ie They are  NOT coming from overseas !!

WINTER

- by John Marsden -

ISBN-10: 0732910145 

ISBN-13: 9780732910143 

Publisher: Pan Macmillan, Sydney, Australia

Published: 2000

Binding: HARDcover with Dustjacket  133 pages  

Condition: UNread & displayed condition! HERE in MELBOURNE! A retired display copy as illustrated!

Edition:  FIRST EDITION: Later printing   2000  SIGNED  SIGNED  SIGNED!!

TIGHT,  SCARCE   SIGNED  HARDCOVER with Dustjacket ~  IN  MELBOURNE  ... 

WHY do ebayers buy from US?

Because you KNOW what you're getting. My close up photos are of the actual item!!

Remains UNread, NEW  signed copy - it was a dedicated (to a family member) with the author then signing it - but grand parents had also bought a signed copy - so we've carefully removed name and just John Marsden's signature remains on the title page! It is Tight -  neat, no inscriptions or marks within. Appears as in my photos - this is the exact copy!!  A nicely preserved copy - superb!

No discernible shelf wear to the boards, the interior is tight and spotlessly clean with 133 pages. THIS copy is the FIRST EDITION: later printing from 2000 - the Australia  publishing by Pan Macmillan, Sydney. 

Incredibly SCARCE title - this is an  UNread copy!!

In original boards with gilt titled spine HARDcover binding, in publisher's pictorial dustcovers which are in perfect condition.  We ALSO have John Marden's  'Checkers'  signed HARDcover in dustjacket also. 

(Stored with 2019!)

Measures approx.  7  x 5¾  inches or 22  x  14cms

SYNOPSIS ....

Winter de Salis has been away a long time. Mystery surrounded her departure, and mystery surrounds her return. She has come home to find answers. Her past is confused, muddled, almost lost. Somehow she has to find that past. If there is to be hope in her future, Winter must find the answer to the greatest question in her life.

For twelve years Winter has been haunted. Her past, her memories, her feelings, will not leave her alone. And now, at sixteen, the time has come for her to act. Every journey begins with a single step. If Winter is going to step into the future, she must first step into the past. As I walked back towards Warriewood I couldn't help thinking about Matthew. Matthew Kennedy. Nice name. It was so annoying, I'd met him twice now and both times he hadn't put a foot wrong....

AUTHOR INFORMATION

John Marsden is Australia's bestselling author for teenagers and a highly acclaimed picture book writer. His titles include Winter, The Head Book, The Boy You Brought Home and Millie. 

John Marsden lives at the Tye Estate, just outside of Melbourne, where he opened a school called Candlebark in January 2006. The school currently has 52 students, ranging from Prep to Year 7.

Very  Entertaining read!

Reviews

"Australia's king of young adult fiction" - The Australian

KIRKUS REVIEW …. An Australian import that examines the reverberations a traumatic past has upon the present. Winter is a girl who knows what she wants, and now at 16, she aims to get it. In foster care with diligent but unloving relatives for the past 12 years, she has nagged them and her lawyer into allowing her to return to her family’s cattle ranch. Her goal is not simply to return home—she needs to discover the truth behind her parents’ deaths. When he isn’t writing about hypothetical guerrilla wars, Marsden (The Night Is for Hunting, 2001, etc.) frequently presents stories that conceal a single shocking moment in the past from the reader, and frequently from the protagonist. This offering is one of the latter stripe, and the narrative follows Winter as she not-very-tactfully reasserts her control over her property and begins to plumb her past. Much of the tale reads like teen wish-fulfillment: Winter bullies the adults around her into letting her do what she wants, lives in her own house without supervision and with access to an apparently very large sum of money (which allows her to redecorate at some length), and discovers a handsome and charming boy at the ranch next door. For all that, Winter is an appealingly gutsy narrator who keeps the story moving as she rips up blackberries and insults everyone around her. If the eventual shocker is rather predictable (and therefore not so shocking) and easily discovered, Winter’s own need to learn the truth and ability to assimilate it are well established in the development of her character. Not up to the standard set by the author’s Letters from the Inside (1994), but likely to find a readership nevertheless. (Fiction. YA)

