Are we there yet?
Is it just us or has the year hit fast forward already?
With one quarter of the year down, the pace is picking up at Your Kid’s Next Read – and we’re thinking it’s probably the same at your place.
Fortunately, school holidays are almost upon us and, with them, an opportunity to rest and reset before we all start swimming again. Here are three ways to make the most of reading and writing opportunities these school holidays.
10-Day Printable Creativity Challenge. Last holidays we created this fabulous little creativity challenge for subscribers to our paid newsletter articles, and now, for a limited time, we’re unlocking it for everyone. Download it now for the kids to use in the holidays (and for you!)
YKNR First Chapters episodes. If you’re not on board the YKNR podcast First Chapters train yet, the holidays is the perfect opportunity to get your ticket. We introduced the summer series in the January newsletter, and they’ve proved so popular we now run them (infrequently) on Fridays as well.
They are a short (10-15 mins long) introduction to some of the latest Australian novels – from junior fiction to young adult – read by the authors themselves. You’ll find them all here, for perfect holiday listening!Play Holiday Reading Bingo. Speaking of the podcast, Megan and Allison chat regularly about the importance of reading over the holidays and keeping kids in touch with books. Episode 80 is devoted to Encouraging Holiday Reading, and the shownotes include a printable holiday reading journal, as well as a printable ‘bingo’ challenge. Find them both – and listen to the episode – here.
And, given that Term Two looms, with all the chaos that the arrival of winter sports will bring, it’s worth having another look at our Reset On Reading tips, to help set you and your kids up for a successful reading term.
UPDATES FROM TEAM YKNR
Our biggest news this month is the announcement of our appearances at the 2025 Sydney Writers’ Festival!
We have a Your Kid’s Next Read event on the adult program on Saturday 24th May, where we’ll be bringing all the magic of the YKNR community to life, discussing the top 10 questions that are asked regularly in the Facebook group, as well as answering your questions on the day. Oh, and, yes, Quality Waffle as well.
We would love to meet you in person, so book a free spot and come along.
But, wait, there’s more!
On Sunday 25th May, we will all be at the wonderful SWF Big Family Day as well.
Megan will be in conversation with the wonderful Costa from Gardening Australia (and, yes, she is more excited about this than spending time with the Allisons…).
But that’s okay, because Allison Tait and Allison Rushby will be sharing their secrets for writing mystery stories with young readers and writers – and it’s bound to be interesting because, well, let’s just say their approaches are quite different.
The Big Family Day program is ALSO FREE, and promises to be a brilliant day out – other author highlights include Nat Amoore, Mick Elliott, Mike Barry, Jade Goodwin, Corey Tutt, Jacqueline Harvey, Kylie Howarth, R. A. Spratt… So many!
Oh, and Jeff Kinney and Terri Libenson (we know!).
Bookings are not required for the Big Family Day, but some sessions are ticketed (see Kinney and Libenson, above) and they are selling fast, which is why we’re sharing this SWF event news NOW rather than waiting until May.
Oh, and if you’d like to keep up with updates about the events, follow the new @yourkidsnextread social media profiles on Facebook and Instagram.
HELLO FROM MEGAN DALEY
Megan is an award-winning teacher-librarian working in Brisbane, the author of Raising Readers: How to nurture a child’s love of books, and co-host of the Your Kid’s Next Read podcast. Her debut picture book THE BEEHIVE is out now! More about Megan here.
When the Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) Notables list was announced recently, I was chuffed at how many of the titles I had already read – believe it or not this is not the case for me every year! I have a dear friend, Trish Buckley, who is a teacher librarian, involved in CBCA and one of the most prolific middle grade and young adult readers I know. I like to pretend I can keep up with the level of reading that Trish churns through each year, but the reality is that I don’t even come close.
However, I have set myself the task of reading all the Younger Reader and Older Reader titles this year, so that I can discuss them with My Trish.
I started with the Older Readers List as I have read several of the contemporary titles already. Fantasy is not a genre I naturally choose, though I enjoy it when I set my mind to it, so I dove straight into 'Comes the Night' by Isobelle Carmody. This is one very beautiful piece of writing! Set in the near future and full of suspense, intrigue, dreamwalkers and kites, it is a must-read for fans of fantasy.
I am now three quarters of the way through 'Deep is the Fen' by Lili Wilkinson and am deeply invested in Merriwether Morgan’s romantic life, the secret underworld of the Toadmen and what is behind the glamour that Caraway Boswell wears to hide parts of himself.
When reading both these books I have had to text Allison and Allison a few times to ask about fantasy tropes (recurring images, themes, and devices in fantasy writing) and they have been most obliging – did you know redheads often have special qualities in fantasy writing for example? I can highly recommend pushing yourself out of your reading comfort zone and would absolutely encourage you to join me in reading all of the CBCA Notables for 2025.
MEGAN’S BOOKMARK REVIEWS
Each month, I share full reviews of two outstanding books that have crossed my desk. Bookmark these for your young readers.
‘Frog, Log and Dave’ by Trent Jamieson and Brent Wilson
This graphic novel for readers 7+ features Frog, Log and Dave as they bumble and hustle their way through Count Evil von Evil’s dastardly plot to wreak havoc on Town City. With quick wit and a generous supply of jelly babies, can they convince the evil Count's pollutobomb creation to NOT explode and save the day?
