Viking longship-builders in Murwillumbah
These incredible longships were handcrafted by Year 4 viklings at St Joseph’s Primary School in Murwillumbah.
Their teacher Deborah Walker has put in a huge effort. Thanks for bringing the book to life and encouraging the next generation of marauders!
Thanks also to the school’s library coordinator Melissa Fraser for sending the photos.
Melissa tells us the school is busting to read the sequel to The Last Viking. We’re working as quick as we can Melissa- I’ll get on to the artwork in the middle of next year, fingers crossed.
Studio Open Day- Sunday Nov 25, 2-5pm
My studio is in a Leederville complex called The Ward, and on Nov 25th we’re having an open day!
Come see where I work and what I’m working on next. I’ll have prints from ‘The Last Viking’ for sale too.
Plus you’ll get to meet all the other amazing artists here: filmmakers, photographers, illustrators, painters, textile workers… it will be awesome.
Come down and say hi! We’ll be open from 2-5pm.
More info at Artsource’s website.
The kids’ votes are in – The Last Viking wins the 2012 Hoffman Award!
The Last Viking has won the Hoffman Award in the 2012 West Australian Young Readers’ Awards.
The Hoffman is awarded to the highest-ranked book by a West Australian creator (in this case, 2 creators!).
It sure is an honour to have kids pick and then vote for their favourite book. Thanks to all the WA young readers who voted, we couldn’t be happier.
Make-your-own Viking god or goddess
One of the best parts of school visits is seeing the great ideas that schoolkids come up with. Here’s a bunch of viking god and goddesses, designed by students during children’s book week this year. 
God of Wind, by Tom 
Isabella the Goddess of Patterns, by Maddy 
Bothgolong, God of Fire, by Rohan 
A portrait of Thor that also folds up into a paper plane, by Christian 
This guy looks familiar… The God of Literature, by Catherine 
And finally, Optimus Prime, by Brayden. It’s not a viking god but it looks really cool.
Last Viking wins CBCA award (according to Junior Judges)
That’s right- junior judges around Australia voted The Last Viking for winner of Early Childhood Book of the Year 2012.
The Junior Judges Project is a free online program offered to schools by the Children’s Book Council of Australia. It’s a great way to get your classroom interested in the shortlisted books, so if you’re a teacher, consider it for next year.
Award-winning Viking display by young berserkers
Norm and I were stunned to see the following Viking-inspired artwork from year 2s at Guildford Grammar in Western Australia.
There’s Viking helmets, self-portraits with rune-encoded titles, and longships all over the place! It’s no wonder they won an in-school Children’s Book Week competition for best classroom decorations.
Well done year 2s. This really made us smile 
Young Josh is very brave…
You’ve gotta’ love Children’s Bookweek. This is Josh from Dalyellup Primary School on the coast near Bunbury in WA. His school librarian, Heather Lindsay, invited me to her school to meet all the kids, including the rather terrifying pre-primary classes. I survived them and met loads of lovely kids all bursting with excitement and really enjoying the book. It seems it is a favourite with a great many of them and romped it home in the class voting for Book of the Year. Who would have thought the whimsical little story James and I concocted on Rottnest Island three years ago would be so popular with kids of all ages. Long may it continue as I have some long and expensive holidays, er… book research, to pay for with the royalties.
Josh made a Viking helmet from his bike helmet when he heard I was to visit his class. Excellent! And well done to his parents on picking a name for him that I could actually spell when signing his book. A real Viking hero’s’ name. Though he tells me he is considering changing it by deed poll to K-nut. Even more excellent!!
