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Tag: Australian picture book authors

Interview with Author Rory H. Mather: Monster School Rules – #readilearn
Today it is my pleasure to introduce you to Rory H Mather, author of Monster School Rules —a perfect book for initiating those ever-so important discussions about class and school rules that occur at the beginning of every school year and are probably revisited with frequency throughout the year. Children will laugh at the antics of the monsters and the rules that must be enforced while developing an understanding of the importance of those rules. I am certain you and your children will enjoy this book as much as I do.

About the author Rory H. Mather

Rory is a 31-year-old who is completely and utterly addicted to reading and writing picture books…but it’s an addiction he is fully leaning into. He lives in a street that is lined with trees, in a house that is filled with picture books and in his head which is filled with ideas.

About Monster School Rules

Welcome to Monster School! Yes, it’s quite a sight. Listen up, cause there are rules: the first one is … don’t bite!

The Interview

When did you know you wanted to be a writer?

Continue reading: Interview with Author Rory H. Mather: Monster School Rules – readilearn
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February 4, 2022
Let’s Meet Alison McLennan and her Hotel for Bees – #readilearn
Today it is my pleasure to introduce you to Australian author Alison McLennan and her beautiful picture book Hotel for Bees.

About Alison McLennan

Alison McLennan has written three picture books, Hotel for Bees (State Library of Qld 2020), Growing Pains (EK Books 2021) and Great and Small (Storytorch Press, coming October 2022). Her graphic novel, A Flood in the Village, was published by Library For All as part of their natural disaster education series. Her short stories have appeared in the School Magazine and the Spooktakular Stories Anthology. She is a proud member of SCBWI and Qld Writelinks, a mother of two teenagers and a fur baby. She is also a singer and voiceover artist.

About Hotel for Bees

Continue reading: Let’s Meet Alison McLennan and her Hotel for Bees – readilearn
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May 21, 2021
Meet Caroline Tuohey author of Skadoodle & Snug’s Magnificent Plan – #readilearn
Today it is my pleasure to introduce you to Caroline Tuohey author of the delightful picture book Skadoodle and Snug’s Magnificent Plan.

I previously introduced you to some of Caroline’s work when I interviewed illustrator Muza Ulasowski about another of Caroline’s beautiful books Forest Wonder. But today we are talking about the adorable Skadoodle and Snug.

About Caroline Tuohey

© Caroline Tuohey

Caroline Tuohey is a children’s writer and poet whose main interest is picture books. She has five published picture books in print with a sixth due out with Ford Street Publishing in October 2020. She has also been published in children’s literature magazines in Australia and Ireland as well as in anthologies and poetry sites online. She enjoys holding story time sessions at libraries, schools and preschools and conducts workshops for both school students and adults. Her other interest is bush poetry – which she writes and performs. She lives on a farm in the Riverina region of New South Wales, with her husband, two children, several dogs and a horse or two.

About Skadoodle and Snug’s Magnificent Plan

Continue reading: Meet Caroline Tuohey author of Skadoodle & Snug’s Magnificent Plan – readilearn
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September 18, 2020
Getting Creative with Karen Hendriks and her book Go Away, Foxy Foxy – #readilearn
In this special Books on Wednesday post, I am delighted to introduce you to Karen Hendricks and her lovely new picture book Go Away Foxy Foxy.

In this post, written by Karen, she explains how creativity is explored in the picture book and suggests conversations you can have with children to encourage their creativity. The post is part of a Books on Tour promotion.

About Go Away, Foxy Foxy

© Karen Hendriks

Go Away, Foxy Foxy is a delightful story of three little bunnies who decide to sleep out in a tree house one night. Outside in the dark, Foxy Foxy prowls. He’d like nothing better than to make a feast of those little bunnies. The bunnies show different levels of fear and bravery and use their intelligence, without having to resort to using the Mummy bell, to scare the fox away.

Children will easily identify with the different emotions displayed and will be encouraged to discuss different ways they may respond to the situation and solve the problem.

About Karen Hendriks

Continue reading: Getting Creative with Karen Hendriks and her book Go Away, Foxy Foxy – readilearn
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August 26, 2020
How to help your child prepare for knight school — Ashling Kwok – Readilearn
I recently introduced you to author Ashling Kwok in an interview about her delightful picture book Lola and Grandpa with its gorgeous illustrations by Yvonne Low.

Today, Ashling is back with us. This time she has written about her just-released picture book The Battle which deals with school anxiety and would be an excellent choice for both teachers and parents to read to their children as they begin or return to school. This post is part of a Books on Tour promotion.

