John Marsden Books In Order

Publication Order of Tomorrow Books

Publication Order of The Ellie Chronicles Books

Publication Order of So Much to Tell You Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Picture Books

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Publication Order of From Reason to Revolution Books

Publication Order of Shaun Tan Picture Books

John Marsden is an Australian school principal, teacher and author and one of the best Australian Young Adult novelists. His novels have been translated into more than ten languages including Spanish, Polish, Italian, Danish, Dutch, Swedish, German, French, and Norwegian among others. John was born in Victoria and spent much of his childhood and teen years in Sydney, Devonport, Tasmania, and Kyneton, Victoria. He worked several jobs before settling on the teaching profession, where he came into his own when he started writing children’s books. By 1987 he had published his first novel “So Much to Tell You” and has since gone on to write more than 40 titles that have sold more than 5 million copies across the globe. In 2006, his love for teaching saw him establish the Candlebark School on his farm in the Macedon Ranges, where teaches and administers the day to day. He also established a writing school on the same property in 2016, where he teaches aspiring writers the ins and outs of the industry.

Born in Victoria Australia, he claims ancestry to the Rev Samuel Marsden, the colonial magistrate and clergyman. At ten years old, he moved to Sydney where he went to The Kings School Parramatta. He then proceeded to Sydney University from where he studied his Arts and Law degrees even as he still did not know what he wanted to do professionally. He soon dropped out due to his dislike for the law, educational experiences, loneliness, and alienation. During this time, he was so depressed that he considered suicide. However, the period that he spent at a psychiatric hospital was one of the most important of his life as he learnt about communication, relationships, and feelings and how the world works. After getting out of hospital, he worked several jobs that included encyclopedia salesman, night watchman, motor bike courier, pizza delivery man, and even morgue attendant. In 1978, he got into teaching and right away knew that a teacher was what he was destined to be.

It was while he was working at the Geelong Grammar School that he thought he needed to do something about the poor reading culture among students. He wrote his debut novel “So Much to Tell You” in three Weeks and was surprised when the novel became a bestseller almost instantly. He went on to publish six more titles over the following five years that became bestsellers and won several national and internationals honors and awards. His 1993 work “Tomorrow When the War Began” is his bestselling and most critically acclaimed novel to date. The novel while first intended to be a standalone was later made into a series – the Tomorrow series. Later, he wrote the “Ellie Chronicles trilogy” that was a follow up to the events of the series. In addition to writing the Tomorrow series, he has also written several freestanding novels, nonfiction works, poetry, and picture books for children. Marsden likes to write on the themes of conflict with those in authority, survival in harsh school environments, violence in society, and sexuality. His works have won several commendations and awards including the 2008 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, the 2006 Lloyd O’Neil Award, The Melbourne Prize for Literature, and Germany’s Buxtede Bull Prize among others.

The Tomorrow series of novels is a young adult novel series that details the occupation and invasion of Australia by a major world power. The novels are narrated by a teenage girl known as Ellie Linton, who leads a small band of teenagers from Wirrawee to wage guerrilla warfare on the invading forces. The series of novels were followed by the Ellie Chronicles, which were an attempt to detail how the Australian society adapts to the post war realities amid the psychological trauma they faced. The invading nation does not resemble any of the major world powers of Asia, the Americas, or Europe and the entire story is told from the narrow perspective of the lead character. However, she describes the enemy as a coalition of several populous South Asian nations who want to take over Australia to deal with their overpopulation problems. In fact, the series has the enemy setting up multinational colonies of civilians brought over from their countries.

“Tomorrow When the War Began” is a story following Fi, Homer, Kevin, Lee, Robyn, Corrie, and Ellie from a small rural town of Australia. The six friends go camping far away from their village only to come back and find something very strange happening. Their homes are eerily silent with all the dogs shot dead, static on the radio, and the power shut off. It is not normal for rural life to be so eerily quiet in the middle of the day and it is clear from the outset that something is very wrong. They soon learn that everyone that had been found in the village had been rounded up and locked up at the village showground. The invading forces had turned the biggest houses in the village into their headquarters and were brutalizing anyone that dared resist. They are a faceless and nameless enemy, which adds to the fear mongering and tension. Ellie and her friends are now in a cat and mouse game with the invading enemy as they are turned into scavengers, eating whatever they can find as they try to locate their loved one. It is only when they meet Chris another scavenger that they finally get the whole story of the invasion.

“The Dead of Night” comes packed with the same adventure and action of the first novel in the series. Ellie and her friends are still battling a faceless and nameless an enemy without the necessary training. Using guerrilla tactics, they do what they can to cause the enemy as much trouble as they can. Trying to find a way to escape their nightmare, they stumble on a local base camp where they find other Australians resisting the enemy. At last, they have jobs to do, food to eat, and a place to sleep. They also do not have to make the big decisions though Ellie is disgusted by the way the sexist nature of the camps leader. Harvey believes only men can strategize while the women should stick to cooking and cleaning. They are soon on their own once again when a mission goes awry causing the camp huge losses. The friends decide they were better off making their own decisions, and leave the camp to fight the war on their own terms.