If you live near Perth, WA, make sure you’re at the State Library of WA on 17 November for the 2024 Young Readers Day Out!
Meet some of WA’s most well-known children’s book authors and illustrators for a morning packed with activities, including: • Helping illustrators compete in an interactive illustration duel • Learning how to draw your favourite book characters • Peeking behind-the-scenes to find out how these stories come to life • Meeting and chatting with twelve children’s book authors and illustrators.
This event is suitable for book-lovers of all ages, but perfect for ages 0-12. All children must be accompanied by an adult.
Meet these amazing book creators: Rebecca M. Newman Kelly Canby Sharon Giltrow Ash Harrier Steve Heron Laura Holloway Lorraine Horsley Kylie Howarth Chenée Marrapodi Jevita Nilson Kristy Nita Brown Renae Hayward
Cost: $20 + booking fee
Each ticket includes: • Entry for up to 6 people • 1 x $20 voucher at the Boffins Books pop-up shop on the day • Gift bag with bookmarks, colouring-in sheets and more
Date: Sunday, 17 November 2024, 10:30 AM – 12:30 PM
A Matter of Cats by Elizabeth Hutchins, Wakefield Press, ISBN 9781743058893
Gus’s review of A Matter of Cats was longlisted in the 2024 Young Reviewers’ Competition.
A Matter of Cats by Elizabeth Hutchins is an amazing story of friendship and environmental awareness, set in Mala Sanctuary in South Australia. Although not a real place, it is similar to a wildlife park nearby to where the author lives in the Adelaide hills called Warrawong Sanctuary in Mylor. The story tells the adventures of Kate and her friends, and a cat called Bunyip.
I think the author was mostly trying to focus on how cats can impact the wildlife. She really loved cats, but she also loved nature, so she found it hard to balance them both living together. I think after reading this book people will get a better understanding about the difficult relationship of cats and nature.
I loved how everything felt real, and I felt like I was part of the story. The description was really good, and I could picture what all of the characters and the environment looked like and how they felt. My favourite character was Kristie because she was funny and smart. I loved the illustrations, and they were done by an 18 year old.
Every chapter was exciting, and I couldn’t wait to see what was going to be on the next page. Elizabeth Hutchins is very good at making you feel how the characters are feeling, and it makes it a really enjoyable book to read.
I think this book would be good for ages 9+ and I am giving this book 10 out of 10 stars.
Gus’s review was longlisted in the Primary category in Alphabet Soup’s 2024 Young Reviewers’ Competition. The competition is now closed, but we post reviews by young reviewers all year round. To send us YOUR book review, read our submission guidelines. Happy reading!
James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl, illustrated by Quentin Blake, Puffin, ISBN 9780241558331
Lachlan’s review of James and the Giant Peach was the winner in the 2024 Young Book Reviewers’ Competition.
The story is called James and the Giant Peach. It was illustrated by Quentin Blake. He has illustrated more than three hundred books, and he was awarded the Kate Greenaway medal. He was also one of the first children classics illustrators. The writer is Roald Dahl. He was a spy, an ace fighter pilot, a chocolate historian and a medical inventor.
In this story, James had a happy life until his parents died, and he had to live with his aunts who were both lazy. One day, an old man gave James some magic and told him to put it inside a glass of water and drink it in one gulp. On the way, James tripped over and spilt the magic on the ground. The magic went into insects and the peach tree.
The two aunts, Spiker and Sponge, came out shouting there was a enormous peach on the tree. Spiker asked people, “Who wants the peach?”.
At this same time, James found a tunnel in the peach and discovered a big room. In this room, Grasshopper introduced the insects that lived there. James and the insects had a big journey to the sea and James tied string to seagulls and they flew to America.
During the journey they solved problems. Spider said that James was so smart that she wanted to be smart like him.
My favourite part was when James lost his first chance of happiness but did not give up. I felt proud because he used to be miserable but now, he is happy. They also used good team work to solve their problems.
I highly recommend this book to children of all ages because they can learn how to be resilient. If they miss a chance, they can wait for another – and that includes being patient because sometimes things can turn out better than you think. This book also can teach children the importance of teamwork.
