authors, interviews

Cristy Burne on Suzy Urbaniak: Volcano Hunter and STEAM Warrior

Cristy Burne writes fiction and nonfiction and her books are bursting with adventure, friendship, family, nature, science and technology. Cristy has worked as a science communicator for nearly 20 years across six countries. She has been a science circus performer, garbage analyst, museum writer, and atom-smashing reporter at CERN, but her all-time favourite job is working with kids to embrace the intersection between science, technology and creativity.

Today Cristy is chatting to us about her latest book in the Aussie STEM Stars series – Suzy Urbaniak: Volcano hunter and STEAM Warrior.

From the publisher:

Geologist Suzy Urbaniak is a limbo-dancer, a crepe-baker, a risk-taker and a question-asker. Winner of the 2016 Prime Minister’s Prize for her out-of-the-box teaching, Suzy is all about passion, innovation, and doing things your own way.


How did you come to write a biography of Suzy Urbaniak – is geology a subject you’ve studied?

I collected rocks as a kid, but never went any further with my geoscience interest. If I’d met someone like Suzy, I could very well be a geologist today! The geologists I’ve met – Suzy obviously included – are incredibly passionate about rocks and our planet. They can look at a landscape and see into our past. That’s a magical ability!

Did you meet Suzy Urbaniak in person or gather your information for her biography another way?

Suzy Urbaniak and yr 10 students in the classroom. Photo courtesy Cristy Burne.
Ms Urbaniak & yr 10 students.
Photo courtesy Cristy Burne.

I first met Suzy six years ago, in person, when I interviewed her for a newspaper. She was teaching at Kent Street Senior High School and had just won the Prime Minister’s Prize for Science Teaching – it was an incredible experience and I never forgot the buzzing energy of her students as they busily (and mostly autonomously) worked on their science learning.

Suzy and I stayed in touch (social media is good for something) and when she wanted help writing her life story, I immediately thought of Aussie STEM Stars. And the rest is history!

Just as for my Fiona Wood biography, Suzy and I did our interviews for the book over the phone. I think it’s easier to dive deep into memories when you’re not also thinking about eye contact, body language and social niceties. Over the phone, all you need to do is let your mind drift deep into childhood.

You’re passionate about science (and also adventures!) – have you ever stood on a volcano?

I grew up in New Zealand, so I’ve climbed in to the mouth of an extinct volcano (back when you could do that in Mt Tarawera) and hiked a whole bunch in Tongariro National Park, part of the Pacific Ring of Fire (where you can see steaming vents and boiling mud). I grew up close to Rotorua, where geothermal activity is literally just below the surface (and sometimes even on top!). I have a very healthy respect for volcanoes.

Photo shows children in blue jackets climbing in volcanic areas with green-blue lakes behind them and steam rising from the ground.
Volcano hunting! (Photo courtesy Cristy Burne)

Do you have any advice for young writers who would like to write biographies?

Biographies are non-fiction, but that doesn’t mean they’re just a long list of facts. To bring a biography to life we need to have stories, because stories bring emotion and connection. A good way to bring these stories out is to ask open questions that encourage longer answers, like: ‘Can you tell me about a time that …’

Can you tell us a bit about your next writing project?

I’m working on a graphic novel with publisher Larrikin House. It’s a wild comedy with aliens, explosions, disgusting adventures and desperate escapes, featuring a science-loving kid named Violet whose best friend is a conspiracy theorist and whose pet hermit crab can talk. It’s ridiculous, non-stop, unapologetic science-meets-comedy FUN!

WA (Fremantle) families: MEET Cristy Burne, Suzy Urbaniak and HM Waugh at 11.30am THIS Sunday 26 February 2023 at the Perth Festival, Fremantle Arts Centre! FREE. Includes a drop-in ‘make your own mini Mars-machine’ session.

Suzy Urbaniak: Volcano hunter and STEAM warrior is out now! Ask for it at your favourite bookshop or local library.


