Sherryl Jordan


Sherryl Rose Jordan was a New Zealand writer for children and young adults, specialising in fantasy and historical fiction. She wrote a number of children's and young adult works, published in New Zealand and overseas. She is best known for her books The Juniper Game and The Raging Quiet. In 2001, she received the Margaret Mahy Medal for her contribution to children's literature, publishing and literacy.

Biography

Jordan was born Sherryl Rose Brogden on 8 June 1949 in Hāwera, the daughter of Alan Vivian Brogden and Patricia Ita Brogden. and spent her early years in Normanby, in South Taranaki. After the family shifted to Tauranga, she was educated at Tauranga Girls' College from 1962 to 1964, and then trained as a nurse from 1967 to 1968.
Jordan's early work in children's literature was as an illustrator, and she wrote picture books, middle-grade fiction, and young adult fiction. Her knowledge of sign language and her experience working as a teacher aide with deaf children is a clear influence on her historical fiction, The Raging Quiet.
Jordan died on 15 December 2023.

Awards

Jordan won a number of awards, and her books were shortlisted for awards in New Zealand, the United Kingdom, the United States, Belgium and Germany.