Lachlan’s review was the winner of the Junior category in Alphabet Soup’s 2024 Young Reviewers’ Competition. The competition is now closed, but we post reviews by young reviewers all year round. To send us YOUR book review, read our submission guidelines. Happy reading!
Waiting for the Storks by Katrina Nannestad, ABC Books, ISBN 9780733340888
Sahana’s review of this book was the winner in the 2024 Young Reviewers’ Competition.
I press my face against the bars of the truck and scream for my Mama and Tata. My heart slowly drops and tears slither down my cheeks. Desperation claws at me and I bang against the truck walls sobbing. I have lost Mama and Tata and I want to go home. I want to hear Tata’s laughter and see my Mama’s smile. I long to be laughing with them but I am stuck in a cold truck, with twenty or more little children like me.
Waiting for the Storks provides the perspective of a young Polish girl named Zofia. Poland lives under the Nazis’ rule and one gloomy night she is taken by the Nazis, kicking and screaming for her Mama and Tata. At this moment, the author, Katrina Nannestad, puts you in Zofia’s mind making you feel just as sad, angry and desperate as her.
She is taken into Himmler’s Lebensborn Program and adopted by a rich, loving, German family. It seems easier to forget her past. I am torn between what Zofia should do – is she a good, happy, German girl or a sad, defiant Polish Stork? We share Zofia’s happiness and we share her fear. We laugh when she laughs and cry when she cries.
The reason I love Waiting for the Storks is that I feel like I am with Zofia. Katrina Nannestad writes just enough so we get a glimpse of their emotion and are sucked in. The story becomes our journey and every friend or foe along the way is ours. When Zofia leaves her friends for Germany, a tear trickled down my cheek. I felt as if I had lost something within me.
I admire Zofia. She has been through so much and I think experiencing things with her forged a sort of bond between me and the character. It is so easy to relate to a character like Zofia and by the end of the book you are left with all the emotions from her journey.
Another thing that I liked about the book was that Katrina Nannestad was able to make this a more understandable and relatable book for young readers. World War ll is full of sadness and gore and other horrible things. I think we get a taste of that, just enough to make us understand, and not too much to overwhelm us.
At the end of the book you feel a sense of incompleteness. The tie I’ve forged with the story and Zofia makes it feel as if I have experienced it all. Her fear when they took her. Her sadness when she gave up. Her happiness amongst other children. Her desperation for her Mama and Tata. You want the story to keep going and that is the sign of any good writer. This book is perfect for readers 10–13 to have a glimpse into World War II, all in a beautiful, heartfelt story.
Sahana’s review was the winner in the Primary category of Alphabet Soup’s 2024 Young Reviewers’ Competition. The competition is now closed, but we publish book reviews by young writers all year round. To send us YOUR book review, read our submission guidelines. Happy reading!
Selected reviews will be published here at Alphabet Soup over the coming weeks. If you are one of the longlisted reviewers above, we will be in touch soon to let you know the date that your review will appear.
Tracey Dembo writes books encouraging big questions, daring dreams and wild imaginations. She’s the author of two picture books: An A to Z of Dreaming Differently, illustrated by Lucia Masciullo, and This Book is a Time Machine, illustrated by Lucinda Gifford. Today we’re excited to chat to Tracey about This Book is a Time Machine!
From the publisher:
Guess what? You are holding a real-life time machine! You don’t believe me? I’ll show you! For a start, I wrote this blurb in the PAST. Yet, you are reading it in the PRESENT. And when you finish reading the blurb, it will be the FUTURE …
The author (you!) and the illustrator are both characters in This Book is a Time Machine. Did you meet Lucinda Gifford while she was working on the illustrations?
I actually didn’t meet Lucinda while working on the illustrations – the first time I met Lucinda was before that, during the Maurice Saxby Mentorship Program in 2022 (an incredible creative development program for children’s creators that I was fortunate enough to be part of). Lucinda was a former mentee of this program, and we were fortunate to have lunch with her and to hear all about her creative journey and processes as part of the mentorship. I was completely in awe of her, and it was so inspiring to listen to her experiences. So, you can imagine how excited I was to hear that she had agreed to do the illustrations for This Book Is a Time Machine! Once she had signed up, we met early in the process, via a video call with Tash, our publisher. This is not necessarily the conventional way authors and illustrators collaborate on a book, but because we are both actual characters in the book (which is unusual), it was really important to make sure we were all on the same page and to work closely together. It was a great experience to be able to work like this with such an incredible illustrator and creative team, including Tash and Kristy Lund-White (the designer).
