Visiting Words and Pictures

Thank you to the dear friends who have recently been on a journey with me through the Art Adventures in the Australian Collection, Words and Pictures, Queensland Art Gallery.

It has been a great pleasure to show you the poems and stories with the art and share my passion for art and poetry, in an enormous 3D picture book.

I have greatly appreciated your feedback and support.

 

All the art in the pictures is from the Queensland Art Gallery.

 

For More information QAG

Also to be part of a special grandparents day event (suitable especially for parents, grandparents and children) OCTOBER 28th  Book Here

Magic Fish Dreaming Now at the State Library Shop – South Bank

We are so delighted to announce that Magic Fish Dreaming is now available in the South Bank precinct.

You can find it at the State Library shop.

In store: Level 1, State Library of Queensland
Cultural Centre, Stanley Place, South Bank

So for anyone passing through Brisbane and doing touristy and visitor activities you will easily be able to check out and if you love it, buy the book.

Magic Fish Dreaming is listed in the upcoming Books from our Backyard which focuses on Queensland Books.  So such good news in the lead up to Christmas !

South Bank is a super location and they display the books in their shop so beautifully.

A big thank you to all other shops stocking the book particularly Riverbend Books, the first shop to stock the book and great supporters of poetry.

Forever grateful to Riverbend books for their support so if you live in Bullimba or near to there, please buy the book from your local indi.

Special mentions also to Berkleouw Books, Big B Books, Little Angels Children’s Boutique and toys, and Little Gnome who have had great faith in our product.

Thanks to Riverbend, Berkelouw, Books@Stones and Mary Ryans, Milton,  for hosting visits.

And a special thank you to all other shops for taking a risk on our book and to friends and family who are helping take the book to their local shops, Nigel, Anna, and Pam!

Quoll at Mary Ryans

Quoll had quite a lot of fun leaping over books and checking out Mary Ryan’s bookstore last weekend.

Quoll thought the staff were quite lovely to the visiting author of Magic Fish Dreaming.

Quoll saw a few books go to new homes!  Quoll overheard a conversation where someone asked if June wrote poetry for teenagers and grown ups as well.

Quoll is looking forward to meeting some new friends at workshops at the library this week, and some more adventures in the works.

Where will Quoll turn up next?

What should we name this dear creature?  Quin, Quigley or Quade?

Any other suggestions?

 

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Some New Poems

Although selling copies of Magic Fish Dreaming can keep me busy, I always put aside special time for writing poems.

I have been submitting them to Australian Children’s Poetry and encourage you to check out their excellent prompts!  They are so much fun!

I’ve been doing some submissions for projects and hope to have good news for our fans soon.

With submissions of both projects and poetry publications I like to forget about them once they are in, working on my writing helps me to take my mind off them.  At this stage all I can say is that some of these are not just for Magic Fish Dreaming, but the cause of poetry and children in general!  Please cross your fingers and send your positive wishes !

I’ve always loved collaborating and recently began to have conversations with a number of Australian poets for children. I have always loved poetry and think it offers so much to children and families, so finding other like minded creatives to chat with is inspiring!

Here is one of the poems I had accepted to the Australian Children’s Poetry Blog.

blurred

 

 

 

 

 

 

Art Class

 

For Vincent’s  ‘The  Starry,  Starry Night’

 

Outlines crash into swirls

Miss Del Amico asks, what do you see?

Is that a sky of blue curls?

Outlines crash into swirls

Time to dive for some pearls

Will I find this painting’s key?

Outlines crash into swirls

Miss Del Amico asks, what do you see ?

June Perkins
  • Submitted in response to Poetry Prompt #8

poetry-prompt-8

 

 

 

June said: This is a triolet using the prompt ‘Blurred.’ The first words that came into my head were, ‘outlines crash into swirls’.

The trickiest thing with this poem was picking the artist.  Would they be someone I personally knew who painted, a fictional small child, or someone who everyone knows that paints?  I thought of a famous artist who used swirls, Vincent Van Gough.

I added the dedication to help with understanding of the poem.

I imagine this poem is an art class for early childhood with a teacher who likes to introduce the children to great artists, and likes to encourage them to look beyond the surface of the painting, into what it means to the artist who paints it.  I decided to name the teacher after my favourite art teacher at high school.

Beaming Readers, Reviews, Poems and more…

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Courtesy of one of our readers

This lovely young man’s Nana said he loves his book!

Thank you so much for letting us know and sending this delightful picture of an absolutely beaming reader!

We just love this picture!

In Other News

Our latest review is up on Just Write for Kids

Here is an extract.

“The mix of musical lyrics, sensitive dialogue and thoughtful stories effortlessly blend with the mesmerisingly enchanting illustrations to allow us to venture into the cultures and wonderments of the people, creatures, and our own imaginations. Magic Fish Dreaming is a book that will engage the reflectors, the adventurers and the poets in all of us.”

Magical for children aged five and up.  Romi Sharp

Head to the blog to read the whole review

June has had a couple of poems go up on Australian Children’s Poetry

Caterpillar’s Song

First Day

June also did a live radio interview on 4k1G Townsville with Vee Gara, 5.15 on the 2nd of February. It was great to catch up with Vee and let people know about the book.

Helene Magisson did a lovely interview at  Readilearn

Helene has several more books in the works.  One of which is The Whirlpool (May 2017)

You can keep track by checking out her website.

Helene Magisson will be at Romancing the Stars, with copies of the book and prints on February 24th at the Sunshine Coast.

100 kickstarter parcels sent out!

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We’ve sent 100 of the kickstarter parcels for the project out since Friday last week!

Would love to know what you think of Magic Fish Dreaming and about its arrival into your family or school!

So delighted to know it is being used for a poem before sleep in a few families already!

You can catch our second review on Good Reads, and feel free to add your own.

We have some more reviews coming up soon.

And check out Helene’s Christmas book!

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Must be time to put together a Magic Fish Dreaming trailer!

All the very best for Christmas and New Year.

The Magic Fish Dreaming Team

Print Day is Close!

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For all kickstarter supporters unable to attend the launch, wherever you are, please make sure you have sent us your address. We’ll let you know when the packages start going out.

We have received 2/3 of the addresses.

We are very close to print day so keep a look out for our ‘off the press’ video!

If you have already responded to the kickstarter survey we will have your address, but we’ll be checking and contacting anyone who we haven’t heard from yet.

As there are quite a lot  of books to pack and sign etc, and they are going to so many different places, you may not all receive these on the same day !

We’d love to receive photographs of you opening and sharing the book.