Dim's Write Stuff

Pippa pigeon has certainly been clocking up her flying hours the last month or so. In case you haven't been able to keep up with her feathered fiascoes, here's a pictorial collage from the first couple of Book Launches for Pippa's self-titled story, PIPPA ! Enjoy.  If you want to meet the real Pippa and her amazing chaperon, aka me, Dimity Powell, please do not ignore your urge to get in touch . We'd both love the chance to visit your school, library, care centre, bookshop or event. Assurance Pledge: Pippa is 100% house-trained and exemplary in confined spaces with small humans. If you can't be bothered scrolling through these book launch happy snaps, check out the mini-movie below for a few of our best moments. (Photo credits to all and sundry who attended, Maria Parenti-Baldey, and George Ivanoff ) Pippa Book Launches August 2019 Riverbend Books hosts Pippa's Brisbane launch August 2019 The peerless Samantha Wheeler donning he...

If you're the type to pick a picture book by its cover, you'll find it hard to walk past Under the Same Sky. Its sumptuous velvety blue cover is bedecked with shining rose gold stars in the same glinting foil as the looping title. Stars shoot through the night sky although we don't yet know what they might portend. Once inside we are plunged into the worlds of two young children who despite living on opposite sides of the world share a common wish - to share their lives as friends. It's an immense concept, wanting and waiting for someone when you are so very far away from them. This story about a city-dwelling nameless boy and countryside nameless girl, explores the desire to reduce distance with metaphoric reality. The boy draws on figurative comparison - like the sun and moon...always seeking...the sky and the sea...always apart - in an effort to understand his situation. The longing is always there but so is the separation until realisation dawns and with a ...

If you want that eat-all-the-icecream-you-want-super-satisfied feeling, read this exceedingly grand book. Chock-a-block filled with joie de vivre, llamas and teeny tiny dogs, this is a rollicking tale of following your heart's desire, grabbing opportunity by the horns and pure exuberant fun. Look between the witty one-liners and fabulously named rooms of the Grandest Hotel on Earth, though and you'll find a story imbued with heart promoting the courage to dream. Vincent is ordinary and often overlooked until the day not-so-ordinary, Florence Wainwright-Cunningham III invites him to her family's hotel establishment high in the Mabombo Ranges. Armed with nothing but his toothbrush and his grandfather's fantastical shoe-cleaning box, Vincent embarks on a journey of marvellous discovery. Although miles out of his comfort zone, Vincent soon adapts to the grandeur and unbelievable improbabilities the Hotel presents. He learns to love the art of shoe shining and repai...

Roll out the wheelbarrow. You’re going to need it to hold the barrow-load of beaut books tossing around to share with Dad this Father’s Day. These are some of the best funny-bone-tickling picture books around right now plus I’ve thrown in something that helps Dad maintain his ‘legendary’ status. As if he needed any help… Dad Hacks: 101 Easy Tips to Save Families Time and Money Celebratory chippie, Rob Palmer , has thrown together a truly gob-stopping compendium of DIY hacks, many originating from his hugely successful YouTube Channel. Conveniently grouped into categories that cover every skill from surviving life around the home with kids, DIY basics, the great outdoors and even baking, I tell you, this page-by-page guide is easy to read and understand. Best of all, the hacks actually work! I love Palmer’s down-to-earth, laconic chatty style.  He shares his survival secrets (a few words of backstory accompany many of his tips) with sincerity born from experience (havin...

Tristan Bancks signed my copy of Detention with a note hoping it kept me turning pages . This book lived up to that promise and then some. Packed with page-turning tension and relentless drama, this is one middle grade novel that may cause a few kids to miss their dinner call. Yet despite the raw gritty urgency that suffuses nearly every page and the elevated sense of dread and desperation that keeps your heart in top gear, the pace is never too manic nor too hectic to enjoy the energising mix of edgy excitement and sincere emotion Bancks does so well. Dan is an inner suburban boy living on the outer perimeters of life. He’s classified as trailer park trash because of his permanent residence at the social-economically deprived Midgenba caravan park. It’s a title that comes with an ineradicable smear of hopeless. Deep down though, Dan’s a good kid, a caring kid. The type of kid who’ll risk his own face to save a vicious dying dog, which he does one day after finding Rosco tied ...

Had the word disabled not featured in the blurbs, this story would have been even twice as impacting. The preclude to Max's situation however in no way diminishes the extreme beauty and elegance both author, Vescio and illustrator, Haughton demonstrate telling this exquisite tale about one little girl's seclusion and isolation from the rest of world. The seasons parade relentlessly past Max's window of confinement as do her opportunities to play with others her own age. Yet Max never appears overtly forlorn. Her large liquid eyes reflect a subdued resignation, an acceptance of things as they are for they feel ' safe and comfortable, ...right' . Then one day a visitor appears at Max's window, a small fragile thing with a vibrant red beak and perky nature. At first, because the small bird only has one leg, Max presumes it is broken, perhaps like her. But as is often the way with wild creatures, the bird spares little time or thought on its apparent defic...

Wai Chim's latest YA is a tempting hot pot of teenage coming-of-age angst, family values, cultural cohesion, mental health oh and yes, dumplings! This is a hearty, satisfying read about Anna, the eldest child in a Chinese immigrant family who rely on the family restaurant to survive. That premise alone could have been redolent with cultural stereotypical clichés however Chim has blended Anna's story with the careful addition of a host of interesting and authentic ingredients; characters like, Rory, who is the local delivery boy for the restaurant and also, ultimately Anna's first love and saviour. As Anna trudges through her 11th year in High School, she is repeatedly put upon to keep the home fires burning for her younger tween sister, Lily and 6-year-old baby brother, Michael. Their overworked father is rarely at home, dossing in the restaurant storeroom under a cover of avoidance. Perhaps the character that both disturbs and delights the most is Ma, Anna's m...