If you climbed into a time machine, would you choose to go into the past or the future?
I would probably go backwards into the past and meet some of the incredible people who are no longer with us. Frida Kahlo and Albert Einstein would be two people who I would really love to meet.
This book features so many creatures, people and events escaping from their time in history – if you were dressing up as a character from This Book is a Time Machine for a Book Week parade, what would your costume be?
Although this is one book I could get away with not dressing up for (as I could go as myself), I would definitely go as the mummy.*
I just love the different facial expressions of this character throughout the book (I’m pretty sure one of those expressions is how I look before I’ve had my morning coffee).
*Check out the mummy in the letter E on the book’s cover.
If we took a time machine into the future, what would we see Future Tracey working on?
Look, I would love to be able to say that Future Tracey would be working on an international best-seller, but I guess I would need to use my time machine to find out if this is true!
In the meantime, I am writing as much as I can in the hope that a future brilliant idea will come to me.
Do you have a tip for young writers who would like to try writing their own picture books?
My tip would be to keep on going and persisting, even when your work does not turn out how you want it to. Making mistakes and mess and improving your craft is all part of the process and so it is really important not to give up.
This Book is a Time Machine is out now! Ask for it at your favourite bookshop or local library, or order online.
Caz Goodwin lives in Victoria and writes picture books, junior fiction, short stories and poetry for children. Her latest picture book —Lazy Daisy— is a hilarious rhyming tale, illustrated by Ashley King.
From the publisher: All of Jasper’s dreams come true when he finds his very own ‘puppy dog’ to walk in Centenary Park. But Daisy the ‘dog’ isn’t much of a walker — she tends to spend most of her day climbing gumtrees and dozing. If only someone would explain to Jasper that Daisy is a koala, NOT a dog! Just as Jasper’s about to give up on his dream, he has a madcap idea of how Daisy can still join him on his daily walk, whether she’s asleep or not.
We’re thrilled to welcome Caz Goodwin to Alphabet Soup today!
Do you write on a computer, or use pen and paper?
When I’m writing a first draft, I use old-fashioned pencil and paper. I often use an exercise book, and only write on one side and use the opposite page for notes and ideas. I like to cross out and edit as I go, and make a lovely, scribbly mess. Later, I type it onto my computer.
You write picture books, novels, short stories and poems … how do you know which one to start writing if you get an idea?
My writing ideas usually start with a character. I toss the character around in my head for a while before I start writing, to work out what adventures they might have or what trouble they might get into. (I like to put my characters in lots of strife.) Once I have an idea of what the story will be, I can work out whether it would be best as a picture book or novel or short story.
What’s next for Daisy?
Daisy the koala causes a hullabaloo in the next book, called Daisy Runs Wild. While on her daily walk, she unexpectedly leaps into the air and takes off round the park. Jasper runs after her as she interrupts a yoga class, ruins a game of cricket and accidentally pushes poor posh Mrs Pallot into the pond! Can Jasper work out what is wrong with Daisy?
(Daisy Runs Wild, published by Little Hare/Hardie Grant Egmont, will be released in March.)
Which of your characters is most like you?
If I’m honest, I’m quite a bit like Daisy the koala. Two of my favourite things are eating and sleeping, and despite my best intentions, I often end up in trouble.
Do you have a tip for young writers?
Can I give you two tips? Read a lot. Write a lot. (Like anything, your writing will improve the more you practice. And don’t forget to edit your work.)
Nat Amoore is a Sydney-based writer and podcaster (if you haven’t heard of the One More Page podcast, you’d better check it out here). Nat is an accomplished entertainer and presenter for children, and has been a trapeze artist and circus performer for the international resort chain, Club Med. Her first children’s novel is Secrets of a Schoolyard Millionaire:
Finding a million dollars in your backyard – every kid’s dream, right? That’s what me and my best friend Toby thought too.
