Playground Detectives - Billie B Mystery Number Three!

I've had a few enquiries lately about the release date for the next Billie Mystery so thought I should put a little sneak peek up here.

Billie and her friends have a brand new Secret Mystery Clubhouse, high up in the apple tree. Now they just need a brand new mystery to uncover. Billie comes up with an idea. Only last week Rebecca found leaves in her sandwich and Benny was immediately blamed. Lola says she even saw him loitering in the corridor that day. Everyone agrees it has to have been Benny. After all, Benny always does stupid things like that. But this time Benny is adamant it wasn't him. And, to Billie, something feels not quite right. But then, if it wasn't Benny, who was it? It's up to the Secret Mystery Club to find out!

Playground Detectives should be available at the beginning of March. So for any keen Billie readers, that's only fifteen more sleeps!

A Big Month for Billie

Where has February gone? Even with one extra day it still flew past! Before I know it March will be over too and April is set to be 'B' for busy with Billie and Jack events.

If you'd like to come along to hear a story, have a book signed or have a chat about your favourite Billie or Jack book, this is where I will be:

Sunday 25th March

Family Fun Day

11 - 11.30 (with Gabrielle Wang) at the Wheeler Centre

12.30 - 1pm Queens Hall, State Library

1.10 - 1.40pm Readings Bookstore Marquee

Saturday 31st March

Midday–1pm Books In Print

100 Glenferrie Rd, Malvern

(03) 9500 9631

Tuesday 3rd April

10.30am–11.30am Readings Hawthorn (upstairs)

701 Glenferrie Rd, Hawthorn

Cost: $10 per child and includes a signed copy of either The Pocket Money Blues or The Copycat Kid.

Each child will also receive a special gift.

Bookings essential: (03) 9819 1917

Wednesday 4th April

1 - 2pm Collins Books Northland

50 Murray Road, East Preston

(03) 9954 6220

Thursday 12th April

10.30am–11.30am The Little Bookroom

759 Nicholson Street, Carlton North

(03) 9387 9837

Friday 13th April

10.30am–11.30am Moonee Valley Library

762 Mt Alexander Road, Moonee Ponds

Saturday 14th April

11am-Midday The Younger Sun Bookshop

9 & 10 Ballarat St, Yarraville

(03) 9689 0661

Sunday 22nd April

10am–11am Dymocks

234 Collins Street, Melbourne

(03) 9660 8500

Friday 27th April

4.30pm-5.30pm Ward Sager

21/10 Arthur Street, Eltham

(03) 9439 9321

Wednesday 2nd May

4pm-5pm Preston Library

Cramer St, Preston

(03) 94822499

Saturday 26th May
11 - 12pm Three, Four, Knock on the Door
46 Nott Street, Port Melbourne
(03) 9645 2058

And just for a little extra news, in April we are also adding to our family. That's right! One of these little darlings will be coming home with us in the first week of April.

We can't wait!

Hurry up March...

Only 34 more sleeps til You-Know-What!

If you missed me in Malvern a couple of weeks ago and would still like to get a signed Billie book for someone's stocking this Christmas, I will be at Fairfield Books this Saturday 26th November signing books from 11am - 12pm.

Hope to see you there!

The address is 117A Station St, Fairfield.

Ph. (03) 9482 2499

Fax. (03) 9482 2633

email: books@fairfieldbooks.biz

B is for Book Signing

This Saturday 5th November I will be at Books in Print in Malvern, signing Billie books from 11am to midday. If you have any Billie B Brown fans at home, please come along!

Books in Print are located at 100-102 Glenferrie Rd, Malvern.

(Between High Street and Wattletree Road)

Ph: (03) 9500 9631

Back in town

Aki and I arrived back in Melbourne last night after a whirlwind tour of Victoria and NSW talking about all things Billie B Brown to hundreds of very excited primary students. As it turns out, Aki looks remarkably like Billie so for all the youngest kids hoping to see the actual Billie, Aki fulfilled that need quite nicely. Plus she can draw up a storm. We had so much fun. I hope we can tour together again one day.