PUBLISHER’S WEEKLY review … Like Marsden's Letters from the Inside, this engrossing Australian novel features a tough teenage heroine and puzzles aplenty. Sixteen-year-old Winter returns to Warriewood, her late parents' estate, under circumstances that only gradually become clear. Winter, sharp-tongued and iron-willed, has refused to stay any longer with the Robinsons, her guardians for the past 12 years. "Something had always bothered me," she explains, "Some nagging thought deep in my mind had never been satisfied." She quickly uncovers signs of misdoings: the family house is empty of all its expensive furniture and the well-paid caretakers have allowed the property to deteriorate. The heroine soon learns that the story the Robinsons have told her, about her parents dying together while racing a yacht, is false. Her father died in the race, but her mother, an expert sportswoman, died six months later, under mysterious circumstances. Winter's determination to solve the riddle of her mother's death drives her on, even as the people she meets seem equally determined to conceal something from her. Improbable as much of the premise seems, Marsden's slow, teasing exposition will very likely lure readers further into the story to keep pace with the unstoppable Winter. The knockout punch Marsden delivers here may not have the lasting impact of his clincher in Letters, but it will certainly satisfy the expectations raised by the taut plot. Ages 12-up

STUNNING ….  Winter is a feisty 16 year old who has been living with elderly relatives since she lost her parents at the age of 4. Now she has decided the time has come for her to return to the family homestead and take charge of her life. When she goes to visit her parents graves she discovers that her mother died some six months after her father and there is a mystery surrounding the way in which she died.

I enjoyed this short novel about a teenage girl discovering who she is and taking control of her life. Winter is a strong character and the author does a great job getting into the head of a teenage girl who is both fearless but vulnerable.

What a great story! ….   I don't know why I hadn't read this before now.
This is the sort of story I would have loved to read as a teenager and I would highly recommend it for YA and OA alike!
And an absorbing read  from start to finish.

FIVE STARS   ….. ‘Winter’ was as satisfying a read the second time round as it was the first. Thankfully for me, I forgot the sneaky curveball denouement and was given the opportunity to read the jaw-drop all over again. This book reminds me why Marsden is one of the Aussie greats, and makes me thankful that I had such a good young adult reading foundation growing up. 

Sixteen-year-old Winter De Salis lost her parents twelve years ago, but she doesn't know how they died! She's been haunted by it ever since, and her feelings will not go away. She's now back in Warriewood after living with the Robinson family --- and she's determined to find out the truth.

While living in Warriewood, she starts to do some research on her parent's deaths. One day she finds their graves and learns that her father died in a drowning accident. She starts asking people about her mother's death, but she doesn't believe any of the stories she hears. Will she ever find out how her mother died, or will the truth be kept from her forever?

I liked this book because Winter's personality is similar to mine. If I was Winter, I would have wanted to find out how my parents died too, because I believe that you should always know the truth about your family. If you like moving books, read this one to find out if Winter ever discovers the truth. - Reviewed by Ashley Hartlaub

Winter   -  John Marsden’s new novel is excellent....... This book is easy to read and is one of the most intriguing stories I have ever read. It is about a girl called Winter, who has returned to her childhood home to find the secrets behind her parents’ deaths. Winter returns to the estate to find it run down and also to find the people hired to look after it were stealing from the estate. She finds that her parents were not killed in the same accident and has to find out the how her mother died six months later. 

The end of this story has an amazing twist to it, in which the truth of Winter’s mother’s death is revealed to the reader.

This story is hard to get into but when you do, you won’t be able to put it down. This book leaves the reader on the edge of their seat for a good part of the second half of it.

I recommend this exciting book to all people of all ages. John Marsden has outdone himself yet again.

Bec, aged 16, Aust 

Winter is yet another great book by John Marsden.  In this story, sixteen-year-old Winter De Salis is looking for clues that will reveal her mother’s death.  Winter’s parents died when she was four and she was sent way to live with her aunt’s family.  Now, 12 years later, she has come home to find out the truth about her past.  The story comes to a climax when Winter discovers how her mother died. 

