Platypus play time

PLATYPUS hit the bookshop shelves this week. So it is Happy Dance time for me.

As with all new releases, I am now thinking of ways to present this book in the upcoming weeks of school visits and events that make up BOOK MONTH. (Book Week usually lasts for at least a month these days.)

So today I purchased online another wonderful FOLKMANIS puppet. Pretty cute, huh?

And I have wasted many hours watching numerous funny and informative platypus videos on YouTube. This one rates high on the cute stakes!

I have even found the most annoying platypus song ever! I dare you to listen to it.

So lots of valuable time wasting. And lots of platypus fun ahead, starting with the CBCA Illawarra-South Coast Sub Branch's Literary Luncheon on Wednesday. Food, kids, authors and books - a winning combination.

For the teachers who might stumble on this post, here is a link to some CLASSROOM IDEAS created by WALKER BOOKS.

What did my Book Week look like?

Book Week is always lots of fun. And always terribly hectic. This is what my Book Week looked like this year:

• One road trip to Canberra for the CBCA Book of the Year Awards announcement.
• One broken down car at Canberra airport where I stopped to pick up author Claire Saxby. Sadly, said car needed to be towed away and have a short holiday in our national capital - which meant I missed most of the award ceremony!

• One yummy CBCA ACT Book Week dinner.
• Many many hours of driving (in Pete's car) in terrible traffic and even worse weather to schools for school visits (all on the other side of Sydney to me). 
• Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of smiling faces and enthusiastic young readers and writers. I am always blown away by the creativity, enthusiasm and passion of the kids I meet (and their teachers). 
• One trip to Melbourne for the Book Design Awards + author meetings + a visit to Melbourne Writers festival + a little book research + beautiful sunshine.



Graham Byrne and Claire Saxby
Graham won the Crichton Award for 
Big Red Kangaroo

• One radio interview with Julie Clift on ABC Broken Hill about Book Week and writing for children (while sitting on the floor in Melbourne airport - I'm all class!).

BEST MOMENTS!

• When one child brimming with excitement declared: "Oh my God, I can't believe the real Sue Whiting is really here!"
• When about two hundred children spontaneously, unexpectedly and joyously joined in with my reading of The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, which they ALL knew off by heart. It was a little overwhelming actually and left me a little dazed - in a good way. (I think I had a bit of a rock star moment - got the feeling of what it must be like when an audience sings your lyrics back to you.)

The actual week is over - but the festivities aren't! The next couple of weeks are pretty hectic too starting with the CBCA BIG BOOK DAY OUT tomorrow at the NSW Writers' Centre.

Bookish adventures

Hello.

I have had a HUGE June with many bookish adventures.
From Reading Matters conference in Melbourne to
Voices on the Coast in the Sunshine Coast to
SCBWI WA events In Perth and "retreat" on Rottnest Island to
three days and nine schools' tour with Westbooks!

Wow! It was hectic. It was fun. It was inspiring. And although I am slightly exhausted, I am also pretty satisfied that I got through it all without too many dramas.

Here are some happy snaps from the WA leg of the trip.

Illustrators showing off! Clever bunnies.

Quokkas!

Some of the gang on Rottnest

The two Sues - with Sue from Westbooks

The Greatest Liar exhibition at the Lit Centre Fremantle - with Frane Lessac

Brian Falkner - writer in residence at the Lit Centre

That's what I call an auditorium! Loved talking about Celina to keen readers.

On the road again - Book Week 2012

I'm sitting up in bed, snug, my doona pulled up to my chin. It's gloriously sunshiny though a little windy outside. The house is quiet, and I am savouring this last tiny shard of peace, solitude and calm, before chaos reigns again.

This week is Book Week - the busiest, craziest week of the year for children's authors and illustrators in Australia. (So busy for some that it becomes "Book Month", but for me with a full-time job, it's just a week.) It is the week when schools and libraries hold bookish events, have character parades, invite authors and illustrators to speak, congratulate the Book of the Year winners and celebrate the joy of books and stories.

I love it.

So once I hop out of bed this morning, I will be dusting off my giant spider puppet, giving my cardboard fire engine a bit of a shine, packing my dress-up clothes (and some "real" clothes as well), collecting up my books, and all the while, rehearsing my stories in my mind (in case I have forgotten any of them!). Then it's time to hit the road. Five days, five schools, fifteen sessions, hundreds and hundreds of students. To coin a famous phrase: "I'm excited!"

Happy Book Week everyone.

Thanks, St Anne's!

Had a fab day today hanging out with the great kids at St Anne's School, South Strathfield. I had so much fun and was blown away by their enthusiastic participation , imaginative ideas and intelligent questions and answers.

Highlights:

• Creating the "three-eyed spotty alien monster". Hope I got that name right!
• Screening for the very first time (to students), the finished, almost ready to post on youtube trailer for Get a Grip, Cooper Jones. Will post the link soon.
• Brave Harry and his unique responses to "meeting" Charlie the spider.

Children's Book Week Fast Approaching

It's that time of the year again!

Children's Book Week is officially celebrated from 21st - 30th August, but for most, the fun and frivolity lasts for most of August. Perhaps we should change it to Book Month? (No groaning, please!)

Although always hectic, I thoroughly enjoy all the festivities, events and school visits. I love the bookishness of the whole thing - the chance to really celebrate Australian children's literature and to put kid's books in the spotlight (albeit briefly). It also provides me time away from my "day" job, to share my passion for story and writing with others and to recharge my batteries.

Once the festivities are over, I usually finish up exhausted and enthused in equal measures. And I'm often ready to dive head first into my current writing project. (I'm really hope this will be the case this year as I have most definitely stalled on my WIP.)

So where will I be?

Monday, 17th August: Gib Gate School, Mittagong, NSW

Tuesday, 18th August, Gib Gate School, Mittagong,NSW

Friday, August 21st: QLD CBCA Book Week Dinner, Brisbane, Qld

Saturday, August 22nd: Book Safari Children's Literary Brunch, Cafe San Marco, South Bank Brisbane, Qld

Monday, August 24th: NSW CBCA Children's Book Week Luncheon, South Steyne, Darling Harbour, Sydney

Tuesday, August 25th: Frenchs Forest School, Sydney

Wednesday, August 26th: Meriden Junior School, Strathfield

Thursday, August 27th: Sydney Grammar Prep, Edgecliff

Sunday, August 30th: NSW CBCA Book Safari at the Australian Museum, Sydney, 10.30 - 11.00.

As you can see, there are a number of events open to the public. So why don't you contact your local CBCA branch and see what they have planned for your state? Come along and join in the fun!

See you round.