Hayley Chewins

Hayley Chewins grew up in Cape Town and lives in Johannesburg, bringing a poet's ear and a taste for uncanny spaces to fiction for younger readers. The Sisters of Straygarden Place, published by Candlewick, follows the Ballastian sisters inside a magical house that has sheltered them since their parents disappeared. Chewins builds the story around sibling loyalty, memory, and the unsettling rules that shape the girls' home. Candlewick identifies it as middle-grade fantasy, and her biography places it alongside The Turnaway Girls and later novels. Its eerie setting and precise language make the book a clear example of Chewins's approach to family stories, where wonder carries emotional consequences and young characters must reconsider what they have been taught to trust.