Over to you, Ashling.

How to help your child prepare for knight school

Continue reading: How to help your child prepare for knight school — Ashling Kwok – Readilearn
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June 19, 2020
On an Aussie Easter Egg Hunt with Little Bilby and author Yvonne Mes – #readilearn
Today, it is with great pleasure that I introduce you to Yvonne Mes and her delightful new picture book Little Bilby’s Aussie Easter Egg Hunt.

About Yvonne Mes

Yvonne Mes is a children’s author and illustrator from Brisbane. Her latest picture book is Little Bilby’s Aussie Easter Egg Hunt. Other picture books by Yvonne are Oliver’s Grumbles (Yellow Brick Books) and Meet Sidney Nolan (Penguin Random House).

Yvonne coordinates Brisbane based writers’ group, Write Links, reviews children’s book for KBR (Kids’ Book Review) and runs No Nonsense Critiques. She buys more books than she can read, comes up with more ideas than she can write or illustrate and has more children than she can manage. But she does try very hard, and best of all, she is NEVER bored.

About Little Bilby’s Aussie Easter Egg Hunt

Near bush and scrub and oceanfront, they tiptoe on their Easter hunt . . .

A group of baby bilbies are on an Easter egg hunt. They find all kinds of eggs – a kookaburra’s egg, a turtle’s egg, a cassowary’s egg – before the little bilbies finally find what they’ve been looking for: Easter eggs to share with all their friends.

This colourfully illustrated picture book showcases the diversity of Australia’s egg-laying animals. Each spread reveals an egg in its natural environment and asks the question ‘Whose egg could this be?’. After turning the page, the egg is matched with the animal it belongs to.

Why I like this book

Little Bilby’s Aussie Easter Egg Hunt, gorgeously illustrated by Jody Pratt, is a fun story that is sure to delight young children as they go on an Easter egg hunt with Little Bilby, finding eggs that belong to others before they find the eggs that they can share.

If they are not already drawn in by the sparkles on the front cover, children will love the rhythm and rhyme and join in with the repetitive text as they seek and find eggs belonging to Aussie egg-laying animals, kookaburra, turtle and cassowary.

Continue reading: On an Aussie Easter Egg Hunt with Little Bilby and author Yvonne Mes – readilearn
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April 3, 2020
Interview with Wendy Haynes, author of Hayden’s Bedtime #booksontourpr – #readilearn
Today, it is with great pleasure that I introduce you to Wendy Haynes and her delightful new picture book Hayden’s Bedtime as part of the Books on Tour promotion.

About Wendy Haynes

Wendy Haynes has completed a Diploma in Creative Writing at Southern Cross University. Her writing focuses on middle-grade fantasy, historical, and contemporary stories for children, picture books, junior fiction, and YA. She believes that having a regular writing practice, and understand the device at your disposal, is the key to not only completing a story but in building the skills required to produce a worthy manuscript.

About Hayden’s Bedtime

What parent of a young child hasn’t had to perform a bedtime ritual to get the child into bed and off to sleep? Hayden’s Dad is no different as he checks every corner, every nook and cranny to ensure there is nothing lurking in the bedroom. All he finds are everyday things like building blocks and smelly socks, toy cars and chewed up gum. When the child is satisfied that all is safe, Dad reads a story and the child settles down for a good night’s sleep.

Why I like this book:

Continue reading: Interview with Wendy Haynes, author of Hayden’s Bedtime #booksontourpr – readilearn
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February 14, 2020
Fighting the Fear Monster – reblogged from readilearn
Most of us have fears that can become monsters if we allow them to get out of control. Learning how to manage them and put them in perspective is essential for mental health.

In this post, I introduce you to Megan Higginson, author of the newly released picture book Raymund and the Fear Monster.

About Megan Higginson

Megan Higginson loves to write and illustrate stories of monsters, aliens, and mind-blowing places and asking questions like, ‘What if?’. Megan Higginson is also an artist, speaker, street library ambassador, a Books in Homes Role Model, dyslexic book worm, a mother, a qualified youth worker and education support worker, and a retired horse whisper. Megan believes in living an amazing life even with a chronic illness and encouraging kids and adults not to give up. She hopes her stories and illustrations will help readers to look at their life and the world around them with new eyes.

