40 Years of Magpies Magazine: how children’s literature has changed by Joy Lawn

40 Years of Magpies Magazine: how children’s literature has changed by Joy Lawn Feature article (reproduced with permission) Magpies Magazine has always endeavoured to live up to its welcoming subtitle, ‘Talking About Books for Children’. It is now celebrating 40 years of professional, enthusiastic and faithful chronicling of Australian and other children’s literature with the […]

Children’s Books Winning Open Awards

Children’s Books Winning Open Awards My Editorial in Magpies Magazine (reproduced with permission) EDITORIAL EDITORIAL EDITORIAL EDITORIAL EDITORIAL EDITORIAL EDITORIAL EDITORIAL Children’s books are having a time of recognition with a picture book, Once I Was a Giant by Zeno Sworder (Thames & Hudson) winning this year’s overall Book of the Year, as well as […]

A Hat for Every Harriet by Jess Horn & Zoë Bennett

A Hat for Every Harriet by Jess Horn, ill. Zoë Bennett (Affirm Press, Simon & Schuster) A Hat for Every Harriet: Behind the Hats With great honesty and insight, Jess Horn writes about the genesis of her moving and wise, A Hat for Every Harriet, for Joy in Books at PaperbarkWords blog. And, as a […]

Terrible Tails: The Last Sipper by Adin Milo

Terrible Tails: The Last Sipper written & illustrated by Adin Milo (Berbay Publishing) “Nestled in a valley of mountains and surrounded by forests, the Terrible Tail Tavern sits along Old King’s Road … in the kingdom of Austerra.” (Terrible Tails: The Last Sipper) The Last Sipper is the first book in Adin Milo’s ‘Terrible Tails’ […]

A Loo of One’s Own by Eleri Harris

A Loo of One’s Own: A Mostly True Tale of Australia’s First Female Parliamentarians written and illustrated by Eleri Harris (Allen & Unwin) “Our story starts eighty years ago in Canberra, where all the cool stuff happens… On the first day of school … Wait! Parliament! Two women walked into Australia’s Parliament House. And came […]

Mine by Adam Ouston

Mine by Adam Ouston Transit Lounge “… considering the situation, which was in large part where the element of terror originated, the sense that there was something else happening, something bigger than him, a secret story beneath the apparent one, for which he had no words or even capacity for understanding, more mindbloggling than the […]

Peculiar Parents by Stephanie Owen Reeder and Ingrid Bartkowiak

Peculiar Parents by Stephanie Owen Reeder and Ingrid Bartkowiak (NLA Publishing) Peculiar Parents is shortlisted in the Eve Pownall non-fiction category of the 2026 CBCA awards. Author Dr Stephanie Owen Reeder writes about her well-named and impeccably researched and compiled book, Peculiar Parents, for Paperbark Words blog: Stephanie Owen Reeder on Peculiar Parents Peculiar Parents explores […]

We Saw What You Started & We Did It Anyway by Carla Salmon

We Saw What You Started & We Did It Anyway by Carla Salmon INSIDE THE CBCA 2026 SHORTLIST (Pan Macmillan Australia) “I’d assumed Jasper was joking, since it’s impossible to tell when he’s being serious or sarcastic. His thick Aussie drawl means all his sentences end with a cheerful upward inflection. But breaking into the […]

EIGHTY-NINE QUESTIONS FOR AFTER by Ashleigh Barton

EIGHTY-NINE QUESTIONS FOR AFTER by Ashleigh Barton Lothian Children’s Books Ashleigh Barton writes about her wise, compassionate middle-grade novel, Eighty-nine Questions for After for Joy in Books at Paperbark Words blog Eighty-nine Questions After – Unanswerable Questions Guest author post by Ashleigh Barton Eighty-nine Questions for After centres around Ester Star’s list of unanswerable questions. […]

Poppy Makes Pockets by Jemima Parker, ill. Karen Erasmus

Poppy Makes Pockets by Jemima Parker, ill. Karen Erasmus Publisher: EK Books Jemima Parker writes about her debut picture, Poppy Makes Pockets for Joy in Books at Paperbark Words blog Walking without pockets: The inspiration behind Jemima Parker’s debut picture book, Poppy Makes Pockets. When my niece was young, we loved to go walking. Long, […]