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Deborah Abela

writer

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 26, 2026
Entity authorityQ5248157 ↗
Source-derived summary

Deborah Abela (born 13 October 1966) is an Australian author of children's books, most notably the Max Remy, Super Spy series, Grimsdon and Teresa – A New Australian. She was born in Sydney, Australia, and has been writing for 15 years. She does the Virtual Book Week Dart Session for kids.

Awards

2026 CBCA (NSW) Lady Cutler Award for Distinguished Services to Children's Literature

2017 KOALA Legend (Kids Own Literature Awards)

2017, 2012, 2011 Grimsdon Shortlisted for YABBA and KOALA awards

2017 Teresa – A New Australian Shortlisted for WAYRBA Awards (Western Australian Young Readers Book Awards)

2017 Teresa – A New Australian Best Book in Translation, Malta Book Awards

2017 The Stupendously Spectacular Spelling Bee shortlisted for the Australian Family Therapists Awards

2015 Ghost Club series shortlisted for KOALA, YABBA, CROC awards

2015 New City shortlisted for the KOALA, YABBA, CROC awards

2013 Ghost Club series shortlisted for Sisters In Crime Davitt Awards

2013 Maurice Saxby Award for Services to Children's Literature

2012 The Remarkable Secret of Aurelie Bonhoffen shortlisted Outstanding International Book Award USBBY

2011 Grimsdon awarded Most Enthralling Junior Fiction Award

2011 Grimsdon shortlisted Aurealis Awards

2011 Grimsdon shortlisted Speech Pathology Awards

2010 The Remarkable Secret of Aurelia Bonhoffen, was shortlisted for best children's book in the 2010, and was awarded "Notable Book of 2010" by the Children's Book Council of Australia.

2010 The Remarkable Secret of Aurelie Bonhoffen shortlisted for the Aurealis Awards

2010, 2007, 2005 Max Remy Superspy voted best series KOALA and YABBA awards

2008 Max Remy Superspy Angus and Robertson's Top 50 books

2007 Max Remy Superspy shortlisted USA Children's Choice Awards and WAYRBA awards

In 2008, she was awarded the May Gibbs Fellowship for Children's Literature.

Awarded the 2006 Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Gold Seal Best Book Award.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Deborah Abela” is writer. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Deborah, Abela and writer, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1966, 2026, 2017, 2012—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1966-10-13. For this dossier, Deborah, Abela and writer is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “writer” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 26, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5248157. VIAF identifies the subject as 56000767. The Library of Congress control number is n2004029975. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1966, 2026, 2017 and 2012.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Deborah Abela”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Deborah Abela primary sources, Deborah Abela archive and Deborah research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Deborah Abela”?
  2. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
  3. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Deborah Abela” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.