Dim's Write Stuff

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...

Maria Marshall is a fellow SCBWI member hailing from North America. She's a seasoned traveller, avid wildlife photographer and passionate contributor to all things Kids' Lit who loves  using picture and chapter books to make reading and nature fun for children . I might never have met her had our paths not crossed at the Sydney Australian East New Zealand SCBWI Conference last February, (thanks to Vivian Kirkfield who introduced us!) As Maria states, encounters like these spur inspiration and that special kind of camaraderie and admiration that lingers long after the flight home. Maria Marshall (left) seen here with fellow conference delegates, authors: Jennifer Loakes and Janet Reid Maria impressed me immediately with her attentiveness and drive to absorb as much of my exuberant volley of picture book love as I could fire at her (rushed exchanges are often the norm at these events). We both knew we wanted to share more and after she allowed me to sign a very perso...

Sammy is sad. His eyesight is not the best but worse is his dented sense of self-esteem and identity. Forced to wear big blue glasses to enable better sight, Sammy feels they now segregate him from the rest of the world: his peers and family. All he wants is to feel like his old-self again. He does everything he can to bypass wearing his glasses but they always find their way back to him. Despite assurances from the grown-ups in his life that the glasses make him look more handsome and heroic than he's ever looked (their acclamations only serve to define his difference), Sam is unconvinced, feeling lost, alienated and alone, even more so when one disastrous school day, his best friend, George is away sick. Then, after a few innocent digs from his classmates persuade him to clean his glasses, Sam discovers a whole different world within his classroom and his way of viewing his situation dramatically improves. Gervay's considered story from a small boy's point of v...