Steven Herrick – June 2 2019

Steven is an award-winning poet and author. Having left school in Year 10, he worked at various jobs such as fruit picking, before gaining a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Queensland. He has published over 20 books for adults, young adults, and children including travel books, fiction novels, poetry collections, and novels in verse. Steven regularly tours Australia, Asia and Europe performing his work in schools and at festivals. His verse novels for younger readers include The Spangled Drongo, Do-Wrong Ron (illustrated by Caroline Magerl), The Wolf, Untangling Spaghetti and Poetry to the Rescue. His verse novels for teens and young adults include Love, Ghosts and Facial Hair and A Place Like This (published together as Kissing Annabel), Water Bombs, Pookie Aleera is Not My Boyfriend, Lonesome Howl, and the HSC text, The Simple Gift. His poetry collections for adults include Caboolture and The Sound of Chopping.

Bleak Boy and Hunter Stand Out in the Rain [Verse Novel]
University of Queensland Press 2014; ISBN 9780702250163
Young Adult
A new, laugh-out-loud novel from award-winning author Steven Herrick. Some things are too big for a boy to solve. Jesse is an eleven-year-old boy tackling many problems in life, especially fitting in to a new school. Luckily he meets Kate. She has curly black hair, braces and an infectious smile. She wants to ‘Save the Whales’ and needs Jesse’s help. But they haven’t counted on Hunter, the school bully, who appears to enjoy hurling insults at random. With Hunter’s catchphrase ‘Ha!’ echoing through the school, something or someone has to give. But will it be Jesse? Kate? Or is there more to Hunter than everyone thinks? An inspiring and funny story about the small gestures that can help to make the world a better place.

The Naked Bunyip Dancing – Illustrated by Beth Norling [Verse Novel]
Allen & Unwin, 2005; ISBN 978174114655
8-12 years
Mr Carey the Hairy; Billy the punk genius; J-man the rapper; Sophie the poet; Ahmet the soccer star; Jason the good kisser; Anna the yoga master; Peter the boy with the talking bottom; Emily the ballerina; Alex the artist; Michael the salesman and the rest of Class 6C. What a crazy class! And what a funny, unpredictable year – the year of Naked Bunyip Dancing – when the kids in Class 6C find out who they are, what they’re good at, and how to put on a fantastic show.