Today the lovely Sue DeGennaro and I will be doing a couple of sessions on picture books at The Thousand Words Festival at the Northcote Town Hall at 11.30 and 12.30. It should be a great festival this year.

Then Monday - don't forget! - it's the once only production of the animated versions of The Rainbirds and The Night Garden at the Melbourne Recital Centre. I have seen a preview of the show and it is really something quite magical and would be a beautiful thing to do on the first Monday of the school holidays with your littlies. Tickets are still available. Happy holidays!

Get Reading tour

I'm back in Melbourne and straight to bed with a fever and a throat so sore I can barely swallow. Obviously the combination of ten straight days of talking and hundreds of snotty little darlings coming up for cuddles has finally taken its toll on my poor immune system.

I only have this weekend to get better though because first thing Monday, Aki Fukuoka, the lovely Billie B Brown illustrator, and I are hitting the road again travelling around Victoria and NSW with this year's Get Reading! campaign.

If you want to know where Aki and I will be each day, click here or here.

And don't forget to read Aki's blog posts about her first Australian school visits last week. It looks like she had a wonderful time!

Book signings and author talks

For any Billie fans, I will be doing a book signing at Collins Book Store in Northland on Saturday 27th from 1pm until 2pm.

For anyone who'd like to hear me chat about Angel Creek, I will be at the Melbourne Writers Festival on Tues 30th, 10am at Art Play.

Lastly, if you'd like to hear Gabrielle Wang and I chatting about books, writing and just about anything you want really, we will be at the MWF on Wed 31 at 11.15am.

Hope to see some of you there!

Liar, liar, pants on fire!

Here is Aki's latest blog post about illustrating The Little Lie.

Some of these Billie stories stray so close to home it's almost embarrassing. Yes, I once cut my own hair, yes, I craved to be a teacher's pet, and, yes, I was known to make up the odd story once in a while... My poor parents. I can't tell you how many times they pulled out that old "Boy Who Cries Wolf" story in the hope of curing me of my... tendencies towards an overactive elaboration.

How could they have known that one day this is how I would make a living?

So, what's the biggest fib you've ever told?

Sugar and Spice or Frogs and Snails? What Are Little Boys Made Of?

Robyn and Alison both left very interesting comments on my last post and I found myself writing a very long and drawn-out reply, so I thought I may as well write another post in response. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this and to continue this discussion.

Both Robyn and Alison wondered if the Billie books had been published with more gender-neutral covers if they may have attracted more boy readers. I discussed this with my publisher recently and she conceded that without the covers the Billie books may have been more appealing to boys, as Aki's internal illustrations are not particularly 'girly', nor are my stories.

But the more I think about this the more I am unsure if this would have made much difference.

All the research shows (and this includes the research I do with my own three sons!) that if there is a female on the cover - no matter what the colour scheme, design etc, many boys still won't pick it up. And publishers are very aware of this. For example, Suzanne Collins' 'Hunger Games' trilogy offers two alternative covers: one with Katniss (the female protagonist) and the other with Peeta (her male sidekick) to make sure they don't lose any prospective male readers. The Hunger Games trilogy is jam-packed with action and violence - themes usually associated with 'boys' fiction' - but has been hugely popular with both sexes.

So, in relation to this, the main question for me is why is it OK for a girl to be in touch with her 'masculine side' but not ok for a boy to be attracted to more 'feminine' things? Why is it that a little girl can wear pants and climb a tree but a little boy can't wear a skirt and play with dolls? And who determines what is a 'boy thing' and what is a 'girl thing' anyway?

My 8 year old son recently told me he was told off by his friends in class for using a pink texta and they insisted he change it to black. Is our cultural homophobia so great that an 8 year old boy can't even use a pink texta!? For me, this is where the true problem lies.

More Aki pics and some exciting news

Click here to see some more of Aki Fukuoka's gorgeous Billie sketches. This time for The Big Sister. I love seeing the way Aki's illustrations develop. I am such a fan of her work.

