To tell us what she used to read after lights out, today we welcome Hazel Edwards, author of many, many books, including There’s a Hippopotamus on Our Roof Eating Cake, The Gang-O Kids, and Outback Ferals.
Hazel Edwards, the Aqua-readaholic
Yes, I did read under the bedclothes with a torch. Didn’t have to use my pocket money for torch batteries because we lived in a country general store which sold everything.
But my favourite place for reading was, and still is, in the bath. So I’m an aqua-readaholic. Maybe a publisher will make waterproof pages in the future?
My grandfather had a lending library, so I could borrow Enid Blyton mysteries and then I moved onto spy stories. (If I were aged under 12 today, I’d probably read Deb Abela’s ‘Max Remy’ series.)
I like quest stories where you have to find something. That’s why I wrote the Gang-O Kids who solve mysteries while orienteering.
Now I write stories like Outback Ferals (published by Hachette) which has an eco-scientist Kyle who is trying to solve a pandemic mystery, or picture book Plato the Platypus Plumber(part-time) who is a problem-solver.
Also, I travel a lot so I listen to audio stories, especially mysteries.
– Hazel Edwards
PS I have dropped a few books in the bath, but don’t tell.
© 2010 Hazel Edwards
You can find out more about Hazel Edwards and her books by visiting her website – www.hazeledwards.com.
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Alphabet Soup magazine is celebrating the launch of Undercover Readers (our new reviewers club for kids)! If you’d like to join the Undercover Readers Club, you’ll find an information pack you can download from the Alphabet Soup website. As part of the celebrations, we have a different children’s author or illustrator visiting Soup Blog each day until 29 June 2010 to talk about what they used to read after ‘lights out’ when they were growing up. So be sure to check back tomorrow!
alphabetsoup.net.au 
The bath is also my favourite place to read. And I too have dropped a few books in!
Bath, spa, pool, lagoon – I must be an aqua-readaholic too!
I find this very interesting because I would LOVE to combine water with reading but have only tried it a few times and didn’t find it at all relaxing! My fear of getting the book wet is too strong and I usually abandon the reading until I’m out of the water. What do you do if your books drop into the water? Do you chuck them out and buy another copy? Or can you somehow dry out a book that’s been immersed? (Don’t the pages go all crinkly?) :-O
I don’t remember dropping books in the bath as a child. If I needed to do something physical like actually wash, I would put the book to one side. In the pool, I lie in a lounger in the shaded part of the water, and pick up the book once I’m balanced. NB I don’t do this if young children are here. The spa is easy as I am sitting, and it’s next to a shelf. Best with bubbles turned off. Lagoon is trickiest as it’s a public beach but I adopt a stern glare so people don’t splash me.
I wouldn’t do it if the book got wet. Books are precioussssss.
I took a book into the bath a week ago – reliving old memories of when I once had time to do such things. I hadn’t counted on the passage of time – I need glasses to read now and they kept fogging up!