Raised by Wolves by TRISTAN BANCKS is a tense, heart-stopping thriller of loyalty and betrayal, as twelve-year-old Olive Silver has to make an unbearable decision about her fugitive father.
Read on for a Q&A with the author.
MEET TRISTAN BANCKS
What first inspired you to start writing stories for kids and teens?
I had been writing articles for print publications and I’d written for TV and short films that I had made and feature films that were yet to be made, and then my eldest son was born. I was reading books to him, even when he was in the womb and I had lots of stories inside me. I heard about a children’s book series that was looking for authors. I sent them some ideas, was given the green light to write a few of these very short books and I’ve been writing books – for over twenty years!
Do you ever draw on your own childhood experiences or memories when creating characters or settings?
I do, a lot. I need to have some skin in the game, some point of connection that makes me feel as though I am the character. It might date back to being an actor in my early days and needing to climb inside the skin of a character. Sometimes I know that personal connection from the start. Sometimes I’m just compelled to write the story and it’s only towards the end that I realise the parallels with my own life. Just to be clear, my parents weren’t criminals, though. As far as I know.
Do you have rituals or routines you follow when you’re writing a new book?
I wake at 6.30 or 7am, write my morning pages – three freewritten pages in a notebook. I’ve been doing this for thirty years. By 8am, I sit down at the laptop. Or I might read a chapter of a book first or flick through some pictures I’ve gathered of the setting. I might freewrite about the problem my character is facing. Or a problem I’m facing in moving forward with the story. I’ll write 1000-2000 words on the manuscript and by 1pm I’ll have lunch and move on to email and the business / logistical side of being an author and finish by 4 or 5pm. For me, it’s important to preserve the morning for writing, that free, unconscious mind, before I get distracted and fragmented.
How has Olive changed since the first book and what challenges does she face in Raised by Wolves?
That’s an interesting question. She’s the same as in Two Wolves, but different. Age seven to twelve is a huge leap and I tried to preserve that little Olive inside the big one, her toughness and vulnerability and humour. I wanted to explore how her parents committing a crime and taking her and Ben on the run has impacted her. So, this book is told from Olive’s POV rather than Ben’s, which means it’s a standalone book.
Dad shows up in chapter one of Raised By Wolves after five years on the lam, watching her from outside school, then he disappears and she tries to track him down. Partly because she wants him to see justice for what he did. Partly because, no matter what, he’s still her dad and she still loves him and wants to know if he loves her. So, all of her emotions around what happened five years are stirred. Most of Raised By Wolves is set over a single night, but she does a huge amount of growing and reckoning in those few hours.
How did you develop Olive and Ben’s dynamic in this latest novel?
I preserved the antagonism they had in Two Wolves, but also the care. At bottom, they really care about each other, like most siblings, even when they argue a lot. I tried to recapture Ben’s thoughtfulness and Olive’s fire. But Ben is eighteen now, two days from graduating from the police academy and he can drive, which makes him more of a parental figure. He has her back. He still can’t control her, but he tries to talk sense into her, tries to keep her safe. Olive only sees that Dad has done the wrong thing and they have to take him down. Whereas Ben has a broader perspective, questioning whether they should let Dad go. This makes Olive think that he is morally compromised like all adults and and it’s a major point of conflict between them.
Were there any characters you wanted to explore more deeply in the sequel than in the first book?
Kids, when I’d visit schools, would always ask if I would write a sequel to Two Wolves and they would often ask about Olive. They seemed to like her as a character. They would also ask about Dad and whether he ended up being punished for what he did. And whether Ben became a cop. So, it seemed natural to tell the story from Olive’s point-of-view and for dad to return and for Ben to be about to graduate from the police academy, which is in danger if tonight goes wrong.
What draws you to writing thrillers for younger readers?
I need to entertain myself first. The reader only needs to stay with the story for a night or a week or however long it takes them to read the book. I need to stay with the story for years while I think about and write it. So, I need something gripping. I need a mystery to solve, a character in dire straits with high stakes and tension. All of these things help me to maintain focus and interest because I need to solve the puzzle. I want to find out what happened as much as the reader does. And when the book is done and I record the audio narration, I get to read it like a reader for the first time, it seems, and feel the tension of it and the propulsion. That’s when I really feel that the book is done.
How do you hope readers feel while reading Raised by Wolves?
I hope they lean in. I hope they can’t help but want to know what happens next. I hope they care about the characters and relate to some of the thoughts the characters have and the actions they take. Because even though Olive and Ben are in a terrible situation with some diabolical people, I hope the characters feel authentic and flawed and honest and that they make readers wonder, ‘What would I do if that happened to me?’
Read an interview with Tristan Bancks on Scar Town here.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Tristan Bancks tells stories for the page and screen. His books for kids and teens include Two Wolves, The Fall, Detention, Cop & Robber, Ginger Meggs, the ‘Tom Weekly’ series and, most recently, Scar Town, a suspense-thriller that won the Children’s Book Council of Australia’s Book of the Year for Younger Readers. His other awards and shortlistings include a CBCA Honour Book, the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards and the YABBA children’s choice book awards. His next book for readers age 10+ is Raised By Wolves, out May 2026.
Tristan is an author-advocate for literacy non-profit Room to Read. He is currently working with producers to develop a number of his books for the stage and screen. He’s excited by the future of storytelling and inspiring others to create.
Visit Tristan Bancks’ website here.
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