Announcement: New KBR Team Member: Meet Elizabeth Vercoe!

Elizabeth Vercoe's evocative artwork and previous reviews have enthralled and entertained a wide audience for many years. Witty, articulate and achingly talented, Elizabeth lives life as she loves it: moment by precious moment. 

But can you guess whom she'd love to take to dinner? Read on to find out more about our newest contributor. And keep an eye out for Elizabeth's first review, coming soon.

It's with unbridled joy that we welcome yet another wonderful member to our KBR team. Great to have you aboard, Elizabeth!

 

Review: This Is Not A Sad Book (but it's OK to feel sad)

This is definitely not a sad book. It’s not even an arduous book to read but by golly, it is a book that unashamedly tackles some of the heftiest emotions that a young person, indeed anyone, has to face. 

Grief, loss, depression, anxiety, uncertainty. Big hard-to-deal-with feels that demand big help.

This Is Not A Sad Book is that help. In short, it’s a lighthouse of hope, explanation and tactics to apply when one finds oneself or someone they know, in a dark, scary, perilous place. 

A Very KBR Christmas 2021 and A Delicious New Year!

As we all stumbled through another year of monumental change, frustration, despair and ridiculous joy, for the team here at KBR, one thing remained resolute: our love for story. All stories of course but, most emphatically, kids' stories. For the privilege of being able to share as many as we possibly could with you, we are humbly grateful. To all our contributors, publishers, creators, and fellow book lovers we thank you. 

And, because we too love a good Christmas tradition, this year's team question is one that raised many eyebrows and created as much polarisation as questions surrounding Covid! So tuck in your napkins, set aside your bookmarks and experience our responses to the question: Are you partial to reading while you eat or eating while you read and if so, what is your favourite thing to nibble on as you chow down your favourite book? 

Disclaimer: you may like to nibble on a wedge of shortbread or sip on a mulled wine as you read this, or not. The choice is unequivocally yours! HAPPY CHRISTMAS! 

Winners: This Is Not A Sad Book (But It's OK To Feel Sad)

Our lucky winners are ...

Julie Burberry, QLD

Jenny Catalano, QLD

Joseph Spagnolo, NSW

Congratulations!

You have each won a copy of this touching and practical guide to coping with grief, loss and hard times, This Is Not A Sad Book by Elizabeth Vercoe and Grace Fraraccio.

Thank you to ALL who entered. We were moved by your your feel good answers.

KBR Christmas Book Inspired Joy

Over the years KBR, along with our many publishing friends, conduct some truly wonderful Giveaways. At times, the bookish prizes and gift packs make us drool with envy. Whilst we can't enter ourselves, we can 'pretend' so this year's Very Merry KBR Christmas Question assumes a Christmas competition flavour, a bit like plum pudding but even more satisfying! Here's what we asked the team and their very merry answers. Enjoy! And have yourselves a wondrous and wonderful Festive Season.

Tell us in 25 words or less about your favourite Christmas book and how it adds joy to your Christmas traditions.

Guest Post: Romi Sharp on A Look Into The Lens Of Our Australian HeArt

As a creative in the children’s book industry, it’s quite common for inspiration to come from memories or experiences or nostalgic moments that remind us of our own childhood. 

Then, we blend those sentiments with our here and now. It’s like tying the pieces together to form some kind of warm and fuzzy ball of string that comes back around in a full circle (or something like that!).

The Just Write For Kids anthology – Our Australian HeART – was inspired by this very ball-of-string collection of moments for me.

Guest Post: Margrete Lamond on Gilbert's Cake

Gilbert’s Cake is the story of our story …

Readers often wonder where story ideas come from. They come from many places, but rarely from as deep a place as Gilbert’s Cake.

As author Emily Mir explains, ‘Our first baby, Gilbert, was stillborn in 2010. Two years later, we welcomed Gilbert’s twin siblings. As young children, the twins wanted a party, complete with balloons and a cake, to mark Gilbert's birthday. It was painful at first, but an annual tradition began. Gilbert’s Cake is the story of our story.’

After working with families who have experienced miscarriage and stillbirth, Emily was inspired to share her family’s story of love, loss . . . and pelicans. 

Emily is both a counsellor and a bereaved mother, and hopes her story sparks joy and love as well as evoking holistic ways of healing in the face of loss and trauma.

Guest Post: Ryan Abramowitz on Creating Elegy For An Elephant

Join author illustrator, Ryan Abramowitz as he unpacks the artistic shapes of loss and love through animal allegory with the creating Elegy for an Elephant. We recommend you first read Elizabeth Vercoe's stirring review of this incredible new picture book release. 

How does the passing of my father catalyse the migration of an elephant crossing picture book plains? 

Views of the world outside windows have always framed elements of authoring and illustrating my debut picture book Elegy for an Elephant (EFAE). I was staring at the sad fog outside the courtyard of my Copenhagen dormitory studying abroad when my sister called to tell me our father had ended his life. 