Recently, one of the Billie B Brown books, The Secret Message, was chosen for the 2011 Get Reading! campaign. This year's '50 Books You Can't Put Down' list features 35 Australian titles, with 13 of the 50 titles being children's/young adult books. This is obviously very exciting news, but for me, the best thing about this news is that Aki and I might get to do some gigs together and finally meet in person. Aki lives in New Zealand, so up until now we have only been able to correspond by email or through our blogs. Wouldn't it be fun if Aki and I could do some Billie events together? If this happens, I will definitely let you know. Fingers crossed!

Aki Fukuoka's preliminary sketches

For anyone who is a fan of Aki Fukuoka's gorgeous Billie B Brown illustrations, click here to see her preliminary sketches for The Secret Message.

Billie, Blondie and Birthdays - or how to survive a party with a hundred and one six-year-olds.

Who would have thought when I woke up last Sunday morning that later that very day I would be dancing to Blondie in The Victorian State Library with a sea of six-year-olds?

As part of the Wheeler Centre and State Library's inaugural Children's Book Festival, last Sunday we celebrated twelve months of Billie B Brown with a one year birthday party.

I was hoping for a good turn-out but had completely underestimated just how many excited little Billie fans I would encounter. It was a wonderful, if not slightly daunting, surprise. Immediately I began to worry about how on earth I was going to run all the party games I had planned when even getting all those dozens of kids to sit in one big circle nearly required a sheep-dog. But, we managed, and before long all the kids were sitting in an almost circle ready for the first game.

First up was pass-the parcel. But it was so noisy in that great big echoey Experimedia room jam-packed with excited children and parents that nobody could hear when the music stopped or started. The children were fabulous though and I am frankly quite amazed that the whole thing didn't end in tears.

Next, we played musical statues. But with so many more kids than I had anticipated, all of them grimly determined to win the prize, it took forever to eliminate the 'not winners'. Poor Jen, my publicist, was almost in tears herself after having to pull out kids each time the music stopped. Being a mother, I am made of tougher stuff. Having said that, we did actually end up with three winners but that was mainly because we ran out of time to play all the other games I had planned. Fortunately, I still managed to squeeze in a reading of The Birthday Mix-Up, though I think a 'shouting' would be a better description of what I did, and I'm still not sure that the kids in the back heard everything I said. Next time I will definitely request a mike!

It was a great day and hugely successful according to this article in The Age.

I finished up by signing what felt like hundreds of Billie books and meeting some adorable girls (and the odd boy) and their families.

So, thank you all so much for coming.

And hopefully see you all again next year when Billie turns two!

Ten more sleeps!

Only ten more sleeps! Hope you can come. Click here for more information about the Children's Book Festival.

B is for birthday!

You are invited to a party!

When: Sunday April 3rd, 2.30 - 3pm

Where: At the Victorian State Library, Experimedia, as a part of the inaugural Children's Book Festival Family Day

Why: Billie B Brown will be celebrating her first birthday and the launch of her new book The Birthday Mix-Up.

Come along for games, activities, readings, book signings and lots more Billie fun...

Hope to see you there!

The Big Sister

Poor little Billie, she has been rather overshadowed by Angel Creek this week. In all the excitement of the arrival of my newborn I completely forgot to mention that there is a brand new Billie out this week, too!

Oh well, like any big sister would know (sigh) it's all about the baby!

Hello Summer!

I love summer. Everything about it. The heat, the cicadas, the fruit on our trees, the tomatoes in our veggie patch, daylight saving, and especially that quiet time between Christmas and New Year, where everyone is away, or thinks you're away, or they're just too hungover to surface.

Last summer was a very creative and productive time for me. Over those few quiet weeks I wrote the first draft of my novel, Angel Creek. By the end of this summer it will be published.

This summer will be a little busier - I have more Billie books to write and the proofs of my novel to go through. I am also writing a children's story for the Summer Age which will be published in January some time. Not sure when.

