{"id":5718,"date":"2026-05-06T07:02:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T07:02:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/5718\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T07:02:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T07:02:14","slug":"australian-author-craig-silveys-books-permanently-pulled-from-wa-public-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/5718\/","title":{"rendered":"Australian author Craig Silvey’s books permanently pulled from WA public schools"},"content":{"rendered":"

The best-selling books of disgraced Australian author Craig Silvey will be permanently pulled from public schools in his home state of Western Australia, after he pleaded guilty to child exploitation offences.<\/p>\n

Silvey’s home in Fremantle was raided by detectives from WA Police’s child abuse squad in January and he was charged with possessing and distributing child exploitation material.<\/p>\n

Craig Silvey pleads guilty to child exploitation material charges<\/a><\/p>\n

Author Craig Silvey, best known for his book Jasper Jones, pleads guilty to distributing and possessing child exploitation material.<\/p>\n

The news of his arrest made international headlines, and many bookstores across the country immediately pulled his work from shelves, including his most popular novel, Jasper Jones.<\/p>\n

The 43-year-old father-of-three pleaded guilty on Tuesday to the two charges, which related to images of child exploitation material.<\/p>\n

WA Education Minister Sabine Winton has confirmed a temporary ban on Silvey’s books being used as texts in public schools will now be made permanent.<\/p>\n

“There is absolutely no place in our school system for works authored by someone who has admitted to such serious crimes,” the minister said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\"Sabine<\/p>\n

Sabine Winton says schools will be supported in adjusting lesson plans and switching texts. (ABC News: Keane Bourke)<\/p>\n

“Now that he has pleaded guilty, those texts will not return to the curriculum.<\/p>\n

“Predatory behaviour against children is abhorrent and has no place in our community, let alone in materials studied by students in our schools.”<\/p>\n

Ms Winton said schools will be supported to adjust lesson plans and switch texts, while students who had already studied the text and planned to use it in their ATAR exams would not be penalised.<\/p>\n

Premier Roger Cook said the action was “appropriate”.<\/p>\n

“I support the very strong decision from the minister of education yesterday to remove the books from the curriculum and the shelves of WA public schools,” Mr Cook said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Roger Cook says the decision to remove the texts from schools was the right one. (ABC News: Courtney Withers)<\/p>\n

“It is appropriate we act in this manner.”<\/p>\n

Publisher Allen & Unwin said it would end its relationship with Silvey.<\/p>\n

“While legal proceedings were underway, Allen & Unwin paused the sale, distribution and promotion of Mr Silvey\u2019s work,” it said in a statement.<\/p>\n

“Following Mr Silvey\u2019s plea, Allen & Unwin will review all available steps it can take to end its relationship with the author.”<\/p>\n

Aside from Jasper Jones, which was adapted into a feature film, Silvey has won numerous accolades for other books, including Rhubarb, Honeybee and Runt, a children’s novel that was also made into a film.<\/p>\n

His books have been popular with children and young adults, often delving into profound themes such as racism, sexual identity and abuse, mostly featuring teenage protagonists.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The best-selling books of disgraced Australian author Craig Silvey will be permanently pulled from public schools in his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5719,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[22,21,823,7013,6177,7015,6179,6178,6181,7014,6180,466,463,465,7012,464,6182],"class_list":{"0":"post-5718","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-australia","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-austrlia","10":"tag-child-exploitation","11":"tag-childrens-books","12":"tag-craig-silvey","13":"tag-craig-silvey-books-schools","14":"tag-craig-silvey-child-exploitation-material","15":"tag-craig-silvey-child-sex-charges","16":"tag-craig-silvey-fremantle-court","17":"tag-craig-silvey-guilty","18":"tag-craig-silvey-in-court","19":"tag-perth-courts","20":"tag-perth-news","21":"tag-wa-courts","22":"tag-wa-education-minister-sabine-winton","23":"tag-wa-news","24":"tag-what-is-craig-silvey-charged-with"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5718\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}