Adventures in KidLitLand Episode 1, 2025

Is someone fooling around with time? It's already a quarter of the way through the year, and here I am only now tapping out this message to you from my keyboard! I hope the beginning of the year has treated you well. 

The BIG news from the start of the year is that Anchored was read on Play School and was given the whole Play School work up - with Little Ted captaining a container ship and Jemima piloting a tug boat! I've popped some photos below, and you should still be able to find it on ABC iView - It's under Mighty Machines, and it's half way through the Mighty Zooming Machines episode. 

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Oh, and it seems so long ago (and paradoxically just like yesterday - isn't time strange?) but at the end of last year it was a sparkly Christmas gift to see Lights Out Little Dragon! appear on lots of 'Best of 2024' lists - even a precious Kids' Choice Award!! Huge thanks to everyone who read, shared and recommended! It brings me so much joy to think that my Little Dragon is spreading his own joyful magic in homes of young readers. 

Most of my energy so far this year has been taken up with Children's Book Council of Australia (CBCA) stuff. As the regional director of my local NSW area, I've been plotting and planning events, along with my wonderful team of committee members. If you're interested in keeping up with the latest Northern Sydney Events, you can sign up to the newsletter here (It's free!). We wanted to hear from experts around the country for our next event, so it will be over zoom at 6.30pm May 6th so you can join us from anywhere! We will be looking at a subject close to my heart:  THE POWER OF PICTURE BOOKS: A deep dive under the covers, with picture book activist, Lara Cain Gray, author of The Grown-ups Guide to Picture Books (Queensland); Anna Solding, director and publisher at MidnightSun publishing (South Australia); Linda Harrison, Early Childhood Education Consultant (Central Coast), and Ruth-Mary Smith, Illustrator (Sydney). The amazing Kristin Darell, author, will be our moderator. I'm sure the evening will interest educators and creators alike! 

On the subject of CBCA, I've attended some wonderful CBCA NSW events: I loved celebrating with friends at the Night of the Notables and catching up with the Kidlit crew at the Creatives' Summit at the State Library. Congratulations to all the creators and publishers with books on the Notables and the shortlist! At the summit, CBCA NSW President Paul Macdonald announced the inaugural Margaret Hamilton Creatives' Residency, open to all CBCA NSW members. As he said on the night, there has never been a better time to be a CBCA NSW member! 

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Illustrator Jade Goodwin and author Jemima Shafei-Ongu launching ASLAN AND BENNY at the Night of the Notables.

Author Melissa Jane Fogarty launching TUBOWGUL at the Night of the Notables.

Ashleigh Barton launching her MG novel at the Night of the Notables.

I am excited to have a new school for the Author Pen-Pal programme this year - Fitzgerald State School way up in Mackay, Queensland. I've sent off my first snail  mail letter, and can't wait for a response!

I had the joy of speaking to the 4th year Sydney Uni Early Childhood class about picture books recently, thanks to the amazing Amanda Niland - not only an exceptional academic in this area, but also a picture book author herself!

I had more joy attending the launch of Susanne Gervay's new junior fiction, Parrot Palace, at the wonderful Gleebooks, Glebe. For those of you who know and love Susanne, the launch was a quintessentially her, complete with madcap elephant and parrot puppets - it was all totally wild :-) It's a great warm-hearted story about a group of multicultural kids and their families living in an apartment building. Definitely recommended.

I wonder if you had a chance to catch the movie of Alison Lester's Magic Beach? I went to a preview in Sydney with Bernie Barker and Marian McGuiness, and we got to chat with the amazing Alison herself! The film is made up from a number of creative vignettes, and I must admit that Bigsy stole my heart!

I was excited to see the Sydney Writer's Festival line-up, and find many of my friends appearing. I quickly snaffled tickets to the Your Kids' Next Read session, as well as a few adult things in the programme. The family day on the Sunday is always worth popping along to - you never know who you'll discover! 
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I've come a cross this podcast lately, that may be of interest to the educators amongst my adventurers:
With This Book You Can Podcast - it's a 'couple of TL's (Kerry Gittins and Lynette Barker) chatting about the books they love and offering some tips and insights on possible uses within the classroom.'  At just 15 or so minutes each episode, it's a quick yet rewarding listen.

I'm excited to be booked up for a Teacher Librarian Conference in June, and given the way time is warping, book week will be hear before we know it! If you're an educator and haven't yet booked an author for Book Week, I've got a fabulous tried and trusted presentation prepared for both preschools and K-2! Not one to toot my own horn (although there is a bit of tugboat tooting in my presentations), here's what one TL said: From the outset, Debra held the attention of our youngest learners with her compelling story telling and incredible ability to inspire participation from the crowd...Our teaching staff commented about the great value Debra added to our Book Week, making books come to life. I would highly recommend Debra to your school or library as an excellent presenter, author and facilitator." Sound compelling? Contact me direct, or via Creative Kids Tales Speaker's Agency. 

That's about all I have for now. Hoping to see you somewhere soon in KidLitLand!

Until nest time,

Debra 

PS: Answer to the weird sleep fact - Elephants sleep the least of all mammals, averaging two hours during a 24 hour period and only entering deep REM sleep every few days. It seems they need to spend all their time eating rather than sleeping!

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