Bigfoot vs Yeti – James Foley

Bigfoot, Yeti and Capybara shortlisted in children’s choice awards

The shortlists for the NSW and Victoria children’s choice book awards – the KOALAS and YABBAS – were released today. I’m stoked to see that two of my books were shortlisted in the Picture Story Book category!

Bigfoot vs Yeti: A Love Story and Happy Barry Capybara: Gone Bananas were both shortlisted.

Big thanks to all the young readers who nominated my books for the awards, and to the teachers and librarians who organised voting in their schools!

And congrats to everyone with a shortlisted book. There are so many great ones on the list this year. You can see all the shortlisted books in the poster below.

Eagle-eyed viewers will notice that I got to do the artwork for this year’s poster; it was heaps of fun to have Stella from Stellarphant doing a spacewalk with the mascot of the YABBAs (a mouse) and the KOALAs (a koala of course). See below for the full art.

Buy the books:

🌏 *Signed copies* – Paper bird

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🌏 SIGNED COPIES (PAPER BIRD)

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🌏 Dymocks

🇦🇺 QBD

Bigfoot vs Yeti is a CBCA Notable Book

What a wonderful bit of news – my book Bigfoot vs Yeti: a Love Story is on the Notables list for the 2026 Children’s Book Council of Australia’s Picture Book of the Year Award!

There are so many wonderful books on the list; congrats all! Check out the list below.

The shortlist will be announced on March 31, and the honour books and winner will be announced on August 21 at the start of Children’s Book Week.

Buy Bigfoot vs Yeti

🌏 *Signed copies* – Paper bird

🇦🇺 🇳🇿 Local Indie bookshops

Bigfoot vs Yeti shortlisted for peace award

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:

🌏 *Signed copies* – Paper bird

🇦🇺 🇳🇿 Local Indie bookshops

Bigfoot vs Yeti launched over east

A couple of weeks ago, I took a fantastic trip over east to help launch my new picture book, Bigfoot vs Yeti!

I got to visit wonderful bookshops, meet readers, and catch up with friends. When I got home my heart was full and the rest of me was completely exhausted!

Launches

The Sydney launch was at Gleebooks in Glebe, organised by the amazing Rachel. Can we get a life model decoy of Rachel for every state? She’s one of those invaluable champions of children’s literature who keeps the industry ticking along. There was also a real life bigfoot who looked a little like celebrated Sydney-based children’s book creator Mick Elliott.

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Double book launches in Sydney and Melbourne

My new book Bigfoot vs Yeti: A Love Story has released to rave reviews … and the brand-new colour edition of Dungzilla will be out in April!

If you’re in Sydney or Melbourne, please come along to a book launch and help me celebrate these two new releases.

March 29 – Sydney, NSW

I’ll be in Sydney at the end of March to celebrate the release of Bigfoot vs Yeti and the new colour edition of Dungzilla! Join me at Gleebooks in Glebe for a ridiculously fun double book launch.

DATE: Saturday March 29
TIME: 10:30am
WHERE: Gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe, NSW
REGISTRATION: rachel@gleebooks.com.au

April 4 – Melbourne, VIC

Melbourne friends, please come along to help me launch my new picture book Bigfoot vs Yeti, plus the colour edition of Dungzilla!

DATE: Friday April 4th
TIME: 6-7pm AEDT
WHERE: Readings Kids, 315 Lygon St, Carlton VIC
RSVP: essential, via trybooking

Order ‘Bigfoot vs Yeti’ now:

🌏 *Signed copies* – Paper bird

🇦🇺 🇳🇿 Local Indie bookshops

Bigfoot vs Yeti = launched in WA 🥳

Thanks to everyone who came out on Saturday to celebrate the launch of my new picture book!

Bigfoot Vs Yeti: A Love Story had a fun-filled send-off featuring a cryptid Olympics, craft activities, Karen Irwin and a real life Bigfoot! Several snowballs were slung and many morsels were munched.

Huge thanks to everyone who helped out: Fremantle Press for organising, The Literature Centre for hosting, New Edition for book sales, Karen Blair for ably launching, Deb Fitzpatrick and Sam Hughes refereeing, and Renae Hayward for the hardest job of all: kid (+ James) wrangling 😘

Best on ground goes to Dave Foley for donning a gorilla suit on a very humid day 👏👏👏

Check out some video from the WA launch in the insta post below.

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Bigfoot is out; the reviews are in!

Buy Bigfoot vs Yeti

🌏 *Signed copies* – Paper bird

🇦🇺 🇳🇿 Local Indie bookshops

Behind the scenes on Bigfoot vs Yeti

If you’d like a little more info on how my latest picture book was put together, here’s some recent media clippings:

an interview with the wonderful Rebecca Newman at Alphabet Soup about the development of Bigfoot vs Yeti,
and an article on the Fremantle Press website about the digital linocut technique used for the book.

INTERVIEW
Bigfoot vs Yeti
Alphabet Soup
with Rebecca Newman

ARTICLE
From Linocut to iPad
on the Fremantle Press website

Bigfoot vs Yeti is out in the wild

My new picture book Bigfoot vs Yeti: A Love Story is now available in bookstores!

I’m so happy with how this one has turned out! Huge thanks to everyone at Freo Press for their help.

You can see some sneak peeks of the book here.

AND here’s a little video to celebrate the book’s release!

Buy ‘Bigfoot vs Yeti’ now

🌏 *Signed copies* – Paper bird

🇦🇺 🇳🇿 Local Indie bookshops

Bigfoot vs Yeti launches in Fremantle and Sydney

My new book Bigfoot vs Yeti: A Love Story is out from March 3rd.

If you’re in Perth or Sydney, please come along to a book launch to help me celebrate!

March 15 – Fremantle, WA

Get ready for a fun-filled celebration of imagination, rivalry and unexpected friendship! Join us on Saturday 15 March at The Literature Centre for the highly anticipated launch of Bigfoot vs Yeti: A Love Story.

From participating in a fun tug-of-war or ‘snowball’ fight (no risk, all fun!), this event is packed with exciting, hands-on activities for all ages. Bring your family, friends and love for reading – there’s something for everyone!

DATE: Saturday March 15
TIME: 11am-1pm AWST
WHERE: The Literature Centre, Cnr Knutsford St & Hampton Rd, Fremantle WA
REGISTRATION: essential, via Humanitix

March 29 – Sydney, NSW

I’ll be in Sydney at the end of March to celebrate the release of Bigfoot vs Yeti and the new colour edition of Dungzilla! Join me at Gleebooks in Glebe for a ridiculously fun double book launch.

DATE: Saturday March 29
TIME: 10:30am
WHERE: Gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe, NSW
REGISTRATION: rachel@gleebooks.com.au