And may God bless all who shelter under her!
The beginning of the
Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) Children’s Book Week seemed a good
time to launch my new picture book, Underneath a Cow, and I wouldn’t have
launched it anywhere else but in my home town. Kate and John Reed at The
Southern Swan Homeopathic Pharmacy and Bookshop, Mary Street, are becoming
renowned for their hosting of book events and it was the perfect venue for
Madge the cow and friends to make their debut.
Madge’s story began about
four years ago. I was walking along a county road, looking at cows, as you do.
It was pouring with rain at the time, but that didn’t seem to be an issue for
the cows. They just stood there in the paddock while everything around them got
soaked. It occurred to me that even allowing for the dangly bits, there was
quite a lot of space underneath a cow. So I went home and wrote a story about
the day of The Great Big Terrible Awful Storm and how quite a few small
creatures found shelter and safety underneath dear, brave kindly Madge.
I sent the story to my
publisher, Omnibus Books, and they liked it. But anyone who has written a book
knows that when the author thinks that the story is finished, the publisher
knows that it has only just begun. Months and months of cutting, editing, tweaking
and then rewriting the whole thing again, was followed by the question of who
would do the illustrations. Here I got very lucky. Ben Wood is a New South
Wales-based illustrator with not only a great artistic talent, but an hilarious
sense of humour. Ben’s pictures turned what I hoped was a humorous children’s
story into an absolute hoot for all ages!
For the launch I couldn’t
have had more enthusiastic and helpful hosts than Kate and John, who went to a
great deal of effort and creative inspiration to turn their shop into an
animal-themed, kid-friendly, adult-friendly, warm and welcoming venue. Nor
could I have asked for better friends than children’s author Anne Morgan and
CBCA member Jessie Mahjouri, who did a brilliant job of entertaining some dozen
or so children, most of them under five, with a treasure hunt and
story-reading. Paul Martin, Brad Madigan and Malcolm Martin provided a lively
little musical trio for a kindy-style singalong. Suzy Manigian worked her usual
magic with an extremely elegant tea table, all bone china and silver teapots,
and there were cakes – lots of exquisite cakes, in truly Cygnet high-tea
fashion.
We had a great fun and
Madge and her friends were successfully launched. I can only say thank you to
everyone who helped and everyone who came along.
A special thanks goes to
Kate and John, who gave the afternoon’s profits to me to donate to causes I
support. Half went to advocacy for asylum-seeker children in detention centres
and the other half to educational resources for aboriginal children in remote
communities. Thank you John and Kate, thank you everyone!
Should you decide that a
funny picture book is just the gift for someone you know, then head into The
Southern Swan, where there are still copies of Underneath a Cow to be had.
