The Red Cardigan - J.C. Burke

"Evie walks briskly through a draughty corridor leading to the school office….Shivering, she pulls her cardigan around her chest. The cardigan is crimson red and made from the softest wool. Her dad brought it back from Adelaide last week. He'd picked it up at a vintage store near where he'd stayed. Impulse buying he'd grinned. Evie never lets on, but she understands why he spoils her. It helps relieve his guilt"

Nothing has been the same since that unsettling afternoon in art class. The afternoon when the world was turned upside down and Evie realized her fears were real. Evie can't explain why she drew a picture of her classmate's dead brother. She can't explain how she knew what he looked like and how he died. She only knows she feels terrified and confused. She wonders "Who am I? What am I?"

There have been clues throughout Evie's life, suggesting she prossesed a strange gift. Evie has learnt to ignore them. She wants to fit in, doesn't want to be different. Besides, it upsets her mother to discuss it.

But now someone is trying to tell her something. Someone who wore the red cardigan before Evie. She dreams of a girl a bit older than herself with long copper hair. She is wearing the red cardigan and is desperate for Evie's help. Evie starts to see and feel things she can't explain and realizes the girl in the red cardigan cannot be ignored.

One question remains - who is the girl in the red cardigan and what is she trying to tell Evie?

A powerful supernatural thriller for young adults, The Red Cardigan is a story of a young girl struggling with an unexpected gift and her identity. It explores issues of family loyalty, trust and friendship and examines the idea that we all leave an imprint of ourselves in our favourite piece of clothing.


ABOUT THE AUTHORJ.C. Burke was born in Sydney in 1965, the fourth of five daughters. With writers for parents, she grew up in a world full of noise, drama and books. The many colourful characters who came to visit provided her with an endless supply of stories and impersonations. Burke decided to become a nurse after her mother lost a long battle with cancer. She trained at Royal Prince Alfred Hosptial in Sydney and later specialized in the field of Oncology, working in the Haematology and Bone Marrow Transplant units in Australia and the UK. A creative writing course at Sydney University led to a Australian Society of Authors mentorship with Gary Crew and the publication of her first novel, White Lies (Lothian), in 2002. White Lies was a Children's book council of Australia Notable book in 2003. J.C. burke lives on Sydney's Northern Beaches with her husband and two children. She loves writing for children and young adults, as they still have an optimistic eye.