How to be Prime Minister and Survive Grade Five by Carla Fitzgerald

How to be Prime Minister and Survive Grade Five by Carla Fitzgerald An exciting and entertaining new voice, children’s author Carla Fitzgerald writes about her timely, funny and thoughtful debut novel How to be Prime Minister and Survive Grade Five (University of Queensland Press) for ‘Joy in Books’ at PaperbarkWords: How to be Prime Minister […]

All the Little Tricky Things by Karys McEwen

All the Little Tricky Things by Karys McEwen “I don’t want to be ungrateful about being sent to a good school in the city. I know I’m lucky. It just adds to my weird tummy feelings about being an in-betweener. I won’t belong with the Merri kids anymore, but at the end of each day, […]

How to Spell Catastrophe by Fiona Wood

How to Spell Catastrophe by Fiona Wood “Our word of the week is participation. More like ‘exclusion’ for me, not that anyone seems to care.” (How to Spell Catastrophe) Fiona Wood is one of Australia’s best contemporary writers of YA literature, evinced by the many awards her books have won. In fact, her three most […]

Walk of the Whales by Nick Bland

Walk of the Whales by Nick Bland Inside the CBCA Shortlist Inside the 2022 CBCA Shortlist Inside the 2022 CBCA Notable Books Book Review by Joy in Books at PaperbarkWords blog Nick Bland is very well known and loved for his picture books, The Very Cranky Bear and sequels, The Wrong Book, The Runaway Hug […]

When the Waterhole Dries Up by Kaye Baillie, illustrated by Max Hamilton

When the Waterhole Dries Up by Kaye Baillie, illustrated by Max Hamilton Inside the CBCA Shortlist Inside the 2022 CBCA Shortlist Inside the 2022 CBCA Notable Books Author & Illustrator Interview When the Waterhole Dries Up by Kaye Baillie, illustrated by Max Hamilton (Windy Hollow Books) is a cumulative, riotous tale about a small dusty […]

Stellarphant by James Foley

Stellarphant by James Foley Inside the CBCA Shortlist Inside the 2022 CBCA Shortlist Inside the 2022 CBCA Notable Books “So Stella gathered her friends … and together they studied and strengthened, and practiced and prepared … until finally, they were all ready.” (Stellarphant) James Foley puts so much care, generosity, intelligence and talent into his […]

Mr Bambuckle’s Remarkables Join Forces by Tim Harris

Mr Bambuckle’s Remarkables Join Forces by Tim Harris “The truth was, Blue Valley School was hurtling so quickly towards dramatic change that it was near impossible to stop. Knowing full well how devastating an impact the change would have on his students, Mr Bambuckle chose carefully to allow his young learners to do the investigating […]

Robin Klein in Letters

Letters from Robin: a voyage around my author by Jon Appleton “I do hope you continue to write when you have a spare moment – I look forward to hearing about your life in the UK. Take care and God bless – love Robin K.” (Robin Klein to Jon Appleton in Letters from Robin) Many […]

Round the Twist with Paul Jennings

Round the Twist with Paul Jennings (and my review of The Lorikeet Tree by Paul Jennings after the interview) It’s time for some nostalgia with much-loved, iconic Australian writer Paul Jennings taking us Round the Twist. Thanks for speaking with Joy in Books at PaperbarkWords, Paul. Round the Twist was originally a children’s TV series […]

Banjo Tully by Justin D’Ath

Author Interview Justin D’Ath writes about Banjo Tully, his new novel for middle readers for PaperbarkWords: Banjo Tully is my lockdown novel. I wrote it in 2020 when I needed a project to put some structure into my days. It isn’t about the pandemic, but that’s what gave me the idea. Remember how everything […]