By NOEL MURPHY
WRITING a book is a common ambition many adults try but fail to achieve. Not so Amber Rosewarne who has just published her first book at the tender age of 13.
The Lara Year 8 student’s book, The Knot in My Woolly Heart, published under the Xlibris imprint, is a charming tale of two youngsters, Lucas and Jenny, who transform their lives from grinding poverty to adventure with the help of a magic ball of wool.
“I wrote it during the term two school holidays last year,” Amber told the Independent this week.
“I started with just an idea and then away I went. Jenny and Lucas are very poor but they go on all these adventures with this magic ball that was given to them by a lady on the street.”
Amber has kept her writing pursuits under wraps and friends and teachers are only now learning of her efforts. They’ve been pretty surprised, she says.
The dark-haired teen – celebrating her 13th birthday today – has also put her artistic skills to use on the book’s cover.
Here’s a sample of her handiwork:
“The cliff looked dead because of the dead brown grass covering up all the sands, making the ground soft. A few feet away, beautiful fresh green grass usually grew, but now I saw that it was also dead.
“I was lying on the dead grass and hoped and prayed that the dead grass will soon grow into fresh green grass again. I looked at my woolly jumper and pulled off a loose piece of string.
“I concentrated on the string and made it float. I moved around the piece of wool towards my woolly jumper and hoped for the piece of wool to be sewn back up in my jumper. The jumper tugged down for the sewing to happen … ”
Amber’s Mum, Stacey, said she was shocked when the publisher phoned to tell her it was keen to produce her daughter’s book.
“She said to me ‘Mum, can you read this?’ I said you should get it published,” she said.
“Two weeks later, I get this phone call, I was shocked.”
While Amber’s excited about her first book being published, she’s not committing to a second just yet.
“I’ll wait and see how we go with this one,” she grinned.
The Knot in My Woolly Heart is available from Xlibris.com.au. Also, visit theknotinmywoollyheart.com
