Naturopolis is a narrative non-fiction picture book for kids aged 4+, parents, teachers… and anyone who loves to celebrate the myriad of life on this planet.
Among the steel and stone canyons of the city, nature flourishes in tiny, tenacious ways. Follow the ant (Iridomyrmex purpureus) to discover the scraps of wilderness hiding in plain sight in this lyrical celebration of urban flora and fauna.
Naturopolis is illustrated by Ingrid Bartkowiak and published by Storytorch. The lush images are full of tiny beautiful details to discover - exactly like the urban landscape itself. I’m so lucky that my first book is such a beautiful physical thing!
CBCA Award for New Illustrator - Shortlist, 2023
CBCA Eve Pownall Award (Information Books) - Notable, 2023
ABIA (Small Publisher Children’s Book of the Year) - Longlist, 2023
Nautilus Awards (Children’s Non-Fiction) - Gold, 2023
A warm and fun picture book with a spunky female lead, a grandma full of surprises, and all the glittery magic of Sydney Harbour. Illustrated by Cate James and published by Affirm Press.
Nanna is taking Charlie for a Girls' Day Out. They'll have high tea, watch the ballet, smell flowers and visit the Harbour Fairy. Charlie does not like the sound of a Girls' Day Out. And she especially hates fairies.
But the Sydney Harbour Fairy isn't what Charlie expected, and her Girls' Day Out with Nanna just got so much better.
A sparkling ode to imagination, grandmothers, and finding magic in unlikely places.
Contains:
murderous swans
toilet roll contraptions
not-at-all-dainty burgers
the biggest, noisiest, honking-est fairy you’ve ever seen
The Sydney Harbour Fairy book trailer
A story about cats and humans, immigration and identity, and homes lost and found.
Some cats are house cats. Some are apartment cats.
But Tinka is a truck cat. Tinka lives everywhere.
Along with his human, Yacoub, Tinka travels roads wide and narrow, near and distant. But no matter how much they travel, home feels very far away – for both of them.
Yacoub drives his truck to make a living, learning the landscape of a new country along the way, and longing for connection. When Tinka and Yacoub are unexpectedly separated, they are determined to find their way back to each other – and, in doing so, might find more than they expected …
The Truck Cat is illustrated (extraordinarily!) by Danny Snell and published by Hardie Grant (Bright Light).
You can reach for anything
When you’ve reached 100 days.
When you start school, there are a lot of firsts. Your first friend! Your first excursion! Your first sports day! As the days go by, all those firsts add up … and soon you've reached 100 days of school.
I wrote this book as my daughter was in her first year of school and put a lot of her first experiences as a preppie in it: from the excitement of the practice excursion, to the joy of singing in a choir, to the extraordinary magic that happens when marks on a page turn into letters… and then words! And, of course, the utter pride when you get to celebrate your 100th day of school - complete with talcum powder hair and op shop old lady glasses and a gang of other 5-year-old centenarians.
***
100 School Days is illustrated by Laura Stitzel and published by Affirm Press.
I’ve always thought’ ‘HMMM’ about how it’s no big deal for boys to have long, curly, crazy hair until about the age of 4… then it rapidly becomes for some reason A BIG DEAL INDEED.
Then the mutters of ‘shouldn’t he have a haircut like a big boy?’ begin. And hair that just does its long, growing, innocently hair-like thing becomes more than hair: it becomes a statement.
Anyway, that little HMMM became the starting point for this silly, joyful story.
It’s a story about being different.
About shame.
And boldness.
And community.
And hair, of course.
(Lots and lots of spectacular hair.)
Boldilocks will be out via EK Books in 2025, illustrated by the brilliant Carla Hoffenberg. Yay!
