Kalamunda is a beautiful town in the Perth hills, which in 2026 is holding its inaugural Readers’ Festival! I’ve got a bunch of events over the weekend – see below for details.
Continue reading “Kalamunda Readers’ Festival, March 2026”
I’m honoured to have some artwork included in the 2026 SQUIGL calendar! But the artwork isn’t just mine – it’s a collab between me and a kid living in regional Queensland called Will Thomas.
I was given Will Thomas’ excellent whiteboard drawing of a toucan …
… which I worked up into a very scribbly rough …
… then a more detailed rough.
My next step was a colour test, which I liked …
… but once I had my final artwork together, I felt like mucking around with the colours.
I tried a purple background instead, which helped the toucan beaks to pop.
Finally I added a sunrise in the background and some shading, and voilá – the artwork was finished!
Big thanks to Will for the excellent initial drawing – I hope you like how it turned out!
The 2026 SQUIGL Calendar is a fundraising initiative by Andy Geppert’s SQUIGL Club, an online drawing group for kids living in remote Queensland.
All calendar sales support sending these remote community kids to visit regional writers’ festivals run by Somerset Storyfest.
SQUIGL Club is an awesome online drawing group for kids in regional Queensland. It was developed by author-illustrator Andy Geppert along with Somerset Storyfest and the Longreach School of Distance Education.
Andy had a brilliant idea – let’s raise funds for regional kids to visit a writers festival, and let’s sell calendars to do it! Each month’s artwork is an artistic collaboration between a kid living on a remote property and a professional illustrator. The kids each drew a bird or a flying creature, then the illustrators worked it into a schmick piece of art.
And now you can take the artwork home with you! The 2026 SQUIGL Club Art Calendar looks great on kitchen walls, fridges – even dunny doors.
Check out the illustrators involved: Niña Nill, Sami Bayly, Peter Cheong, Matt Stanton, Mandy Foot, Natasha Carty, Terry Whidborne, Tony Flowers, Brent Wilson, Kate Isobel Scott, Andy Geppert, and me!
All proceeds support literacy in regional communities by funding transport and tickets to regional Somerset Storyfest events in Longreach, St George, and Emerald.
Here’s a little bit about my piece for the calendar. I started off with Will Thomas’ excellent drawing of a toucan …
… and ended up with a tree FULL of toucans! Can you spot Will’s initial drawing in there?
I’ll show some more process in a later post.
In the meantime, why not hit the link and order yourself a whizz-bang, feel-good 2026 calendar?
Are you a young reader? Do you enjoy a day out? Well funnily enough there’s this event coming up that’s perfect for young readers who enjoy a day out, and you wouldn’t believe what it’s called …
Join me as well as Andy J Alexander, Maria Blackman, Cristy Burne, Joanne Colely, Steve Heron, Suzanne Ingelbrecht, Julia Lawrinson, Frané Lessac, Susan Lu, Kristy Nita Brown, Sandi Parsons, Alexander Thorpe and Renée Treml. We’ll be reading a bit of our books, and signing copies, and there’ll be goodie bags and book discounts and general bookish awesomeness!
DATE: Sunday 23rd November
TIME: 10:30am-12:30pm
WHERE: State Library of WA
TICKETS: $20 + booking fee (includes entry for up to 6 people, $20 voucher at Boffins pop-up bookshop, and gift bags)
BOOKINGS: essential via trybooking.
I’m running an online session for Victorian schools through YABBA!
All Victorian Government primary & secondary schools are YABBA members in 2025; you can register for the session through the members area of the YABBA website.
Other schools can also access the session, as long as they have a YABBA membership.
DATE: Tuesday 25th November
TIME: 9:30am (AEDT)
WHERE: online
COST: included with YABBA membership
REGISTER: via the YABBA website.
Some great news: my picture book Bigfoot vs Yeti is on the shortlist for the 2025 Children’s Peace Literature Award!
It’s a biennial award from the Psychologists for Peace interest group (part of the Australian Psychological Society).
Also on the shortlist are friends and colleagues Deborah Abela, Karys McEwen, Amy Freund, Kooky Chooky, Jared Thomas, David Metzenthen, Larissa Ferenchuk and Prue Pittock . Congrats all!
Buy a copy:
I’ve got four new titles coming out next year!
First cab off the rank – the sequel to my very silly picture book about a super chill capybara. It’s out in February through Scholastic.
