Judith Rossell
Judith Rossell
Judith Rossell is the multi-award-winning author-illustrator of the bestselling Stella Montgomery series (Withering-by-Sea, Wormwood Mire and Wakestone Hall). Judith has written fifteen books and illustrated more than eighty. Her work has been published in the US and UK, and translated into more than twenty languages. Judith’s latest book is The Midwatch (Hardie Grant), published in the US as The Midwatch Institute for Girls (Dial Books). The Midwatch has garnered several awards and accolades in both Australia and the US. It won the 2025 BookPeople Kids’ Reading Guide Children’s Book of the Year, was shortlisted for the ABIA Book of the Year for Younger Children, the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards and the Aurealis Awards and has been named both an Amazon Best Book of the Year (So Far) and a Kids’ Indie Next Pick. Before becoming an illustrator, Judith worked as a scientist at CSIRO, and in product development for a cotton spinning company. She lives in Melbourne.
Books represented by Annabel Barker Agency
The Midwatch Institute for Wayward Girls (US)
A whimsical, adventure-filled mystery about a young orphan at the edge of society who finds herself at the center of a city’s secrets. For fans of The Swifts and A Series of Unfortunate Events.
“I was hooked from the beginning … Move over Lemony Snicket!” —Karen Foxlee, award-winning author of Lenny’s Book of Everything
Maggie Fishbone is not expecting much when she’s sent to the Midwatch Institute for Orphans, Runaways, and Wayward Girls—the last resort after causing a ruckus at the orphanage where she was living. Except . . . the Institute isn’t some dreadful, dreary place like she thought.
Instead it’s full of curious girls training to solve mysteries, fight bad guys, and keep the city safe. In between fencing lessons and discovering all the shortcuts in the building, Maggie finds herself making friends at the Midwatch and finally feeling like she’s home. And when a woman goes missing, Maggie’s off on her first assignment, with each step leading her deeper into the secrets of the city.
With gorgeous black-and-white illustrations and pages of “Useful Things Every Girl Should Know” (like how send messages in morse code and how to shout extremely loudly), The Midwatch is a whimsical, adventure-filled mystery from internationally bestselling author-illustrator Judith Rossell.
The Midwatch (AUS)
The Midwatch is the long-awaited new middle-grade novel from internationally bestselling author–illustrator Judith Rossell, creator of the multi-award-winning novel Withering-by-Sea.
‘The city was stuffed full of wickedness, everyone knew that …’
Banished to the Midwatch Institute for Orphans, Runaways and Unwanted Girls, Maggie Fishbone is sure she’s in for a life of drudgery. But she quickly discovers there’s more to the Midwatch than meets the eye …
The city shimmers with jewels and secrets, and soon Maggie is thrust into an adventure that takes her deep underground, high above the clouds and face to face with danger itself.
Turn the page and prepare to be drawn into a lavishly illustrated world, brimming with mystery, unlikely heroines and an adventure as big as the sky.
PRAISE FOR THE MIDWATCH
‘Gasp-out-loud brilliant! An absolute treasure of a book.’
— KATRINA NANNESTAD, bestselling author of We Are Wolves
‘I was hooked from the beginning ... Move over Lemony Snicket!’
— KAREN FOXLEE, award-winning author of Lenny’s Book of Everything
‘Welcome all treasure-hunters and mystery-solvers to the Midwatch Institute … [where] disobedient girls are not to be underestimated!'
— AMELIA MELLOR, award-winning author of The Grandest Bookshop in the World
‘A cracking concept, sensational characters and absolutely smashing pictures: The Midwatch is the cat’s pyjamas!’
— JACLYN MORIARTY, award-winning author of the Kingdoms and Empires series
