Tag: Toffle Towers

Happy Barry and Toffle Towers both on the REAL awards shortlist

Wonderful news this morning: Happy Barry Capybara and Toffle Towers book 1 are both on the REAL shortlist! ⁠
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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. ⁠
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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. ⁠
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Get reading, kids – which are your favourites? ⁠

Download the 2025 REAL Awards poster

REAL_Awards_Poster_V2 (1)Download

Toffle Towers: old-school hand-lettering & a rocket-powered bus

Ever wondered how the title type for a series gets designed? I’ll show you my inspirations for the title type of the Toffle Towers series. I’ll also show you how I designed the series’ quirky shuttle bus vehicle.

Continue reading “Toffle Towers: old-school hand-lettering & a rocket-powered bus”

Toffle Towers: designing a hotel interior

The Toffle Towers series takes place in and around the eponymous hotel – it’s historic, a bit shabby and definitely quirky.  In this post I’ll show you how I designed the hotel’s lobby.

Continue reading “Toffle Towers: designing a hotel interior”

Toffle Towers: designing a hotel exterior

Many scenes in the Toffle Towers series happen in and around the eponymous hotel. So it was down to me – an illustrator with absolutely no architecture experience (!) – to design the exterior of the building. It needed to look historic, a little shabby but also exciting and quirky. Here’s how I designed it.

Continue reading “Toffle Towers: designing a hotel exterior”

Toffle Towers 3 out in August

*** COMING SOON: 4th AUG 2020 ***

The adventures at Toffle Towers hotel continue as the manager – 10-year-old Chegwin Toffle – battles with blizzards, rioting guests and hostile takeover attempts!

Join Chegwin Toffle for more fun and frolics as Toffle Towers gets snowed in. Amid the snowball fights, things start to go wrong when guests’ precious belongings go missing and Brontessa Braxton launches yet another assault to take over the hotel.

Will Chegwin catch the culprit? Will he be able to beat Brontessa in court to save his beloved hotel and staff? And will he ever find the missing room 50 and the hotel’s mystery guest?

Another stellar story written by Tim Harris,  and illustrated by James.

PRE-ORDER YOUR SIGNED COPY
– Paper Bird Children’s Books

Pre-Order Local
Find your local bookshop

Pre-order online:
– Booktopia (Australia/NZ only)
– Dymocks
– QBD (Australia only)
– Readings
– Angus & Robertson (Australia only)
– Book Depository

More books in the series:

Toffle Towers 1: Fully Booked

Toffle Towers 2: The Great River Race

New book out now (and more on the way)

Hello readers!

James here, finding a quiet moment while the toddler is asleep to update my blog. And there’s lots of news to share …

FUNNY BONES out now

Funny Bones came out just this week. It’s a whopping 700-page kids’ anthology from the funniest Australian authors and illustrators, with all royalties going to the charity War Child Australia.

I’ve got a couple of pages of comics in there, but you’ll also find Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton, Garth Nix, Jacqueline Harvey, Richard Roxburgh, Sally Rippin, Tristan Banks, Gus Gordon … you name them, they’re probably featured in here. It’s a brilliant book for a brilliant cause, and would make an absolutely brilliant Christmas present.

Grab your copy of Funny Bones here:
– Allen & Unwin
– Dymocks
– Booktopia (Aus/NZ only)

… or ask your local indie bookshop for a copy.

TOFFLE TOWERS 2 out in January

The next installment in the adventures of young hotel manager Chegwin Toffle will land in bookstores in January 2020. Words by the incomparable Tim Harris; illustrations by me.

This time around, Chegwin’s hotel staff are ‘reverse mugged’ by two mysterious men. Chaos ensues and it’s Chegwin’s job to get to the bottom of these attacks before Toffle Towers loses all its hard-earned guests. Meanwhile, the town of Alandale is preparing for the annual Great River Race. Once Chegwin discovers his saboteur is none other than Brontessa Braxton, owner of the rival hotel in town, Chegwin find himself preparing to go head to head with her in the Great River Race to save his beloved staff and Toffle Towers.You can pre-order Toffle Towers book 2 here:
– Booktopia (Australia/NZ only)
– Angus & Robertson (Australia only)
– QBD (Australia only)
– Dymocks
– Readings

… or ask your local indie bookshop to order it in for you.

More books coming in 2020/21

Look out for these projects coming next (I’m excited!):

– Chickensaurus (Sally Tinker book 4)
– Toffle Towers Book 3
– the follow-up picture book to cult favourite My Dead Bunny (more details on that soon)
– Stellarphant, a new picture book written and illustrated by me

That’s all the new book news for now! Thanks for reading.

– James