‘Frog, Log and Dave’ has a wonderfully retro feel and is very reminiscent of the comics and magazines I read as a child and what one of my sons gravitates towards now – he’s a mad fan of comics and Mad Magazine. The pastel toned endpapers are particularly excellent, as are the way that the sound effects are featured throughout the book in great fonts and varying sizes.
The humour is spot on and you can almost feel the two creators chuckling along with each other as they created this madcap tale. Highly recommended and I’m hoping it is the start of a series.
‘Volcano’ by Claire Saxby and Jess Racklyeft
From the team that brought us ‘Iceberg’ (which we really loved) and ‘Tree’, comes this glorious picture book that explores the fascinating world of an underwater volcano.
Deep in the ocean, far beyond the reach of even the brightest sun, the earth quakes. Hagfish scatter and snailfish flutter. Lava pillows flash and fade, rumpling the seabed as a new volcano births a mountain. Where hot meets cold, a chimney forms. Here begins a colony of unexpected creatures. Other chimneys grow and cool, grow and cool, while the mountain stretches ever upwards. A rumble becomes a roar and the sea boils. Lava fireworks the sky. A new island is born.
Claire Saxby is the queen of lyrical non-fiction narrative and here she brings to life the birth and eruption of the volcano, from first rumblings to the creation of a new island, enmeshed with Jess Racklyeft’s stunning illustrations (and endpapers). Clever use of a fold-out spread makes reading the book a true experience.
HELLO FROM ALLISON RUSHBY
The award-winning, bestselling author of many, many books for children and adults, Allison Rushby’s novels are firm favourites in the Your Kid’s Next Read community. Her latest illustrated junior fiction series, The Wish Sisters, is fast gaining fans. More about Allison R here.
I have a very nasty book hangover. I’d just finished reading a book in bed and it was not yet time to go to sleep.
I suppose you might think I would select one of the many (many!) books from the TBR pile on my bedside table – the bedside table I selected because it had a massive drawer and also two levels on which I might store books. But, no! That would have made perfect sense. Instead, I began to hunt around on my Kindle for another book I might purchase (at least, I suppose, this sort of book will not eventually topple over and kill me in my sleep).
I stumbled upon a book that many (many!) people have told me many (many!) times that I should read. “I can’t believe you haven’t read that!” I would get told. A lot. For some reason, this made me disinclined to read said book for no particular reason. Well. I gobbled up the sample, then quickly ordered and downloaded the book and … you guessed it, stayed up until 3am reading.
Oops.
Much coffee is going to be required today in order to write books, especially because I am currently wading my way through The Middle. The place most writers least like to be. At least I am wading with a grumpy troll and a dormouse?
THREAD OF THE MONTH
You guys! You know, it’s never very difficult to pick out hot contenders for thread of the month. As each month progresses, I often find myself thinking, “Ooohhh… that’s a good one”, “I’ll have to remember that for Thread of the Month…”, “A perfect Thread of the Month!” and then I have way too large a selection of contenders at the end of the month to choose from!
Well, here’s another firecracker of a thread. We had 4000 people look at this post. And over 50 comments! When a member asks, YKNReaders deliver. In spades.
HELLO FROM ALLISON TAIT
Writing as A. L. Tait, Allison is the internationally published, bestselling author of three middle-grade series: The Mapmaker Chronicles, The Ateban Cipher and the Maven & Reeve Mysteries. She is an in-demand speaker, a writing teacher for kids and adults, and co-host of the YKNR podcast. Her latest novel THE FIRST SUMMER OF CALLIE McGEE is out now. More about Allison here.
In further evidence of my epically busy year in 2025, I’m thrilled to reveal the cover of DANGER ROAD, my cold case crime novel for tweens, publishing on 1 July 2025 (available for pre-order here, if you’re super keen!)
I’m looking forward to sharing more details about this one over the coming months!
In the meantime, though, as you read this I’m wrapping up a brilliant week at Somerset Storyfest, including a launch event for WILLOW BRIGHT’S SECRET PLOT.
I was absolutely thrilled with the little surprises I was able to organise for this early launch – more about that in the next newsletter, when the book will be available in bookshops everywhere and I will be nervously awaiting feedback from readers.
It’s not an easy life, being an author. You create characters that you love and then send them off into the world and hope that the world loves them, too. Much like being a parent, really.
Speaking of which, my eldest son Joe Visser (aka Book Boy) has a new single dropping on 27 April, which I’m very excited about. If you haven’t heard Joe’s music or you’d like to reacquaint yourself with it ahead of the new single, you can find him on Spotify or Apple Music.
APRIL BOOKMAIL WINNER
Each month, we give away a prize pack consisting of some of the brilliant bookmail sent to us for the Your Kid’s Next Read podcast. One winner** is chosen from our full subscriber list by random draw and announced here!
There are SIX books in the APRIL prize pack.
The APRIL bookmail giveaway winner is … Tarryn Potter.
Congrats! We’ll be in touch by email.
Want a chance to win next month? All you have to do is subscribe.
We hope you manage some quiet time in the holidays. We’ll be over here with some books if you need us!
Allison T, Allison R and Megan
**Australian mailing addresses only. Prize consists of one copy of each book pictured, sent as a pack to the winner by Australia Post. Winner will be contacted by email and prize must be claimed within 14 days or a redraw will take place. You must be subscribed to the YKNR newsletter by midnight (AEDST) the night before publication each month to be eligible to win. No correspondence will be entered into.