This is a fast-moving story that has an intriguing storyline and theme.  The language is simple and suited to a teenage audience.  The text is fairly large and easy to read.  Winter is a read alone book. John Marsden has written an excellent book about a teenager’s path to discovery.  A wonderful book, Winter will keep you guessing until the very end.  I give it a 9/10 and recommend it for people 13 years+. 

Pauline, aged 14, Aust

Winter, is a book about 16 year old Winter DeSalis, who moves back to her parents farm, years after their deaths.  Something bothered her about the story she was told about her parents deaths, so Winter goes about searching to find the real cause of her parents’ death.

Although John Marsden is a fabulous author, Winter did not ‘click’ with me.  I would say it is definitely not my favourite of his work. 

I would recommend it to 10-15 year old girls.  The storyline is fairly basic, a slight twist at the end helps, but it is still weak and at times a bit boring.  It is not as sophisticated as some of his other work, I think it would be a read-alone book if you were desperate for something to read. 

Sam, aged 14, Aust

fabulous ...... Winter De Salis is 16, headstrong, stubborn and spoilt. For her, her past has never been clear. She has lived for the last 12 years with her mother’s half-sister’s family. Her parents died when she was four.

Winter has finally come home to learn the truth about her parents’ deaths. Her memories tell her she has always been lied to and so she sets about discovering the ever-evading truth. But not all is revealed so easily. Sometimes, however, the truth can be just as painful as a lie as Winter soon finds out.

By the end she has not only found the truth, she has found herself.

A book well worth a read for anyone aged 13 and up. Winter keeps you guessing till the end. Winter is an easy to read, read-alone book as it tends to hit you on a more personal level. It is said to be fiction but John Marsden has threaded a realistic story which could almost be mistaken for a real life incident. John Marsden has taken great care to mould this story into a heart-felt mystery of a young girl on her journey to discovery.

Jenny, aged 14, Australia .....  After reading John Marsden's other titles   Checkers, So Much to Tell you and Take My Word for It  -  I realized that John Marsden has a certain… preferred pattern. In each case, something profoundly traumatic has happened to the (Australian) teenaged heroine and the slim book consists of her first-person narrative as she attempts to work past whatever it was, while gradually divulging enough tidbits to enable readers to figure out what happened. In many ways, Winter is very similar, though in this case, the titular heroine begins the book as in the dark as anyone else.

It’s been twelve years since sixteen-year-old Winter De Salis has set foot on the family estate of Warriewood. Both of her parents died when she was four, but she wasn’t told much about them by the relatives with whom she spent the intervening years. Now old enough to leave school and return home, that’s exactly what determined Winter does, and makes short work of dispatching the dishonest caretakers of her property while questioning anyone who might provide some useful information concerning her parents’ deaths. After making friends with a girl around her age, enjoying a bit of romance, and uncovering the family secret, she is eventually able to face her future without obsessing over the past.

Despite the structural similarities to other Marsden books, Winter doesn’t much feel like them. Its setting is more rural, for one thing, so there are sections like the one describing the cathartic process (for Winter) of removing unwanted blackberries from the property, or the depiction of her first attempt to take care of the cattle by herself. Winter is a unique protagonist, and I love how Marsden shows her capacity for being difficult—when you’re underage and you want something strongly, sometimes the only weapon in your arsenal is being stubborn—while simultaneously showing that she really is a good kid. She’s grateful for kindness and not so wounded that she can’t make new friends, and posits at one point that perhaps the early death of her famously strong mother is what has enabled her to become so strong herself. It’s a pretty devastating truth that she learns, but it’s believable that she is able to move on from it and not dwell too long on questions that will never have answers.

My only minor quibble is that the romance feels somewhat superfluous; granted, it plays an important role in demonstrating Winter’s progression from someone fixated on the past to someone anticipating the future, but I would’ve liked the boy (Matt Kennedy) to be a more well-rounded character. I’d almost wish for a sequel—perhaps a story set twenty years later with Winter and Matt as parents to a new protagonist—but I suppose that would requite something traumatic to happen to their offspring, and we wouldn’t want that!.