Pre-order now:
This one is part of Walker Books’ Paw Prints series – junior fiction books by funny authors and illustrators. Fuzzball is written by Nathan Luff, illustrated by me! Out in April.
Pre-order now:
This is something different for me – a funny picture book about onomatopoeia (i.e sound effects)! Out in May through Penguin.
Pre-order now:
I don’t have a cover to share with you yet, but I can tell you it’s a non-fiction follow up to my most popular book, Stellarphant. It will be my very first non-fiction book! More news on that soon.
Who’s up for another Spontaneous Storytime?
This one comes from a session at the State Library of NSW last weekend. I was joined by my author-illustrator bud Sean E Avery (creator of Frank’s Red Hat and Friendly Bee) who provided the live illustrations!
We had some fantastic ideas from the kids in the audience; check out the story below.
Sunday October 26, 10:30am-11:30am
In which a half-pig, half-penguin called Meg Wynne – who spends most of her time diving underwater to catch cabbage fish – decides to chase her long-held dream of flying through the sky.
I ran some improv storytelling sessions at the Awesome Arts Festival this week – where the kids came up with the ideas, and I illustrated them live! Huge thanks to all the amazing young storytellers who came along and offered up madcap characters, preposterous plot points and epic endings.
Wednesday October 1, 11:15am-12:15pm
In which Rosita, the sea star-girlfriend of Luca the Toaster is kidnapped by the evil Captain Bob, the intergalactic Butter Pirate. Captain Bob is called a Butter Pirate not because he steals butter, but because his body is a chunk of butter. Captain Bob flies off into space in his ship, the Blendar 1, with Rosita in a cage beside him.
I’ll be in Sydney at the end of October with my author-illustrator bud Sean Avery, and we’re taking over the State Library of NSW!
Join James and Sean for a laugh-out-loud session where the kids are in charge. Bring your weirdest and wackiest ideas for stories, because they’ll be mashing them up into the funniest Franken-tale you’ve ever heard — which James and Sean will illustrate, live!
Suitable for ages six and up, but all welcome.
DATE: Sun 26 October
TIME: 10:30-11:30am
WHERE: JB Fairfax Learning Centre, State Library of New South Wales
AGES: 6yo+ (for families)
TICKETS: $10/child (adults free)
BOOKINGS: essential via eventbrite
Are you ready to learn secrets of character design from two of Australia’s best children’s illustrators? Join James and Sean for a fun workshop where you get to design your own book character, then build them in 3D using colourful clay.
Suitable for ages 8–12.
DATE: Sun 26 October
TIME: 12noon-1pm
WHERE: JB Fairfax Learning Centre, State Library of New South Wales
AGES: 8-12yo
TICKETS: $10/child (adults free)
BOOKINGS: essential via eventbrite
Join me for a laugh-out-loud session where the kids are in charge. Bring your weirdest and wackiest ideas for stories, because we’ll be mashing them up into the funniest Franken-tale you’ve ever heard – which I will illustrate, live.
DATE: Wednesday 1 and Friday 3 October
TIME: 11:15am each day
WHERE: Education Room, State Library of WA, Francis St, Perth
AGES: 6-12yo
BOOKINGS: essential via trybooking
Join this workshop where I’ll show you how to create characters, use speech bubbles, sound effects, panels and backgrounds to create your own comic stories.
DATE: Saturday 4 October
TIME: 1-3pm
WHERE: Conference Room, Wanneroo Library and Cultural Centre, 3 Rocca Way, Wanneroo
AGES: 7-14yo
BOOKINGS: essential via eventbrite – **sold out, but there is a waitlist**
Want to learn how to illustrate picture books? Join me in this session to find out how. Suitable for ages 16+.
Topics include:
DATE: Saturday 11 October
TIME: 12:30-4:30
WHERE: Conference Room, Wanneroo Library and Cultural Centre, 3 Rocca Way, Wanneroo
AGES: 16yo+
BOOKINGS: essential via eventbrite
I’m presenting at this year’s Mantle Conference in Newcastle, along with superstars Deborah Abela, Sean E Avery, Charlotte Barkla, Megan Daley, Kate Foster, Lara Cain Gray and Kirli Saunders. What a line up!
For more details, check out the Mantle conference website.
Continue reading “Events for October”
James Foley 