'The best books, reviewed with insight and charm, but without compromise.'
- author Jackie French

Tuesday, 16 April 2024

Announcement! New Junior Reviewer

The thing about children is that unless they are Peter Pan, they grow up. Unfortunate for us if one of them happens to be a Junior Reviewer. 

Fortunately, there are still plenty of kids who love reading and love sharing their thoughts about a great read with others. Ellissa Freestone is one of them. 


Elle read and wrote stories from a very young age. Creative writing has always come easily to her with a poetic writing style that often invokes intrigue. Novels are binge read between her other passions of drawing, basketball, and singing, both privately and choral. Elle also studies piano to a current grade 4 AMEB standard whilst excelling in her high school studies. Discover more about Elle from her 12 Curly Questions responses below. Meantime, welcome Elle!


1. Tell us something hardly anyone knows about you.
On my tenth birthday I competed in the QLD Ninja Games with no training or experience and ended up runner up. This included me climbing up a really long rope hung from the ceiling using only my arm muscles

 

2. What is your nickname? 

Where to start? Elle, Ellie, Elle Belle, Lissy, and Lis, are my main nicknames; but I also have crazy nicknames like Wissy, Wee Willy Wissa, Eggy, Eggnog, Elfy, and Ellesmere!

 

3. What is your greatest fear?

The ‘typical’ fears like spiders or heights doesn’t scare me, but I am terrified of geckos. I don’t know what it is about them, they just freak me out. 

 

4. Describe your writing style in ten words. 

Fluent, elaborate, detailed, creative, intense, emotional, relatable, descriptive, deep, engaging. 

 

5. Tell us five positive words that describe you as a writer.

Heartfelt, true to myself.

 

6. What book character would you be, and why? 

If you I was a book character I would be Elli from The Edge of Thirteen by Nova Weetman. I have read this book numerous times and every time I finish reading it I walk away motivated and feel a strong connection to Elli’s character and personality?

 

7. If you could time travel, what year would you go to and why? 

If I could time travel, I would go back to the past in the ‘80s because I think it would be fun to wear the weird, wacky outfits and hairstyles.  

 

8. What would your ten-year-old self say to you now? 

YOLO! I would encourage my younger self to take more opportunities, live life to the fullest and to worry a little less about consequences.

 

9. Who is your greatest influence? 

My mum is probably my greatest influence because she is always there to listen to any problems I have and she will always help me solve them. 

 

10. What/who made you start writing? 

I’m not gonna lie. My English teacher made me start writing at school, but I quickly discovered a love for it and started to write stories in my free time at a young age. 

 

11. What is your favourite word and why? 

My favourite word is Fructose (the sugar in fruit) because it is surprisingly fun to say and rolls off the tongue. 

 

12. If you could only read one book for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Well that’s just an impossible question. If I absolutely had to only read one book for the rest of my life I would choose Are You There Buddha by Pip Harry.


Follow Elle on Instagram.