How wonderful are teachers? And how awesome are young readers when they come together in a reading community lead by those teachers? This display, at the brand new library at Clyde Primary in Victoria,  is the result of a term’s work reading Bushfire, and diving deeply into the story, the events it portrays, and the topic of natural disasters. When teacher Nikki Elston  emailed to ask if the students could write to me, I said yes, but when I received those letters I was blown away by the enthusiasm of the students and their thoughtful questions and responses. This is the kind o ..read more

I just love it when one of my poems makes its mark on the world, so I was really excited this morning to see that a previously unpublished poem, At the Park, had been made (with my permission)  into this video: This excellent project came about through my Poetry Friday friend Jone, who teaches a children’s literature class and asked fellow poets for poems her students could choose from to make videos. You can read Jone’s explanation of the project, and link to other examples here. Enjoy – I am ..read more

It’s Poetry Friday.  Last week I was away from home – I visited Sydney on the other side of Australia, to do some research. While there I also visited four bookshops and was delighted to find Right Way Down not just in stock, but prominently displayed, face out, with multiple copies in stock. And, yesterday, one of the lovely booksellers I chatted to, Rachel from Gleebooks, posted a really lovely review of Right Way Down with mention of my visit, which you can see here on Instagram:   View this post on Instagram   A post shared by Children’s events at Gleebooks (@gleebooks_kid ..read more

It’s the end of another month, so time for my reading roundup for March. After a slowish start to my reading year, this month I surprised myself by reading 16 books, largely the result of attending some excellent industry events and buying more books than I expected that I just HAD to make time for. A good problem to have. Here’s what I got through: Books for Kids Another Day as Emily, by Eileen Spinelli, with illustrations by Joanne Lew-Vreithoff (Random House, 2014). It’s a verse novel which means I loved it before I even opened it – have yet to find a verse novel I don’t like. This one is ..read more

I was lucky enough today to pop into Bunbury Grammar School, one of my local schools, to talk to year 3 and 4 Challenge students about one of my favourite topics: poetry. The students have been writing poetry, including nonsense poetry, apology poems and limericks, and we had fun talking about poetic forms. The students wrote hay(na)ku, I read from and talked about Queen Narelle and Right Way Down and then shared the ‘My Beach is a Poem’ that I shared here on my blog in February. We finished up by using that poem as a mentor text to co-construct a poem about George (my dog). This is what we ca ..read more

It’s Poetry Friday and I am glad to be here, after missing a couple of weeks because of being SUPER busy.  While I wasn’t here, I was chiefly busy on poetry-business, speaking at schools across the South West as part of the Between the Lines Literature Festival, sharing my love of poetry and, hopefully, inspiring students to read and write more. Then last week I had not one, but two opportunities to celebrate the release of Right  Way Down, speaking with my co-editor at the Children’s Book Council of WA’s annual Night With Our Stars and then, the next day, a big launch for the book a ..read more

Happy World Poetry Day to you! I love that there is a day dedicated to celebrating poetry, though of course I think we should celebrate poetry every day. Speaking of which, last weekend I had a glorious time celebrating the launch of Right Way Down. First, at the CBCA WA’s annual Night With Our Stars event, Rebecca and I had three minutes to talk about the book to a room full of teachers, librarians and industry peers. This annual night sees twenty creators  given the opportunity to share their latest works, sign books and generally have a wonderful time. Then, taking advantage of the fac ..read more

From the time I read a verse novel for the very first time, I knew that I wanted to one day write one. Or more than one. It took some time, but, back in 2009, my very first verse novel was released.  It looked like this: (Actually, it still looks like this because, happily, it remains in print). That book changed by career, and affirmed that this was a form I wanted to stick with. And, in 2010, this book was released: I was onto something. Stories that made people cry, and smile, in one package. This was for me. It took a little time to get the next one right but, in 2014, there was a t ..read more

This morning I have happy toes! Why? Because I have done something I’ve been meaning to do for ages – and it really did not take me long at all. What did I do? Created a playlist over on Youtube of the various poetry videos I have shared over the years. Inspired by the release this week of Right Way Down, I’ve been spending even more time than usual sharing poetry, poetry ideas and more with the world, including LOTS of posts on my Instagram account. And this, in turn, inspired me to head over to my YouTube channel and create a playlist just of poetry videos. You can see it here. There’s a ble ..read more

Last week was a busy one. I spent most of the week on beautiful Rottnest Island (more correctly called Wadjemup) off the coast of Perth, researching, writing but also swimming and snorkelling. There is always plenty to see under the sea, but my favourite encounter was with an Eagle ray which I spotted within moments of entering the water and followed, Gopro outstretched, but also with my heart full. What a privilege to watch this beauty dance and skate and then, just as I was about to leave it be, I watched as it dug intently, I assume looking for a tasty tidbit. If you look you should spot th ..read more