AWESOME EXTRAS:

Watch Suzy Urbaniak talking about winning the Prime Minister’s Prize for Excellence in Science Teaching in Secondary Schools [YouTube]

Download the Teachers’ Notes for this book

Download Cristy Burne’s Volcanic Science and Art activity ideas [PDF]

Visit Cristy Burne’s website for more about her and her explosively fabulous books!

Book reviews by Joshua, Book reviews by kids

Book review: Emma Johnston, Marine Biologist and TV Presenter

REVIEWED BY JOSHUA, 13, NSW

Emma Johnston: Marine Biologist and TV Presenter by Dee White, Wild Dingo Press, ISBN 9781925893762

Joshua received a review copy of this book.

Professor Emma Johnston, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor at the University of Sydney, has a genuinely encouraging life story.

Emma was a sponge …

She loved the beach, science and asking her parents questions about the wonderful world around her. She always enjoyed looking at the fascinating marine life under the water’s surface. Her curiosity and the questions her parents answered only gave her the thirst for more knowledge. Moving to Japan, she found the curriculum way more advanced, so she enjoyed the challenge and found class engaging. After returning to Australia, she was shocked by the discrimination against the girls at her high school and she moved to Uni High, a different school, accepted in with a music scholarship. She knew she loved science, communicating with others and playing music on her flute. 

What did she do with her curious mind and knowledge of science as she grew up in this big world?

Find out in Dee White’s extraordinary biography of Emma’s inspiring story. Reading her life story motivated me to look more into science again and rediscover my passion for science I lost a couple years ago. It helped me to relate to Emma as we both love science and I can feel her struggles, opinions and feelings throughout the book.

I loved this book and would rate this book a strong 4 out of 5 for ten to thirteen year olds.

Read our interview with the author, Dee White.


Joshua is a regular contributor to Alphabet Soup. Check out more of Joshua‘s reviewhere If YOU would like to send us a book review, please refer to our submission guidelines. Happy reading!

Book reviews by kids

Book review: John Long, Fossil Hunter

Image shows the cover of a children's biography: John Long, Fossil Hunter by Danielle Clode. The cover is predominantly brown. There's a hand-drawn illustration of John Long, a fair haired man wearing a brown hat, black spectacles and holding a pick and a fossil in each hand. Around this drawing of him are doodle-style illustrations of a fish skeleton, a spade, a paintbrush and an ancient looking fish, as well as a lightbulb lit up in yellow.

REVIEWED BY BELLA, 10, WA

John Long, Fossil Hunter, story told by Danielle Clode, Wild Dingo Press, ISBN 9781925893687

The publisher provided a review copy of this book.

This book in the Aussie Stem Stars series features John Long, the inspiring fossil hunter. The story is told by Danielle Clode.

I recommend this book for ages eight and up.

The chapter I found hilarious was “karate kid”, when suddenly John fell in love with karate. He first had a passion for karate when he saw Bruce Lee do karate!

I learned many facts about fossils in this wonderful book, that I didn’t know before. I also had never heard about John Long before, until I read the first few chapters of the book.

My favourite chapter was ‘Camping Chaos’, because I like how the author described the the event, which made me feel as though I was in a different world, right there stuck in the terrific story!

If I could star rate this book, I would probably give it a 4.5 out of 5! That is my opinion on how the book is really good.

I really enjoyed John Long, and learning about his experience with fossils.

Take a peek inside the book at the publisher’s website!


This is Bella’s first book review for Alphabet Soup. To send us YOUR book review, check out our submission guidelines. Happy reading!

Book reviews by Gabriel, Book reviews by kids

Book review: The Last Light Horse

The image shows the cover of a non fiction book: The Last light Horse by Dianne Wolfer and illustrated by Brian Simmonds. The cover is predominantly purple and includes a sepia photographic style illustration at the centre of the cover with a soldier from WWI leaning against a brown horse with a white spot on its forehead.

REVIEWED BY GABRIEL, 11, NSW

The Last Light Horse by Dianne Wolfer, illustrated by Brian Simmonds, Fremantle Press, ISBN 9781760991302

The publisher provided a review copy of this book.

This exceptional book by Dianne Wolfer is about the only horse survivor from the First World War – Sandy. Sandy was only one out of 136,000 horses sent from Australia to aid the British and Australian officers. The horses were in a new climate and weren’t used to the war. How would Sandy cope with all the fighting?  

