Tag: Happy Barry Capybara Gone Bananas

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
🇦🇺 🇳🇿 Local Indie bookshops
🇦🇺 🇳🇿 Booktopia
🌏 FREMANTLE PRESS
🇦🇺 QBD
🌏 Dymocks
🇹🇼 Books.Com.Tw
🌏 SIGNED COPIES (PAPER BIRD)
🇦🇺🇳🇿 LOCAL INDIE BOOKSHOPS
🇦🇺🇳🇿 Booktopia
🌏 Dymocks
🇦🇺 QBD

Free capybara classroom activities

Hi teachers and parents!

Here are some free activities to go with my latest picture book Happy Barry Capybara: Gone Bananas.

Paper character finger puppets

These mouthy fellas are heaps of fun to make and play with!
There are little paper loops on the back so you can make their mouths open.

Free for non-commercial use (schools, libraries, homes).
Click on the pictures below to download the pages (pdf format).
[These are adapted from an awesome set of farmyard animal puppets found here and many more creature puppets found on twinkl.]

DOWNLOAD BARRY (capybara) PUPPET (pdf)
DOWNLOAD HARRY (monkey) PUPPET (pdf)

Colouring sheets

Free for non-commercial use (schools, libraries, homes).
Click on the pictures below to download the pages (pdf format).

DOWNLOAD SHEET 1 (pdf)
DOWNLOAD SHEET 2 (pdf)
DOWNLOAD SHEET 3 (pdf)

MORE CAPYBARA ACTIVITIES

Buy Happy Barry Capybara: Gone Bananas

🌏 SIGNED COPIES (PAPER BIRD)
🇦🇺🇳🇿 LOCAL INDIE BOOKSHOPS
🇦🇺🇳🇿 Booktopia
🌏 Dymocks
🇦🇺 QBD

Happy Barry Capybara has gone bananas

It’s here! My latest picture book, Happy Barry Capybara: Gone Bananas, is out in shops from today.

And the first review is in too:

“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)

🌏 SIGNED COPIES (PAPER BIRD)
🇦🇺🇳🇿 LOCAL INDIE BOOKSHOPS
🇦🇺🇳🇿 Booktopia
🌏 Dymocks
🇦🇺 QBD

10 days until Barry Capybara is back!

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?

This is the long-awaited sequel to my very silly picture book about a super chill capybara, and it’s out on February 1st through Scholastic.

Happy Barry Capybara: Gone Bananas

🇦🇺🇳🇿 Australia/NZ edition, published by Scholastic Australia, Feb 2026
ISBN: 9781761725296 (hardback)

🌏 SIGNED COPIES (PAPER BIRD)
🇦🇺🇳🇿 LOCAL INDIE BOOKSHOPS
🇦🇺🇳🇿 Booktopia
🌏 Dymocks
🇦🇺 QBD

New books for 2026

I’ve got four new titles coming out next year!

Happy Barry Capybara: Gone Bananas

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:

🌏 SIGNED COPIES (PAPER BIRD)
🇦🇺🇳🇿 LOCAL INDIE BOOKSHOPS
🇦🇺🇳🇿 Booktopia
🌏 Dymocks
🇦🇺 QBD

Paw Prints: Fuzzball

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:

🌏 SIGNED COPIES (PAPER BIRD)
🇦🇺🇳🇿 local indie bookshops
🇦🇺🇳🇿 BOOKTOPIA
🌏 Dymocks
🇦🇺 QBD

Oh No!

This is something different for me – a funny picture book about onomatopoeia (i.e sound effects)! Out in May through Penguin.

Pre-order now:

🌏 SIGNED COPIES (PAPER BIRD)
🇦🇺🇳🇿 LOCAL INDIE BOOKSHOPS
🌏 Readings
🇦🇺🇳🇿 Booktopia
🌏 Dymocks
🇦🇺 QBD

New book #4

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.