Late summer, I will be running Chinese painting workshops for kids on the 13th and 20th of February at the State Library as a part of their exhibition 'Look! - the art of Australian picture books today.' If you are at all interested in children's picture books, particularly illustrations, you have to get down to see this show. It is truly wonderful. And take a child, if you can. All the artwork is hung at child height, and the exhibition space is full of hands-on activities and games, which of course you'll feel much more comfortable playing with if you have a token child with you. (I have a few spare if you don't have your own.) You have plenty of time to get there as it will be in Melbourne until the end of May, but seriously, why would you wait in the queues to see the Myer windows with screaming kids in tow when you could just wander up the road and take a look at some seriously beautiful artwork for children. (Sorry, that's just my humble opinion...)

The image above is of my 'Summer Billie'. It will be in (all good) bookstores in January.

Tomboys, jazz and the importance of imagination

This is an excerpt from an interview on the Billie B Brown series that will be published at www.kidslife.com.au at the end of November. I have just pulled out my favourite bits.

KL: Is Billie’s name, and the spelling of it, intentional?

Yes. In writing books for children I love to create strong girls and sensitive boys. For me, this is a very efficient way of creating a well-rounded character that doesn’t slip into stereotype.

I studied painting in China for several years as a young adult and I am still very interested in Chinese philosophy, particularly its dedication to creating balance in life. The term ‘Yin and Yang’ is bandied about a lot these days, and the symbol is used on everything from Chinese medicine to surfboards, but basically it illustrates the balance of life ie; that in all black, there must be a touch of white, and in white there is always a touch of black.

So, for me to create a well-rounded character, I like to make sure that my boys are in touch with their feminine side and my girls have a little bit of boy in them. ‘Billie’ was the perfect name for

my character because obviously it makes you think of ‘Billy’, the boy’s name, first of all, but then it also might make you think of Billie Holiday, the beautiful, strong and gorgeously feminine jazz singer from the 1940s and 50s.

KL: How does Billie differ to the accepted stereotype of girls her age?

To be honest, being a mother of three boys, I haven’t read many books for girls published recently, but I could tell you anything you want to know about Spiderman!

However, I am keenly aware of how girls are treated in the media and, I have to say, sometimes it turns my stomach. I am a strong advocate not only of desexualizing young girls but also for allowing kids to stay kids for as long as they need to be. Childhood seems to get shorter and shorter and with that also disappears the terribly important ‘doing nothing’ time where imagination is allowed to flourish.

As an author and illustrator, imagination is one of the key aspects of my job, but, if you think about it, imagination and creativity are essential to all areas of life, whatever your job or interests are. I believe that the seeds to developing a strong and healthy imagination are planted in our early life and this grows best by simply allowing children regular opportunities for unstructured play. Once kids break through the ‘I’m bored’ barrier and are left to their own devices, that’s when their imagination really starts to kick in.

Writing Billie...

There are times in your life when something absolutely marvellous just seems to fall into your lap. Billie B Brown has been one of these things.

Hilary Rogers, the publisher at Hardie Grant Egmont, took me out for coffee one day and told me that she wanted to begin a new series of books for young readers (primarily girls) but with a strong female lead – a tomboy, I suppose – to balance out all the fairy and princess books that seem to heavily dominate the younger reader market these days. She asked me – would I like to write for the series – or write the series? (The catch obviously being very tight deadlines.) Well, what you have answered? Really, that’s like asking my seven year old if he’d like lollies for dinner!

I had a million things on, as I always do, and my sensible mind was saying, Sally, you really can’t cope with writing a whole series right now! What about the overdue novel and that set of illustrations you are halfway through? And aren’t you about to begin marking hundreds of assignments from all of your RMIT students? But obviously the offer was way too tempting to even begin to be overrided by my sensible mind and I set to work that very night putting together a whole list of ideas for Hilary to consider. Fortunately, I have a very strong memory of myself at Billie’s age, and so once I started coming up with story ideas, I just couldn’t stop! As luck had it – Hilary loved my ideas and we spent the next few weeks to-ing and fro-ing about how the series would evolve.

