Category: Subjects & themes

A new way to share Milly Meelyu with your little readers (and to learn alongside them!) Milly Meelyu is a new picture book by Dr Holly Bradley, translated into Badimia by Darryl Fogarty, lovingly illustrated by Corinne Fogarty and filled with themes of family, home and caring for Country. To help you bring the book […]

Bring the special anniversary edition of In Flanders Fields by Norman Jorgensen and Brian Harrison-Lever to life with a hands-on activity that explores how soldiers stayed safe in the trenches. Students will use two empty milk cartons and two small mirrors to create their own periscopes and understand how they work. With free teaching notes […]

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'Make Your Own Periscope Activity'

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Bring the new edition of Lighthouse Girl by Dianne Wolfer (illustrated by Brian Simmonds) to life with a hands-on activity inspired by the way people once communicated across distances: semaphore. In this free activity, students will make their own pair of flags, learn the semaphore alphabet and use it to send messages to a partner. […]

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'Semaphoric Alphabet - Lighthouse Girl Activity'

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In the picture book Catalpa by Mike Lefroy and Joy Lefroy, a daring rescue mission is set in motion to free a group of Irish political prisoners from Fremantle Prison. Enter the high seas of the 1870s and learn the meaning behind words like ‘scrimshaw’, ‘gaol’ and ‘whaleboat’. Where does each word connect to the […]

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'Find the Words - Catalpa Activity Sheet'

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Looking for a rich springboard into text types and visual literacy? A New World Rises: Tales of a LEGO® Future is loaded with engaging and interactive text types that invite students to explore how writers shape meaning across different formats. Author Cristy Burne, who wrote the text for A New World Rises based on the […]

Em Readman, an emerging writer and contributor to An Unexpected Party: Queer YA Speculative Fiction, has been longlisted for the prestigious 2025 Richell Prize for Emerging Writers, selected from a competitive field of 775 entries. The recognition marks a significant milestone: Readman credits the confidence gained from contributing their short story in An Unexpected Party […]

Local authors and illustrators are teaming up to deliver a unique and inspiring program that gives primary school students the chance to become real-life published authors. Under the tutelage of WA’s bestselling and award-winning creatives, Year 5 and 6 students from Collier, East Victoria Park, Kensington and Manning Primary Schools will write, illustrate, edit and […]

Hetty Verolme survived a concentration camp during World War II, and went on to live a long and fruitful life. In this teaching activity, have students interview someone close to them and write a biography. You can download the free activity here.

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'Discover untold histories in this activity inspired by Hetty'

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Congratulations to WA author Holden Sheppard who has received the $50,000 Minderoo Artist Fund Award. The Minderoo Artist Fund Award is presented to the artist who best leveraged their time in the Minderoo Foundation Artist Fund program to innovate, collaborate and broaden their practice, while making meaningful contributions to the sector. Nicola Forrest AO presented […]

Adapted from the award-winning novel by Holden Sheppard, the powerful 10-part Stan Original Series Invisible Boys will premiere on 13 February, only on Stan. To celebrate the series, a new edition of Holden Sheppard’s bestselling novel hits bookstores today. Described by reviewers as a ‘groundbreaking new Aussie drama’ and a ‘powerful, soulful and absolutely bang-on […]

Goldfields Girl by Elaine Forrestal is a historical novel for middle readers featuring real-life nineteenth-century teenager Clara Saunders. In this blog post, Elaine takes us into the exciting, dusty, fly-ridden world of a gold rush.

This free event taking place at City of Perth Library hosts Isobel Bevis for a Storytime event on Thursday 23 January at 11.00 am. This Storytime event will feature Nedingar: Ancestors, a dual-language picture book by Isobel Bevis and Leanne Zilm, that won the 2024 Wilderness Society’s Karajia Award.

The Two-Hearted Numbat, Crow and the Waterhole, and Caterpillar and Butterfly are three First Nations picture book classics by Ambelin Kwaymullina and Ezekiel Kwaymullina. These three picture books are now out in new, small hardback editions – a perfect collection for the classroom bookshelf. All three books also come with free teaching notes. Activities include: […]

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'Caterpillar and Butterfly Activity Sheet'

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In this adorable activity, based on Helen Milroy’s latest picture book Bush Bubs, students can colour in Australian baby animals, then work on their comprehension by matching the name to the image. Other fun learning activities include: You can download the activity sheet here and, for more teaching activities, download the free teaching notes here.

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'Bush Bubs Teaching Activity'

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Join us as we launch Soaring with the Sugarbird Lady, the inspirational story of Robin Miller, a pioneering nurse and pilot who flew life-saving polio vaccines to remote communities across Western Australia in the 1960s.

Meet new friends with little Boab in The Boab Tree. This free video features Helen Milroy, author and illustrator of The Boab Tree, reading a story of friendship, resilience, and the Stolen Generation. Little Boab is lost and far, far from home. Surrounded by tall, unfriendly trees, he feels all alone. But the friendship of […]

I Am the Mau and other stories by acclaimed debut author Chemutai Glasheen is one of five Australian books on The White Ravens: A Selection of International Children’s and Youth Literature books for 2024. Selected by the International Youth Library‘s children’s literature experts, they represent literary and pictorial excellence with a particular focus on books […]

Nedingar: Ancestors, a dual-language picture book in Noongar and English by Isobel Bevis and Leanne Zilm, has won the Karajia Award by the Wilderness Society of Australia. Isobel Bevis – a Wilman, Ballardong Noongar writer who was born and raised in Collie in the south-west of Western Australia – said she was thrilled a book about […]

Year 6 student Julian Henningsgaard won the Phillip Pendal Young Heritage Award for his essay Words From the Past, which shares the serendipitous connection between T.A.G. Hungerford and the MillPoint Caffé Bookshop. We are delighted to publish the essay for you to enjoy, too.

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Environment Award for Children’s Literature, the Wilderness Society has partnered with The Wheeler Centre in Melbourne to host an exhibition of select illustrations from books shortlisted for the award over the past three decades – including works by much-loved author-illustrators Alison Lester, Sami Bayly, Oliver Jeffers, Renee Treml […]

Nedingar: Ancestors by Isobel Bevis and Leanne Zilm has been recognised for a third time in this year’s awards season. The dual language picture book has already been shortlisted for an Environment Award by the Wilderness Society and has been made a CBCA Notable Book. Now it is in the running for Speech Pathology Australia’s […]

Get the classroom thinking creatively, and help Quokka find a friend, with this free teaching activity. Working together or solo, kids can brainstorm the animals that a quokka would encounter on the beach and draw a friend for them.

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'Draw a Friend for Quokka'

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Using the illustrations of bush animals, get the classroom colouring in and writing the Noongar word for each animal in the blank space. Each of the animals can be found in the dual-language Noongar and English picture book, Djinang Bonar: Seeing Seasons by Ebony Froome and Leanne Zilm.

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'What animals can we see in the bush?'

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Enjoy a read-a-long with author Helen Milroy as she shares her latest picture book Bush Bugs. Hairy bugs, scary bugs, big or small. Let’s see if you can name them all!