Useful Links and Resources

For parents, teachers and librarians

  • The Story Corner – a place kids can come to discover new books, authors and genres, and perhaps find their next book to read. It is a growing collection of recordings of first chapters, sample readings, poems, picture books and serialised junior fiction stories all in the one spot here on this website.
  • The Experimenting Spot – a selection of experiments for budding young scientists contributed by other budding young (and not so young!) scientists here in the kids’ section on this website. (Contributing is highly encouraged – be it the instructions for a favourite home experiment, or the discussion of results and conclusions in the comments section after testing other contributors’ hypotheses.)
  • The Magic Spot – a selection of magic tricks and activities for budding illustionists and magicians to try their hand at, in the Kids’ Stuff section here on this website.
  • Kids’ Book Review (KBR) – one of the top review sites for children’s literature in the world.
  • One More Page Podcast – a podcast for lovers of kids’ books.
  • Writers Read by Litracey – a podcast to connect kids with ‘that’ book that gets them hooked on reading. Tracey Grice features established authors who talk about their reading life. Each author reads a passage from one of their novels, enticing students to get THAT book in their hands.
  • Children’s Books Daily – a guide for parents and a resource for educators by award winning teacher librarian, Megan Daley. Contains lots of book reviews categorised by age group and genre.
  • The Book Curator Magazine – a librarians’ guide to books for kids and teens which comes highly recommended by teacher librarians. The magazine reviews the latest books and uses a traffic light system to help inform teachers and librarians which books are suitable for students. A preview copy of the magazine can be seen here.
  • The Children’s University Australasia – this is a great way to get kids involved in a wide range of fantastic extracurricular activities which they get credit for. The CU provides children aged between 5 and 14 years with superior educational experiences grounded by a global perspective, with the aim of making them lifelong learners and achievers.
  • STEM Magic! – educational activities with curriculum links for Marlow Brown: Magician in the Making put together by Romi Sharp of Just Write for Kids.
  • Click on the buttons below to download free Teachers’ Notes for the Marlow Brown books:
Teachers' Notes for Scientist in the Making
Teachers' Notes for Magician in the Making

For writers

  • The School Magazine – brilliant place to submit short stories, non-fiction pieces, poems and plays.
  • Children’s Publishers Accepting Unsolicited Submissions (UK) – Author, Lou Treleaven, keeps this useful list up-to-date.
  • Children’s Publishers Accepting Unsolicited Submissions (Aust) – Author, Alys Jackson, keeps this one up-to-date.
  • Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) – If you write for kids, join! It’s worth it.
  • Australian Society of Authors (ASA) – professional advocacy and support for writers
  • Girl and Duck – an excellent online support/networking group for children’s writers run by Australian children’s author, Jen Storer.
  • Writing for Film and Theatre – a useful article for those interested in writing for the entertainment industry. (Link contributed by Anna, a young writer interested in becoming a script or screen writer one day. Thanks Anna!)
  • Books On Tour – a fabulous little PR and marketing business run by author Romi Sharp to help authors promote their new releases.
  • The Story Corner – have a portion of your published work showcased on this website. The Story Corner is a place kids can come to discover new books, authors and genres, and perhaps find their next book to read. It is a growing collection of recordings of first chapters, sample readings, poems, picture books and serialised junior fiction stories all in the one spot.
  • Teachers’ Notes –  if you’re looking for help writing teachers’ notes for your new publication, Vanessa Ryan-Rendall—children’s author and teacher-librarian herself—does a great job. (Do check out the notes for the Marlow Brown books if you need help deciding.)

For anyone who’s interested

 
Marlow’s dog, Rockstar, by Marjory Gardner