Billie went through many incarnations – at one stage I even called her Ruby Rose – without any idea that there was a famous MTV star who went by that name. (Fortunately the Hardie Grant staff are much hipper and groovier than I am and were able to (kindly) let me know!) We talked about the length of the stories (short) and the kind of language and sentence structure I should be using (very simple and pared-back for beginning readers – much harder than it looks!) Then, there was the troublesome dilemma of illustrator. I am also an illustrator and for quite a while we toyed with the idea of me illustrating the series even though we all knew deep down that there was no way I was going to be able to write and illustrate the books as quickly as Hilary wanted to publish them. So, with great difficulty, I handed over a little piece of my baby to be illustrated by someone else.

This is the first time I have done this, and I now know what trepidation and excitement picture book authors must feel when they wait to see what an illustrator has done with their precious words. As it turns out, the Hardie Grant team found the perfect illustrator, in a young (very gorgeous) Japanese-Kiwi woman, called Aki Fukuoka. Aki has created a Billie even more wonderful than I could have imagined (let alone illustrated). Super-groovy, fabulous dresser, feisty, messy – gorgeous! When I look at the series now I can’t imagine Billie any other way. And along with the gorgeous sherbet-y cover colours, the books look almost good enough to eat!

The team at Hardie Grant have been a joy to work with right from the start. And I don’t use the word ‘team’ lightly here. I am only a small part of the enormous success the Billie series has had so far, even though it has only been on the shelves since April. Everyone has worked so hard to get this little girl up and running, and the response to the books has been amazing. I have never received so much fan-mail in my life! Not only from little girls, but parents and teachers, too, thanking me for finally creating a character their girls can relate to.

Writing this series has been so delightful, really just one of those wonderful fortuitous things that comes along just at the right time. I really feel very lucky to have had such a great writing career so far, but I have to say creating the Billie B Brown series has definitely been the icing on the cake.

*This article first appeared on the Kids Book Review blog.

*The above image is the cover of The Perfect Present, to be released November 1, 2010

Billie B Brown drawing competition

A school I visited recently ran a Billie B Brown drawing competition. Here are some of the entries. Aren't they gorgeous!?

Billie five and six!

Only ten more sleeps until the next two Billie books hit the stores on August 2nd. I have some lovely new advance copies and if you (or any little girls you know) would like to get your mittens on one before anyone else does, email me at sallyrippin@optusnet.com.au and tell me which is your favourite Billie B Brown book and I'll throw in some stampers for your trouble. I only have a few to give away so be quick!

In other Billie news, the first six books have already sold into French-Canada and will be published there later this year. I can't wait to read in Billie in French!

Here is a nice review from the August edition of Bookseller and Publisher:

The Extra-special Helper: Billie B Brown

Billie B Brown’s class is off to the zoo and Billie couldn’t be more proud as she’s going to be her teacher’s extra special helper for the day. Billie needs to make sure that everyone behaves and that no-one gets lost—but is she up to the task? This cute little reader is the latest addition to Sally Rippin’s series for emerging readers that revolves around what the ‘B’ in Billie B Brown really stands for—this time, bossiness. Rippin’s aim is to offer an alternative to fairy and princess readers, and she carefully challenges gender stereotypes through the characters of Billie and her best friend Jack. This story develops their friendship particularly well as Billie learns to juggle her responsibilities as both a friend and helper. Illustrator Aki Fukuoka does a great job of capturing Billie’s quirky and defiantly messy character, complementing the overall bright, modern and friendly series design. Children will want to pick these books up and give them a try—and the layout, with its generous type and fun use of emphasised words, will help keep them going. Short and sweet, this engaging reader for children five years and up also makes a great accompaniment to a first school excursion.

Meredith Tate is a freelance writer, editor and reviewer who has worked for a children’s publisher