The book takes you on a journey going back to WWI to show you what happened in those days. It also has different newspaper clips from that time and pictures to help you visualize the text. The newspaper clips also tell the opinions that were circulating around in Australia concerning the war such as the Declaration of War which was reported on  Friday 7 August 1914 and the deaths of important generals.

I rated this book five stars out of five because it shows Australia’s perspective of the war and has beautiful illustrations. It should be for people interested in history to read.

Read an excerpt from book.

Listen to the author Dianne Wolfer reading from the book.


Gabriel is a regular book reviewer at Alphabet Soup. You can read more of his reviews here. To send us YOUR book review, check out our submission guidelines. Happy reading!

Just Write by Teena Raffa-Mulligan
authors, interviews

Teena Raffa-Mulligan and Just Write

MEET THE AUTHOR

Teena Raffa-Mulligan writes poetry, short stories, picture books and novels. She has also worked as a journalist and editor. Today we’re pleased to welcome her to Alphabet Soup to chat about about her latest book, Just Write – an easy guide to writing stories.

From the publisher:

Just Write can help to kick-start the process for kids who are stuck at the start. Find out how to come up with ideas, create interesting characters, paint word pictures and more in this easy-to-follow guide full of activities and helpful examples.


How did you come to write Just Write?

I never had any trouble writing stories when I was a kid. My pen flew over the page and I could barely keep up with the ideas spilling out of my imagination. I had a head full of stories and would even run home from the park to write them down. When my children were in primary school, I became a parent helper in the classroom and realised there were lots of kids who struggled with story writing.

Around the same time, my first picture book was published and I did some school visits. The idea of putting together a book for children about writing took shape as I had more books released and continued to share my love of stories in talks and workshops. The first version, which was called What Comes Next? Story Writing Made Easy for Children, was accepted for publication but that never happened so the manuscript stayed in my filing cabinet for years.

Last year I had extra time at home because of the COVID lockdowns and restrictions but I didn’t feel like writing anything new. I did need a project to work on so I decided to take another look at some of my unpublished manuscripts. You Can Be a Writer came out in January and is a picture book for early primary children that is based on a talk I give in schools. Just Write is the next level up, so it’s for mid to upper primary age.

I hope the books will encourage children to see story writing as a fun activity. There’s a blank page waiting for our imagination to take us on an exciting adventure and we don’t know where it will lead until we start out.

What’s the WORST writing advice you’ve ever been given?

Be disciplined, write for set hours every day, work on one story from start to finish, and stick to one genre so readers know what to expect.

This may be excellent advice for another writer – I’ve learned it isn’t a fit for me, so I don’t have a set routine. I’m always working on a range of different stories and I don’t work from start to finish. A lot of the time my stories come together like jigsaw puzzles.

You write poetry, picture books, children’s novels, novels for teens and novels for adults. Which do you find easiest to write?

Anything short that I can write quickly and move on to the next bright, shiny new idea! It takes a lot of focus to write a novel and I am easily distracted so sometimes it will be months between writing one chapter and the next. I used to get really cranky with myself for not being more disciplined and concentrating on one story at a time. I’ve now realised this stop and start approach to novels works really well for me because when I return to the story after a break it will head in unexpected directions.

You love reading as well as writing! Can you recommend a book you’ve enjoyed recently?

Maddie in the Middle by Julia Lawrinson kept me so engrossed in the story I read it in two sittings. I had to stop for lunch! It is all about friendship and breaking the rules and Julia captures Maddie’s voice brilliantly. Another story I loved recently was Catch a Falling Star by Meg McKinlay, set in 1979 when the world was waiting for pieces of Skylab to fall back to Earth. Meg is one of my favourite authors and everything she writes is exceptional, from the language she uses to her vividly drawn characters and understanding of human nature.  

Can you tell us a bit about your next writing project? 