Jumping castles at school. Lollipops for our adoring fans. Wearing sunglasses indoors (‘cos that’s what all the millionaires do).
There’s a lot you can get with a million dollars . . . including a whole lot of trouble.
We’re thrilled to be chatting with Nat Amoore at Alphabet Soup today!
Okay – what would YOU do with a million dollars if you suddenly became a millionaire?
Oooooohhhh, this is such a hard one even though I get asked it all the time. One of my favourite things about writing Secrets Of a Schoolyard Millionaire was being able to explore all the things I could/would do with a million dollars. But in the end, I think I’d divide it into three. First third would be to go wild with. Spend on whatever I wanted. Rent out Wet’n’Wild for all my friends so we didn’t have to wait in line. Buy heaps of books. Get a bed shaped like a race car. Take a holiday. Just get a little cray-cray! The second third I would put away and save for something responsible when I grow up, like buying a house or something adult like that. And the last third I would spend on other people who need it more. There are a lot of great charities out there and a lot of ways to help people who need it.
Did you base the characters in Secrets of a Schoolyard Millionaire on anyone you know?
I think A LOT of people who know me will tell you that there is a lot of me in Tess. My friends say when they read the book, they can hear my voice in their head as Tess speaks. A lot of the things Tess does in the book, I did when I was a kid.
Then with the other characters, there are a lot of ‘bits’ of them that come from real people. Toby has some elements about him that are based on a friend of mine. So does Kathy. I actually have a brother called Dane who had a dog just like Butthead when we were kids. So I think when I write, I’m a little bit like Doctor Frankenstein. I take bits of different people I know and then sew them all together to make new characters.
Writing a book: Pen and paper? Or write it straight onto the computer?
OMG, I CANNOT write with a pen and paper. Even when I was at school, I always got in trouble for my handwriting. I was the LAST kid to get their pen licence and if you go back and read my school reports they say ‘Nat still does not join her writing’. To this day I cannot do running writing, I always print. I always write in capitals and when I write in a birthday card, my hand aches for a week after. The only way my writing can keep up with my brain is if I’m typing. If I was born 100 years ago I would never have written a book because I would never have been able to do it with a paper and pen. So without a doubt, I’m a straight-into-the-computer kind of gal!
What’s your million-dollar tip for young writers?
Just write! Don’t worry about spelling or punctuation for now. Just get the idea out. You can come back later and fix all that stuff up. I’m not the greatest writer, I know that. But I have really great ideas. Fortunately I have editors and publishers who help me put all the commas and stuff where they are supposed to go. And you have people to help you with that too. But you’ll have nothing to fix if you don’t write it first. So get your idea down on the paper/screen and don’t let all that other stuff stop you. I still, don’t know, where all, those, pesky commas are, supposed to go,,,,,,
What are you working on next?
Right now, like RIGHT THIS SECOND, I am working on the follow up to Secrets Of A Schoolyard Millionaire. It is called The Power Of Positive Pranking and it’s coming out in June 2020. It’s not really a sequel so much, but it does happen in the same world as Secrets Of A Schoolyard Millionaire (the town of Watterson and Watterson Primary School) and you will see some of your favourite characters make a comeback. It’s a story told from the perspective of a very minor character who made a small appearance in the first book — ooooohhhhh the mystery!
Nean McKenzie is a children’s writer and optometrist who lives in western Melbourne with her husband and two teenage children. When not writing or testing people’s eyes, Nean enjoys travelling to interesting places around the world. She also likes bush walking and reading books, especially ones for 8-12 year-olds. Earlier this year she published her first children’s novel, Cryptosight.
Rafferty Kaminski is a 13-year-old who believes in facts. Not like his Cryptozoologist father, who searches for creatures not proven to exist.
When their father disappears in the Flinders Ranges, strange things start happening to Raff and his younger sister Zara. They learn that their father belongs to a secret organisation and they are suddenly being pursued by bunyip hunters.
