“pure joy … silly, expressive and full of laugh out loud moments. This was reread twice in one sitting because they wanted to look again. One of our favourites!” – @playful.childhood, Instagram
You can find a copy at your local indie bookshop or online – links below.
Happy Barry Capybara: Gone Bananas
🇦🇺🇳🇿 Australia/NZ edition, published by Scholastic Australia, Feb 2026 ISBN: 9781761725296 (hardback)
Happy Barry Capybara is the most chilled-out animal on the savannah. But when his friend the cheeky squirrel monkey, Harry, and his cousins are fighting over the last banana, Barry is left to decide who will get it. Which monkey will win the favour of Barry? Or will Barry have a new lesson to teach them about what it means to share?
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.
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?
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!
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.
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.
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!
SESSION 1: SPONTANEOUS STORYTIME
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
SESSION 2: CHARACTER MAQUETTE WORKSHOP
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
Oct 4: Comic illustration workshop (for kids) **SOLD OUT**
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**
Oct 11: illustration workshop (for adults)
Want to learn how to illustrate picture books? Join me in this session to find out how. Suitable for ages 16+.
Topics include:
Research
Planning (storyboards and dummy books)
Media testing and final artwork
Characters
Point of view, image boundary, colour, medium, line quality, font, composition
Words vs pictures
Preparing a portfolio and submitting to publishers.
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
Oct 24: Mantle Conference for Teacher Librarians, Newcastle
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!
Sally Tinker, the world’s foremost inventor under the age of 12, is back with a new adventure in invention. When Sally’s nemesis hatches a fowl and poultry plot – turning chickens into dinosaurs – there’s no room for the lily-livered. The chickensaurs are let loose, and Sally and co will need all their pluck to return the world to its rightful pecking order.
Wonderful news this morning: Happy Barry Capybara and Toffle Towers book 1 are both on the REAL shortlist! The REAL (Reading and Enjoying Australian Literature) shortlist is used by three children’s choice book award programs around Australia: the KOALA awards in NSW, the YABBAs in Victoria and the KROCs in the Northern Territory. Congrats to everyone involved in the shortlisted books! And a huge thanks to the library staff around Australia who volunteer their help with awards like these. Get reading, kids – which are your favourites?
James Foley 