I’m working on a novel about a kid who finds a mysterious object at the local quarry the night after his next-door neighbour claims to have been chased by a flying saucer. That night Callum notices his toes have turned red and as the days pass the bright stain creeps steadily up his body. He can’t let Mum know or she won’t let him go to his first ever school camp. Lara from up the street has a secret too, and when the aliens turn up in search of the missing bits of their spaceship, the two kids have to decide what to do. It’s the sort of story I like writing because I let my imagination run free and until I write each scene, I don’t know what’s going to happen next.

Just Write is out now! Ask for it at your favourite book store or local library.


AWESOME EXTRAS

Read our 2019 interview with the author

Visit Teena Raffa-Mulligan’s website for more about her and her books

Just Write by Teena Raffa-Mulligan
Book reviews by Gabriel, Book reviews by kids

Book review: Gisela Kaplan, bird and primate scientist

REVIEWED BY GABRIEL, 10, NSW

Gisela Kaplan Bird and primate scientist, story told by Emily Gale (book cover)

Gisela Kaplan, Bird and Primate Scientist by Emily Gale, Wild Dingo Press, ISBN 9781925893465

The publisher provided a review copy of this book.

How did Gisela Kaplan, a young German survivor of WWII become a world-leading expert in the behaviour of animals?

This book is a biography of Gisela Kaplan written by Emily Gale. Gisela Kaplan had a hard life in Germany after the Second World War. Then after she immigrated to Australia, the book shows how other people helped her along in her career as she played a role in primate and bird science. In addition, there are notes to help explain words you don’t understand.

When she arrives in Australia what jobs could she take? How did she learn a second language, and how does she support her daughter? Read Aussie STEM Stars Gisela Kaplan to find out more and all the answers to these questions!

I like this book and for me, it is five-star rated because it shows an emotional story of immigration. It also shows how much practice has to go into work till you can fulfil your dream, as you can see how she consistently worked away from home, in the work field.   

This book would be for ages ten and up to read by themselves although most children from the age of six to ten can read with someone to help the children understand. Go grab a copy of this amazing book either online or hard copy.

Read a sample chapter from this book

Read our interview with the author


Gabriel is a regular book reviewer at Alphabet Soup. You can read more of his reviews here.

competitions

Guinness World Records 2021 (+ giveaway)

We know many of our readers are fans of the Guinness World Records books and with the release of the 2021 edition we’re excited to share a peek at one of the records – a record that’s bookish, and speedy … and involves knocking things down! We’re also thrilled to be collaborating with the publisher for a Guinness World Records 2021 giveaway. *** THIS GIVEAWAY HAS NOW CLOSED***

From the publisher:

– Travel through the Solar System and see the planets come to life with a free augmented-reality feature
– Encounter the cutest, weirdest, most dangerous and exotic creatures on our home planet
– Meet the world’s tallest, shortest, hairiest and heaviest humans
– Marvel at the latest high scores, speed runs and players at the top of their game in eSports and beyond
– Get the lowdown on the world’s most successful and prolific actors, musicians, TV stars and influencers
– Review the greatest sports achievements from the past year and celebrate today’s top athletes

Check out this bookish record, featured in Guinness World Records 2021:

Most books toppled in a domino fashion: Kmart Australia took an hour to set up 3000 copies of Guinness World Records — before knocking them all over — at their annual conference on 31 October 2018 in Queenstown, New Zealand. A total of 334 employees took part, beating the previous best of 2500, set by Aconex (AUS) set on 20 July 2017.
Extracted from Guinness World Records 2021, published by Pan Macmillan Australia (available now!)

Want to win a copy of Guinness World Records 2021? We have three copies of the book to giveaway, thanks to Pan MacMillan Australia. Here’s how to enter:

  • Email editor@alphabetsoup.net.au with GWR2021 in the subject line. In the body of the email state your name.
  • Entries close 11.59pm (AWST) on 28 September 2020.
  • The winners will be contacted by email and we will request a postal address at that time. Winners’ names and Australian states will be announced on Alphabet Soup’s blog on Tuesday 29 September 2021.
  • Entrants must be aged 18 or over (children can ask an adult to enter on their behalf).
  • The prize will only be posted to an Australian address.
  • See Terms & conditions for more information.

Good luck!

