Grace Notes by Karen Comer

Grace Notes by Karen Comer (Lothian Children’s Books, Hachette Australia) Grace Notes by Karen Comer is the outstanding WINNER of the CBCA 2024 Book of the Year: Older Readers category. “This song has a grace note, a tiny note that’s there for embellishment but can easily be ignored, not played. Tonight, I add it in […]

Bear and Duck are Friends by Sue deGennaro

Bear and Duck are Friends by Sue deGennaro (Published by Little Hare an imprint of Hardie Grant Children’s Publishing) Inside the CBCA Shortlist Inside the 2024 CBCA Shortlist Inside the 2024 Notable Books Bear and Duck are Friends is an HONOUR BOOK in the CBCA 2024 Book of the Year Early Childhood category. “Duck loved trying […]

Borderlands: Riding the Slipstream

Borderlands: Riding the Slipstream edited by Paul Collins Ford St Publishing Borderlands: Riding the Slipstream is the successor to Ford Street’s popular and well-regarded anthology Rich & Rare. Both are books of short stories, poems and more. They share distinctive, otherworldly covers by Shaun Tan. Australian fantasy writer Isobelle Carmody has written a fascinating foreword […]

Always Was, Always Will Be by Aunty Fay Muir & Sue Lawson

Always Was, Always Will Be by Aunty Fay Muir & Sue Lawson Published by Magabala Books Guest Author post about Always Was, Always Will Be by Sue Lawson for Joy in Books at PaperbarkWords blog Always Was, Always Will Be has been a long time coming. Aunty Fay and I first started writing the […]

Rock Dogs by Sally Barns & Anil Tortop

Rock Dogs by Sally Barns & Anil Tortop Published by Affirm Press Guest author post about Rock Dogs by Sally Barns for Joy in Books at Paperbark Words blog As much as I would love to be able to tell you that the idea for this story came from somewhere meaningful, I can’t. It wasn’t inspired by a personal story of […]

Digger Digs Down by Johanna Bell, illustrated by Huni Melissa Bolliger

Digger Digs Down by Johanna Bell, illustrated by Huni Melissa Bolliger (Published by University of Queensland Press) “Digger digs deep, deep into the ground. Down down down goes Digger until …” (Digger Digs Down) Digger Digs Down is an exceptional picture book. Both the deceptively simple written text and the sumptuous illustrations work together to […]

Imagine a Time by Penny Harrison & Jennifer Goldsmith

Imagine a Time by Penny Harrison & Jennifer Goldsmith “Imagine a time when all the world STOPS, when all of the clocks no longer TICK-TOCK. And all of the maps are starting to fade, as the need to be somewhere drifts far away.” (Imagine a Time) (Imagine a Time is published by New Frontier Publishing) […]

The Discipline of Suffering by Dr Katherine Thompson

The Discipline of Suffering:Redeeming Our Stories of Pain by Dr Katherine Thompson The Discipline of Suffering is published by Acorn Press and is shortlisted for the 2024 Sparklit Awards. “The best outcome is found in facing the challenges in front of us one at a time. In doing so, we gain purpose and clarity about […]

The Bell of the World by Gregory Day

The Bell of the World by Gregory Day Author Interview at PaperbarkWords “The world is a bell that sometimes only rings after long intervals: indeed it is often in the intervals where the suffering, and therefore the wisdom, lies.” (The Bell of the World) Gregory Day is the awarded author of The Patron Saint of […]

Pamela Allen

My interview with Pamela Allen to celebrate her 90th year and the publication of her new book, Mr McGee and his Hat is in the Weekend Australian newspaper Saturday 20 July 2024 https://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/review/pamela-allen-still-drawing-for-kids-at-90/news-story/d4a365a71a38c8199bf0153bbb14bbfa Interview with Pamela Allen reproduced in full at the end of this review. More about Pamela Allen and my review of Mr […]