Tommy Bell?

Just ask a 10-year-old because they know him as the bushranger boy who lives in present-day Orange and magically travels back in time for adventures.

Bell is the main character in children’s author Jane Smith’s Tommy Bell Bushranger Boy series of books.

One of them, Shoot-out at the Rock, made this year’s Children’s Book Council of Australia’s list of ‘notables’.

The Queensland resident lived in Orange in the 1990s and decided to base the books here.

“I have very fond memories of the place,” she said.

“I know Orange and a lot of the bushranging activity happened around the area.”

Her next book in the series is due in August-September.

She does book workshops with children in Queensland schools and would like to do some in Orange.

“If I could time it with the holidays I would really love to go and do some in the [city] library,” she said.