function, the how and why of assassinations, scientific advances, spies, the latest weaponry gadgets, and the use of children as soldiers. Christine bought several wigs and wore them to test how it felt to be in disguise. ‘A friend walked straight past, without recognising me, at the airport. It was so cool.’
At times, in writing the Spy Girl series, Christine became so involved in the excitement of the story that she could no sleep. ‘Jesse Sharpe is a wonderful character. I would like to be her. She kicks butt.’
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