Dim's Write Stuff

There are as many spooktacular Halloween reads for kids out there as there are varieties of bloodshot eye candy, but these two treats are among my top picks this year. There’s Something Weird About Lena I loved the disturbing humour of My Dead Bunny by picture book duo, Sigi Cohen and James Foley . Their follow up title, There’s Something Weird About Lena , is just as creepy and … comical! Lena is one disturbed little girl only she doesn’t think so. She glads about her new school with disconcerting detachment, pulling pranks on her unassuming classmates with hideous abandon. Despite her beguiling grin and carrot-coloured mane of hair, Lena’s mean tricks and horrible hijinks soon have her classmates cringing. What’s worse is the nerve melting noises she issues every time a prank is pulled. She howls and shrieks, and whoops and growls like a hideous hyena. Lena couldn’t be further away from normal if she tried. So, sick of her constant creepy capers, a posse of Lena’s classmates...

It’s been a funny old year – understatement of the century – for creators notwithstanding. Many authors and illustrators have had to learn to adapt, to tuck and roll with the constricting challenges presented by a world in lockdown. Online presentations and virtual connections are the new axioms which have sustained many of us, me included, however they are not for everyone. And with Book Week just around the corner and a relaxing of Covid restrictions (for some states of Australia), the traditional school visit is something to look forward to…or is it? For many, especially those at the beginning of their careers, a school presentation can be a thing of infinite stress and anxiety. You want to connect with your audience; it’s why you’re writing kids’ books after all, I hope! But you’ve never left your secluded writerly tower let alone stood in front of a hall of wriggly six year-olds and delivered a rock star quality, life-altering presentation to them. How the heck do you do it?? Gr...