Today Hannah (age 13, QLD, and one of our regular book reviewers) interviews Nean McKenzie about writing Cryptosight. Over to you, Hannah and Nean!
What inspired you to write about the wonderful world of cryptozoology?
Cryptozoology is a weird sort of world between fantasy and reality, which I thought was great to write about. While the likelihood of any of these crypto-creatures actually existing is really low, it’s still not impossible. I have had people talking to me since the book came out about things that they’ve seen, but no-one believed them! And the creatures are uniquely Australian.
Obviously a lot of research went into the creation of the novel. Can you describe how long the research period took and how the it impacted the overall story?
I like to go to the places I write about to get a feel for them, so we went to the Flinders Ranges and Mildura on family holidays. I’ve spent a lot of time in the Grampians – it’s one of my favourite places. I also went the Wombat State Forest, especially for story research. I really find it helps me to get ideas and also to describe smells, sounds, etc. I research as I write really, so it’s all part of the process.
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When was the first moment you discovered you had a passion for
writing and it would be your career?
I’ve always wanted to be a writer, since I was about seven. I wrote my first novel when I was fifteen, an adventure story set in 16th century Scotland. I did a professional writing and editing course as an adult, which further inspired me to write. I have written quite a few books, but this is the first one to get published. I do have another job, as an optometrist which is good as it is not always easy to earn money as a writer! But when I write I can escape to other worlds and it makes me happy. I think I will always love it.
What advice would you give young writers?
The best advice I’ve been given is that writers need to write. It sounds obvious, but it’s not always easy to do. There are many things that get in the way of writing, but making time to do it and doing it often, makes the writing better, I think. I also think reading a lot is important as it feeds the mind and the imagination.
Can we expect a sequel or even a series for this novel?
I wanted Cryptosight to finish with a few unanswered questions as cryptozoology is all about mystery and never really finding out what’s real. So I think that is the end of Raff and Zara’s story but I have written another story set in the cryptozoology world with different characters and creatures, and am working on a third. There is so much to write about!
Julia Lawrinson was born just after the first moon landing and grew up in the outer suburbs of Perth. Julia is an award-winning author of books for children, teenagers, and adults – her latest book is Maddie in the Middle.
Maddie Lee is in year six. Her best and oldest friend Katy is busy with school duties and music and scholarship plans, and Maddie feels lost and lonely. Then a new girl starts at school. Maddie wants more than anything to become friends with her. And she does. But Samara’s friendship comes at a high price, with consequences Maddie could never have imagined.
Today we’re thrilled to welcome Julia to Alphabet Soup to talk about writing books.
What sparked the idea for Maddie in the Middle?
The novel was sparked by a friend telling me how her daughter was caught shoplifting. It was something completely out of character for this girl, and I began thinking of all the reasons good kids might do bad things. Then I began wondering what would happen if a kid was doing bad things for a good reason. And so Maddie and her story were born!
How long did it take you to go from the initial idea to the finished manuscript?
It took a couple of years. I work full time so I write in half hour blocks early in the morning, or on weekends, so progress is slow. Also, every book seems to take at least three re-writes before I have a grip on point of view and character development, and then what feels like a million edits after that! The team at Fremantle Press [the publishers] were wonderful to deal with – direct but sensitive with suggestions.
Pen and paper, or computer?
I prefer writing with pen and paper, but I am a fast typist, due to time constraints (see above!) all my drafts are done on the screen. I am still very fond of keeping a pen and paper journal, though.
Do have any advice for young writers?
Start writing! Practice writing – anything, from fake hashtags to parody lyrics to poems, short stories and scripts. Write and don’t worry about what will happen with it. Have fun!
What are you working on next?
Its working title is The ABBA novel’ – it’s set in 1979, features roller-skating, Countdown, horses, glitter pens, and prank calls, as well as letters to someone from the past. I am having the best fun writing it.
Do you write on a computer, or use pen and paper?
MEET THE AUTHOR
Okay – what would YOU do with a million dollars if you suddenly became a millionaire?
Awesome extras:
MEET THE AUTHOR
What inspired you to write about the wonderful world of cryptozoology?
What sparked the idea for Maddie in the Middle?
Awesome extras:
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