Complex sentence: It was first published in Australia on 1 November 2004 and in the United States on 16 June 2005.John Flanagan says that he first wrote the series as short stories for his son to get him interested in reading.
Split into simpler sentences: It was first published in Australia on 1 November 2004, and in the United States on 16 June 2005. Flanagan said that he wrote the series first as short stories for his son to incite interest in reading.