12 Curly Questions with author Fiona Harris

1. Tell us something hardly anyone knows about you.

I love horror movies, especially ones about ghosts, demons and all things paranormal.

2. What is your nickname? 

I get called Fi by most of my friends and family, but my husband calls me Fuj.

3. What is your greatest fear?

Rodents of all shapes and sizes. Ew!

Giveaway: Owl Babies 25th Anniversary Edition

Thanks to our good friends at Walker Books Australia and to Celebrate Book Week, we have five beautiful 25th Anniversary copies of Owl Babies to giveaway. This bestselling modern classic by Patrick Benson and Martin Waddell has been quoted as 'the perfect picture book'.

To win your copy, simply tell us in 25 words or less what you love most about your Mum.

Email your answer along with your name and postal address to dimity@gmail. The response we like the best will win one of five copies. Competition is open to anyone, worldwide, so long as they have an Australian postal address for delivery of the book. Please note, we cannot deliver to PO Boxes. Entries without a name and street address will be ineligible. Winners will be announced right here on our website on Monday 28 August 2017.

Competition runs from 9pm Monday 20 August to 9pm Sunday 27 August 2017. Adults can enter for those aged 17 and under. This is a game of skill, not chance. The judge’s decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into.

For our heartwarming review of this edition of Owl Babies, by Coral Vass visit, here.

 

Review: Owl Babies

First published in 1995, Martin Waddell and Patrick Benson’s gorgeous tale of three baby owls has become a classic. A quarter of a century on, and over four and a half million copies later, Owl Babies 25th anniversary edition continues to engage young readers around the world.

Review: Ned's Circus of Marvels: The Gold Thief

This is middle grade fantasy at its best. A magical and mysterious novel that takes you on a unique and exciting adventure with a collection of original and memorable characters.

Ned is trying really hard to be a normal kid living with his parents in a normal neighbourhood. Except that he is far from normal. When a strange man turns up at school and Ned’s parents go missing, he is forced to cross the Veil into the magical world to try to find them.

Winners! Australian Animals Picture Book Pack

Congratulations to:

Kat Apel of QLD
Amie & Olivia Sabadin of NSW
Lynette Duffy of QLD

You have each won one of our Australian Animals Picture Book Packs.

Thank you to ALL who entered.We all learned an extra thing or two about our Aussie animals from your entries!

Review: Lexicon

Lexicon opens with Will waking up in the men's toilets as a stranger inserts a needle into his eye.

I know, right?

Not your average opening for a novel. But wait, the pace just keeps hotting up from there.

As Will runs for his life, not knowing who are the good guys and who are bad, another drama plays out in another space, perhaps another time – that's for you to figure out...

Emily lives on the streets. She's a a hustler. She makes money persuading people to bet on her games of chance. But her skills are noticed. She is recruited and her world is never the same.

How are Emily and Will connected?

Maybe they aren't.

There's only one way to find out.

Review: The Vampire Knife (The Witching Hours)

Oh, wow! I have not read a middle fiction novel like this one before.

There’s a warning on the back of the book that says this series is only for the bravest readers, and that warning does not exaggerate.

Book one in The Witching Hours series, The Vampire Knife introduces readers to brother and sister duo Max and Anna. 

Their dad, the Professor, takes them to a deserted inn in the middle of a stormy Transylvanian forest. And when they arrive he promptly leaves them to attend to his work, putting them in the care of the creepy old innkeeper, who feeds them garlic soup and confiscates Anna’s fairy tale books.

Review: I Want To Be In A Book

I Want To Be In A Book is a delightful story about Cecil, a little creature who was created by author and illustrator, Narelle Oliver. The book's character Cecil takes readers on an imaginative, adventurous and sometimes dangerous journey to fulfil his dream of becoming part of a book.

Review: New Worlds (The Secret World Of Curly Jones)

Curly Jones doesn’t have any friends, he’s picked on at school, and he generally keeps to himself. But everything changes when Belle moves next door.

Belle is cool and bold, and she wants to be Curly’s friend. But Belle also has a secret, and when she shares it with Curly, his whole world changes.

You see, Belle has a very cool treehouse in her backyard. And in that treehouse is a magical mirror. And that magical mirror is a gateway to another world: the Secret World. 

Review: Winnie-the-Pooh: The Great Heffalump Hunt

Based on the works of Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne and E.H. Sheppard, Giles Andreae has created a magical story in verse, with the much-loved characters Pooh and Piglet.

Best friends Pooh and Piglet are strolling through the forest. Pooh has one of his ‘Grand Ideas’. He wants to catch a Heffalump. 

Rabbit has told him that Heffalumps eat Piglets. After wondering and pondering what bait to use in their trap, Piglet suggests honey.

Review: Koala

This month, Koala climbs his way onto the bookshelves across the country, with the release of a stunning new publication by award-winning non-fiction picture book specialist, Claire Saxby, and one of Australia’s premier illustrators Julie Vivas.

It’s time for little Koala to find his own way, now he is growing older. He must leave his mother and the home he has known.

Review: The Curious Case of the Missing Mammoth

You've gotta love a picture book so completely jam-packed with fun and facts, and colour and intrigue.

It's midnight and there's a baby mammoth on the loose. Oscar has to track him down before the clock strikes one.