Book reviews by kids, Book reviews by Kobe

Book review: Minecraft Guide to Survival

MINECRAFT GUIDE TO SURVIVAL by MojangREVIEWED BY KOBE, 9, WA

Minecraft Guide to: Survival by Mojang AB, Egmont UK, ISBN 9781405296502

Kobe reviewed her own copy of this book.

ARGH! You just can’t find the right book to guide you through Survival Mode in Minecraft, what should you do? Well, I’ve got the perfect solution for you: read the amazing, fantastic, and spectacular Minecraft Guide to: Survival book! This official book is developed by Mojang, the creators of Minecraft and it is absolutely the unmistakable guide to Survival Mode in Minecraft with every piece of info and tips!

I believe that this book is totally and utterly the most ultimate Survival guide you can wish for! There, solved your problem, but here comes another, how do you use the book? Using the book is quite easy because all you need to do is read the book through and if you come across ANY problems, really look and seek some information to help yourself to any situations you have! How simple is that?

Now imagine you’re playing just fine, hold on! What’s that thing right next to you? Hmm, looks like some sort of creature that swims in water, EEK! It also has some creepy teeth and weird eyes! That’s exactly what happened to me! I was doing amazingly well looking at the stream I was next to behind my tree, then weird tentacles rose out of the water and with circle of teeth! But how could I know that it was only a squid rather than a nerve racking monster without this amazing guide book? If I had that book at that time, I wouldn’t be so creeped out!

Now you can immediately see how your brain is urging you to get that book! I’m just saying, you are not going to survive in Survival Mode for that long if you’re a beginner and you haven’t gotten this book already because when I tried Survival without the book, it was only a matter of time before a creeper exploded right next to me, so I died.

Now I am 100% sure you are going to get this book as soon as possible! Have a good time reading, adventurous reader!


Kobe is a regular book reviewer for Alphabet Soup. You can read all her reviews hereTo send us YOUR book review, check out our submission guidelines. Happy reading!

Book reviews by kids, Oxley Christian College

Book review: Koala

Koala by Claire Saxby and Julie Vivas. Image: picture book with blue sky background and an illustration of a koala in the crook of a gumtree branch. REVIEWED BY CINDY, 7, VIC
Koala by Claire Saxby,
illustrated by Julie Vivas,
Walker Books,
ISBN 9781925126396

Cindy read a copy of this book in her school library.

A koala mum ignores her own little baby koala and says ‘Climb, little koala, it’s time to find your own way’.

Why can’t Koala jump back into his mother’s pouch now? Will his mother come to save him if he falls off the branches on his way to find his own home?

This book is a story about a young koala and his mother advising him about what he should be able to do as he’s growing up.

The book has the extra features of non-fiction text and a poem on each page.

I recommend this book for kids who love koalas, particularly kids who are 3-7 years old. I give this book a rating of 8 out of 10.


If you’d like to read more book reviews by Oxley Christian College students, you can click on ‘Oxley Christian College’ in the grey categories box in the right column of this blog. To send us YOUR book review, check out our submission guidelines. Happy reading!

Book reviews by kids, Book reviews by Matilda

Book review: Do not lick this book

Do not lick this bookREVIEWED BY MATILDA, 11, WA

Do not lick this book by Idan Ben-Barak, illustrated by Julian Frost, A & U Children’s, ISBN 9781760293055

Matilda received a review copy of this book from the publisher.

This picture book is an information book about germs — how small they are, and where you’ll find them. This is an interactive book and as part of the story you have to take Min (a microbe) on an adventure. Do not lick this book includes photographs taken with a microscope to show close-ups of paper, teeth, your shirt, and your belly button (your skin), as well as comic-style illustrations.

I like how it turns a serious topic into a fun story with cute germ characters. I found the teeth page very interesting with the close-up view of your teeth.

This book is bright, funny, and child-friendly. It’s great for ages 4+. I’m  11 and I still found it entertaining and interesting. So did my mum (and she’s 43).


Matilda is one of our regular book reviewers. You can read Matilda’s other reviews here. If YOU would like to send us a book review, check out our submission guidelines. Happy reading!