Review: The Big Book Of Rights

Did you know 2024 marked the 35^th Anniversary of the adoption of the UNCRC? The UNICEF United Nations Convention on the Rights of A Child consists of 54 articles declaring the rights that each and every child on planet Earth is entitled to enjoy.

The Big Book of Rights is the genius collaboration between Queensland author, Dannika Patterson, illustrator Amanda Letcher, Children’s Rights QLD and dozens and dozens of young people.

After deep consultation and invitation to use the youngsters’ artistic and intellectual input, this big book is a glorious, colourful creation aimed at evoking curiosity and understanding of these rights in an age-appropriate way.

Video: Bedtime Story

From the best-selling author of The Tall Man and The Arsonist, a personal tale about death, life and the enchantment of stories. With illustrations by Anna Walker. Watch the stunning book trailer for this moving book that is both memoir and manual.

Let me tell you a story…

When Chloe Hooper’s partner is diagnosed with a rare and aggressive illness, she has to find a way to tell their two young sons. By instinct, she turns to the bookshelf. Can the news be broken as a bedtime tale? Is there a perfect book to prepare children for loss?

Hooper embarks on a quest to find what practical lessons children’s literature—with its innocent orphans and evil adults, magic, monsters and anthropomorphic animals—can teach about grief and resilience in real life. From the Brothers Grimm to Frances Hodgson Burnett and Tolkien and Dahl—all of whom suffered childhood bereavements—she follows the breadcrumbs of the world’s favourite authors, searching for the deep wisdom in their books and lives.

Both memoir and manual, Bedtime Story is stunningly illustrated by the New York Times award-winning Anna Walker. In an age of worldwide uncertainty, here is a profound and moving exploration of the dark and light of storytelling.

Read our exclusive KBR review by Elizabeth Vercoe, here.

Giveaway: This Is Not A Sad Book (But It's OK To Feel Sad)

This Is Not A Sad Book is truly not a sad book!

It's actually a practical, compassionate guide full of strategies and ideas to support yourself or someone else through grief, loss and hard times.

In some parts you might even find yourself smiling.

Most importantly of all – the stories, tips and advice in these pages are a reminder that even in our darkest hours, there is a way through.

KBR's very own, Elizabeth Vercoe teams ups with Melbourne-based illustrator, Grace Fraraccio to create a warm tender book that empowers young people to create space for feeling and healing. Originally published twenty years ago as, The Grief Book, with Kerry Abramowski, this revised Children's Book Council of Australia Honour Book edition is deeply personal and endearing. 

Thanks to the generous folk at Affirm Press we have not one but THREE copies of this incredible, warm-hearted guide through grief, loss and hard times to giveaway!

For your chance to win a copy of this touching and practical award-winning title simply tell us in 25 words or less what makes you feel better when you are having a bad day?

Announcement: A Very KBR Christmas Wishlist 2024

As the world seems to grow more confining and life more confounding, we here at KBR take a moment to ponder, as always, the pure simplicity of childhood. It's wonderment, its curiosity. Its magic. Despite all the madness, it is hard to imagine a world without these precious notions. 

And so, this year's Team's Christmas Question was simply:

If you could ask Santa for one thing and one thing only for Christmas, what would it be? 

Grab a fruit mince pie or two or three, sit back and enjoy our team's responses. 

From all of us to all of you who have read, shared and enjoyed our reviews and features throughout 2024, a very MERRY CHRISTMAS!

May your New Year be filled with light and joy and a magic that sustains and endures forevermore. 

Guest Post: Morris Gleitzman on His Secret Friends and How They Inspire Him

We spoke to former Australian Children's Laureate, Morris Gleitzman to learn about inspiration, humour and his new book, Digging Up Dad.

Where did you get the ideas for the stories in Digging Up Dad?
They just sort of slowly came to me, thanks to a creative technique that has served me well over the years. The one where you make slow circular meditative movements with a sponge in a sink full of dirty dishes and let your mind wander.

Guest Post: Chloe Hooper on What To Read To Your Children When Explaining Loss and Grief

Last month I fare-welled a dear friend as she left our world in the form we'd always loved her in to become another. The loss was felt all the more keenly for the fact that she was a youngish mum leaving two beautiful children behind. This is not the first time such a loss has occurred and in all likelihood, it won't be the last. Such is life. Before she died, I sent her and the children a copy of my picture book, The Fix-It Man hoping it will provide some degree of soothing and comfort, understanding and peace in their days to come. 

I'm a fervent believer in the power of storytelling to address and normalise the more weighty and onerous moments in life. So too is Chloe Hooper, bestselling author of, Bedtime Stories. What follows is a collection of picture books she curated and reviewed with her young sons. There are some absolute gems here. Feel free to add , The Fix-It Man, if you wish. Ed.