News Update for 2019

News Update for 2019

  • My latest book I Like Numbers is out now. I was lucky enough to have help from Jenny Allum and Bronwyn Hession with this one.

I Like Numbers is the third book in the series of I Like. . . titles. It is designed for children from around 6 to 12 but can be enjoyed by people of all ages. It uses a simple, colourful format to explore different ways to think about numbers and the roles they play in our everyday lives.

Sample pages:

  • There’s a poem of mine called “Letters are Tricky” printed in the February issue of The School Magazine’s Countdown and you can hear it read aloud on Youtube. Go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=_XBBPZi7qh0
  • I was shortlisted in the 2018 Buzz Words Short Story Competition for Young Children! There were 209 entries and at first I was named in the longlist of 20 and then in the shortlist of 10. Very exciting. But I didn’t win 😊
  • My website has been updated and PayPal installed to make purchases easier. I hope you’ll try it out!
  • The sequel to When the Cat’s Away is under construction. It’s called The Mice Down Under. (The mice come to Australia to escape the cats!) Lionel’s illos are coming in one by one and they are WONDERFUL. It should be out by September or thereabouts. Let me know if you’d like me to keep one for you.

Over the year, I’m going to do some posts on the benefits of reading to children – unexpected and otherwise. I hope you will all contribute your thoughts.

Read thyself

Read thyself

Who first said ‘Know thyself’? A friend and I were trying to remember this the other day. Shakespeare maybe? Aristotle?  I looked it up online when I got home and learned it was Socrates, or at least Socrates’ words as reported by Plato .

 

As I read further I learned that Hobbes used a different expression – he wrote ‘Read thyself.’ I love this version. It suggests a way you can learn to know yourself. You have the text there before you – you! You stand off and observe yourself acting, thinking, doing, not doing. And you analyse and interpret and understand the person that you are. Works for me . . .  I think.