Megan Daley, Author at Children's Books Daily...

Last week was PudStar’s 12th birthday and she was meant to have a few close friends for a wood fired DIY pizza party, backyard firepit and sleepover. Clearly with coronavirus hitting Australia (mid March 2020) and talk of social distancing, the party needed to be cancelled. When the world is in chaos, it feels like…

Zanni and I met at Children’s Book Council of Australia conference, where we walked around the garden of Jackie French together, and let me tell you, that is a wonderful place to start a friendship! I have followed the rise and rise of Zanni Louise since this time and continue to be astonished by her…

I don’t know if every family does this but in my family it’s always been books, new pyjamas and eggs for Easter – as well as an Easter Egg Hunt on Easter Sunday which significantly adds to the Easter egg haul. This year, the girls and I will be in Tasmania for Easter, along with…

The Rouges trilogy by Lian Tanner is showing all the signs of being as popular as her previous trilogy, The Keepers, and is rarely on the shelves in the school library. The melding of high risk adventure and magic works brilliantly in the hands of a skilled writer, such as Tanner, and readers from 9+…

For Christmas this year, both my children (8 and 11) received Kobo Clara eReaders. Perhaps a controversial gift from a librarian mother, but I like to think I embrace all forms of reading and I know that my own eReader and my audio book ‘habit’ greatly increases the amount of books I can churn through…and…

“Moving on, as a concept, is for stupid people, because any sensible person knows grief is a long-term project. I refuse to rush. Max Porter ‘Grief is the Thing With Feathers’ Crappy grief week but please no pity. The light and the dark co-exist and I think I do a good job of sharing both,…

Thanks to Twentieth Century Studios, I have *five* double movie passes + books of the classic tale, ‘The Call of the Wild’. To enter, just comment here on or Instagram, Facebook or Twitter with who you’d love to take along! It’s been SO MANY YEARS since I read the classic book by Jack London (below)…

Belinda Murrell is one of my favourites in the kidlit world. Am I even allowed to have favourites?! She is a completely wonderful person and a damn great writer to boot. One of her ‘Pippa’s Island’ novels is dedicated to PudStar, who reviewed the series here and here and who tells anyone who will stand…

When I grow up I think I’d like to be Lyn White. She’s a teacher librarian, editor, marketing guru – she’s all of the things I love rolled into one. I’m always saying to my students at school ‘when I grow up I’d like to be…’ (usually it’s the owner of an endpaper art gallery!)…

17 Goals for People, for Planet As part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the UN Member states developed the Sustainable Development Goals as a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet and improve the lives and prospects of everyone, everywhere. The Sustainable Development Goals, ‘provide a global blueprint for dignity, peace and…

Ursula Dubosarsky is one of the finest writers in the country. Her books are sophisticated yet still accessible and each one is utterly unique; she seems to flit between genres effortlessly and each new book is a delightful surprise. Yes I am fangirling. You would to if you’d read as many of her books as…

A kind heart shines brighter than gold… ‘The Happy Prince’ is one of my favourite Oscar Wilde classics remembered from childhood. It was first published in 1888 as a collection of stories which also included ‘The Selfish Giant’ – and I have to say that both stories made me cry. I don’t know how old…

Emily Conolan has used the ever-popular ‘choose your own adventure’ format to put young readers at the centre of stories of immigration; utter.darned.genius. Why was this not done sooner? I spend so much time speaking to students at school about the importance of reading the stories of others, as it is through books that we…

As I try and find a moment this week when my children are not glued (superglued) to my side, in order to simply wrap their Christmas presents, I remember what the lead up to Christmas used to look like. I tend not to look back at what used to be, because I have little interest…

Narrative non-fiction titles are one of the best ways I know to introduce young children to the joys of information books – they are a fabulous ‘smash up’ of story with true information. In my opinion the series that does this best is the ‘Nature Storybooks’ series from Walker Books Australia. The latest title in…

Each year I look forward to the borrowing stats and borrower stats at the conclusion of the school year. Possibly this is a librarian thing, but I find it fascinating and of course we incorporate all this ‘data’ and more into our Annual Report. The 2019 list doesn’t really have any surprises on it, these…

Adam France has a bulldog, he’s a primary school teacher, he’s in a successful band and now he has his first book for middle – upper primary readers…he’s clearly kicking life goals. ‘Paddy T and the Time-Travelling Trampoline’ is a darned good read aloud (or independent read) which took me back to my days of…

A book for one? A book for two? A book for different points of view. Recently I had the privilege of meeting a newcomer to the kidlit world, author/illustrator/designer Robert Henderson. Robert is a (self-proclaimed) prolific non-graduate from a range of prestigious Australian Universities, failing to complete courses in areas as diverse as Media Studies,…

The gift ideas in this post are a mash up of all the things I love and I think you will also love. They are not sponsored ideas, though some are affiliate links (which cost the buyer nothing) which support the running costs of the blog. Many of the businesses linked are small businesses and…

Raina Telgemeier has taken the kidlit world by storm and in my library her books actually never make it back to the shelves – EVER. They go from returns chute to next person on the reserves list or a gaggle of girls hang around waiting for Miss Olive to return the latest Telgemeier and grab…