HarperCollins to publish Jordan Ablett’s inspiring memoir for Mother’s Day 2025: an empowering message of hope for Australian families raising a young child with additional needs.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Sydney, Wednesday 9 October 2024
HarperCollins Publishers Australia is thrilled to announce it has acquired World rights to publish Jordan Ablett’s inspirational memoir, One Day at a Time.
On a quiet Melbourne afternoon in the eerie early days of the pandemic, young parents Jordan and Gary Ablett finally learned why their beautiful baby boy, Levi, had not been hitting the milestones that most new parents celebrate and are reassured by.
After months of concern and worry, the specialists’ diagnosis gave them clarity, but with it came an overwhelming sorrow at the loss of the life they had imagined for their son, and for themselves as a family.
In One Day at a Time, Jordan bravely shares how she struggled to come to terms with Levi’s condition and the new, unexpected path her life had taken: raising a child with a disability, while helping to care for her beloved mother as she lived through the final stages of cancer.
Raw and honest, this is a story of devastating grief and pain, but it is also the story of how, with the love and unwavering support of her family, and with her faith as her anchor, Jordan and her AFL legend husband found the courage to go on and learned to celebrate every day with Levi as a blessing. It’s about finding joy in what you have, even as you mourn what you have lost, and never taking life for granted.
Jordan says she feels privileged to have the opportunity to share her story of raising a child with additional needs. ‘I’m writing this book because I have finally, after many years of processing, arrived at a place where I feel like I can talk openly about my experiences and share the lessons I have learned along the way. I’d love nothing more than for people to read my story and feel encouraged and hopeful about the journeys they’re on.’
Writer Ellen Whinnett worked with Jordan to craft the memoir and says she was honoured to help share such an important and uplifting story. ‘Jordan has experienced some incredible difficulties in her life, and faced them head- on with grace and strength,’ she says. ‘She’s approached her memoir the same way – giving readers an unvarnished look at her life as a busy mum of a child with a disability, the partner of one of Australia’s best-known athletes, and as a young woman grieving the loss of her own beloved mum.’
On acquiring the memoir, Helen Littleton, head of non-fiction at HarperCollins Australia, said, ‘This is a truly brave and wise contemporary women’s memoir about navigating the loss of a loved one when you need them most, and about grief for what might have been but can no longer be. When I first spoke to Jordan about sharing her story, I was struck by her clear purpose. It wasn’t to be a sad book; it wasn’t about being pitied. It was an opportunity to get people’s attention, to reassure them that there is hope and there is joy on the other side of the hard stuff that all of us, at some point in our lives, will be touched by.
ABOUT JORDAN ABLETT
Jordan Ablett is an advocate for children with additional needs and their parents. She is passionate about encouraging, connecting and helping to empower families who find themselves on the unexpected journey of parenting a child with a disability.
Jordan is an ambassador for the Good Friday Appeal, which raises much-needed funding for the Royal Children’s Hospital. She also supports the My Room children’s cancer charity, and is the founder of House of Hope, an online community for parents raising children with disabilities.
Jordan lives on Victoria’s Surf Coast, where she and her best friend and husband, Gary, are raising their three precious children, Levi, Grace and Ezra, surrounded by family and friends. She loves to travel to Queensland, their home away from home, having spent several years there while Gary played for the AFL’s Gold Coast Suns before returning to Geelong, and the Cats, in 2018.
ABOUT ELLEN WHINNETT
Ellen Whinnett is a dual Walkley Award–winning journalist and bestselling author. She is a former political editor and foreign correspondent for News Corp and has reported from more than thirty-five countries across Europe, Asia, the Pacific and the Middle East. She has coauthored three books, including a bestselling memoir by Olympian Lisa Curry.
ABOUT HARPERCOLLINS PUBLISHERS
HarperCollins Publishers is the second-largest consumer book publisher in the world, with operations in 17 countries. With over 200 years of history and more than 120 branded imprints around the world, HarperCollins publishes approximately 10,000 new books every year, in over 30 languages, and has a print and digital catalogue of more than 200,000 titles. Writing across dozens of genres, HarperCollins authors include winners of the Miles Franklin Award, the Nobel Prize, the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award and the Booker Prize. Publishing Australian stories since 1888, HarperCollins Publishers Australia, incorporating the Angus & Robertson imprint, is Australia’s foundation publisher. For further information see https://harpercollins-au.myshopify.com/.
CONTACT
Luiza Grinstein
0478 918 752