Megan is the author of, The Sock Thief which was included in The Creative Kids Tales Story Collection Vol. 1 in 2017, and An Angel to Watch Over Them (shortlisted) in the anthology Three Dummies in a Dinghy and Other Stories of Life in 2018. Her stories, Freya and the Fear Monster and Super Moon and Fairy Dust in The Creative Kids Tales Story Collection Vol. 2 in 2019. Three Seconds, Truck Stops and Log Trucks (shortlisted) in Papa’s Shoes and Other Stories of Life 2019. She loves to write stories of monsters, aliens, and mind-blowing places.

About Raymund and the Fear Monster

A tale of courage and overcoming fears when the odds seem to be stacked against you.

At the top of an enormous mountain is a dark and gloomy forest. In the dark and gloomy forest lives a monster who roars and growls and makes terrible noises. Raymund lives in a small village at the bottom of the enormous mountain. Raymund is scared of many things. But, most of all he is afraid of the night, and the monster that sends him running to hide under his bed. How will Raymund face his fear, discover what it means to have courage, and defeat the huge and hideous monster that smells like fish guts, rotten eggs and smelly feet?

Continue reading: Fighting the Fear Monster – readilearn
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November 29, 2019
Interview with Jacqui Halpin author of Where’s Lucky? – readilearn
This week it is my great pleasure to welcome author Jacqui Halpin back to the blog. In this interview, Jacqui talks with us about her recently published picture book Where’s Lucky, the story of an orphaned joey and his road to recovery and release.

We previously met Jacqui in 2018 when she discussed her first picture book Parmesan, the Reluctant Racehorse. As we talked with Jacqui in that interview about her writing process, today we focus our discussion on her new book Where’s Lucky?

About Jacqui

Jacqui Halpin’s passion for children’s literature started when reading bedtime stories to her children. They outgrew their childhood books, but Jacqui never did. Jacqui writes picture books, junior fiction and middle-grade fiction. Her short stories appear in anthologies by Stringybark Publishing, Creative Kids Tales, and The School Magazine.

Her first picture book, Parmesan, the Reluctant Racehorse, illustrated by John Phillips, was published by Little Pink Dog Books in October 2017.

Where’s Lucky?, illustrated by Sandra Severgnini and published in April 2019, is her second picture book with Little Pink Dog Books.

While writing and editing, Jacqui loves to sip tea from fine china and eat copious amounts of chocolate. She also has a love of bookshops and should never be allowed to enter the children’s book section with a credit card in her possession.

About Lucky

Lucky, the orphaned swamp wallaby, has a knack for getting into mischief at the wildlife rescue shelter where he lives.

Continue reading: Interview with Jacqui Halpin author of Where’s Lucky? – readilearn
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April 26, 2019
readilearn: Introducing Jennifer Poulter, author of Hip Hop HURRAH! Zoo Dance
Meet Australian author J.R. Poulter as she discusses her beautiful picture book Hip Hop Hurrah Zoo Dance which is great for reading and getting kids moving.

This week I am delighted to introduce you to prolific Australian author Jennifer Poulter. Jennifer writes fiction and poetry for children, education and the literary market. She has had over 50 traditional books and thirteen digital picture books published. She writes under the names J.R. Poulter and J.R. McRae and has received numerous awards for both fiction and poetry writing.

Throughout her career, Jennifer has been employed in numerous roles including Senior Education Officer with the Queensland Studies Authority and Senior Librarian with the State Library of Queensland. She even once worked in a circus. In addition to writing, Jennifer is also an editor and artist. Now, under the banner of Word Wings, Jennifer collaborates with other creatives from over 20 countries.

Today I am talking with Jennifer about her picture book Hip Hop HURRAH! Zoo Dance.

What initially attracted me to this book is its ability to get children moving. What a great way to incorporate fun with movement and reading into any day.

The book also fits perfectly with a dance curriculum that encourages children to become aware of their bodies and how they move in space, to explore and improvise dance movements. Children can be encouraged to move like the zoo animals in the book or improvise movements for other animals and objects that move.

But Hip Hop HURRAH! Zoo Dance can also find its place in the literacy curriculum. Written in rhythmic verse, it encourages children to join in with the reading. It has a treasure of words to delight and extend vocabularies and add sparkle to writing; words like ‘limber, fandangle, prance and shimmies’. Children will laugh at the hippos with the backside wobbles and be intrigued by the combination of illustrations by Jade Potts and the variety of media used by designer Takara Beech in creating the double page spreads.

If you throw in some counting of animals and legs, needs and features of living things, and places they live, you can cover almost the entire curriculum with this one little book. But enough from me, let’s find out what Jennifer has to say.

Continue reading: Introducing Jennifer Poulter, author of Hip Hop HURRAH! Zoo Dance – Readilearn
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July 20, 2018