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Another month has passed, and so it’s time to have a look at what I read for February. Pleasing to see my balance being restored towards my chief love – books for children. This month I indulged my six year old self and tracked down old copies of AA Milne’s poetry from Ebay. I loved rediscovering them and have moved from there to lots of other verse and poetry, so look out for them in my

Happy New Year to you!  I had a pretty awesome 2011 but am really excited about the promise of a brand new year and loving that 2012 is the National Year of Reading. Also really excited about my role as local ambassador for Bunbury, WA. I had toyed with the idea of a reading meme for the National Year of Reading, but there are so many other really good ones already that I hesitated to add

It's the last day of March, and so time for another of my monthly updates.Lots has happened in my writing life in March, with things moving along on three of my forthcoming books. I feel more and more like a 'real' author every day.At the start of the month I was featured in Susan Stephenson's column at Muselings, an ezine for writers. Susan is an Australian based reviewer of books and passionate

Not strictly related to writing for children, but as a proud Aussie I'd like to wish all readers a wonderful Australia Day. I am off to to the Corrigin Australia day breakfast this morning, then to the pool this afternoon.Enjoy the day!And, to make this post book related, I'm asking a big Aussie question. What is your favourite Australian children's book?To me, this one of the hardest questions

There is a great blog entry about writing good book reviews here at Christine Harris' blog. Christine talks to Susan from the Book Chook Blog about reviewing. Susan has some great advice, and even very nicely gives Aussiereviews a plug (thanks Susan).

I've just added eighteen new reviews to Aussiereviews, thanks to the contribution of the wonderful Claire Saxby.Enjoy!

Today we are joined by children’s author, Sheryl Gwyther, who has come to answer my seven questions. Thanks for joining us, Sheryl. 1. Tell us a little about your publication credits. Tell us about the genres you prefer to write, and your current projects. My first junior fiction was Secrets of Eromanga, an adventure set in the dinosaur-rich fossil fields of north-western Queensland. This (

I just added 21 new reviews to Aussiereviews. My favourite in this batch is Perry Angel's Suitcase, by Glenda Millard. Breathtaking! Enjoy the reviews.

I recently had the pleasure of reading Cranky Paws, by Darrel and Sally Odgers, and reviewing it for Aussiereviews. You can read that review here. Today we are lucky enough to have Sally Odgers, co author of the book, drop by for a chat. Welcome, Sally. Cranky Paws is the first in your new Pet Vet series. How many books are planned, and where did the idea for the series come from? We have a

Have added eleven new reviews to Aussiereviews this evening. I think my favourite from this batch is Corinne Fenton's The Dog on the Tuckerbox. What a beautiful picture book. Enjoy the reviews.

Grrr! Grumble! Growl! There - that's off my chest. My website, aussiereviews has been down for the last twenty four horus - possibly longer. All I've managed to get out of my provider is that they are aware of the issue and are working on it. So, if you're wnating to read my reviews, sorry. Hoepfully all will be fixed soon. Else I might be loking for a new host. Not happy, Jan.

Have just spent my Saturday afternoon updating Aussiereviews with twenty one new reviews – possibly the most I’ve ever added in a single sitting. Ten of the reviews were by myself, ten by my colleague (and friend) Claire Saxby, and one by Murphlet 3, who enjoys reviewing when it means he gets to read a book before I do. Enjoy the new offerings – there is a real range of books there.

Have been up since 5 o’clock this morning, having struggled out of bed to attend the ANZAC day dawn service on the hill behind my house. Worth the struggle, to spend the time reflecting on what the brave soldiers from our past (and present) have done. Back at home, my beloved cooked me bacon and eggs and we spent a lazy couple of hours before it was my turn to cook and I whipped up a batch of

How lovely. Two nice blogger colleagues have given Aussiereviews a mention in the past two days. First, a writer friend alerted me that Judith Ridge had included my site in a list of recommended review sites in her Misrule blog. High praise indeed from someone like Judith who is so knowledgeable and passionate about children’s literature. Then, a Google alert alerted me to a mention in another

I’ve added ten new reviews to Aussiereviews. Three of the ten cover themes and content focussing on Australia’s experiences in the two world wars and/or the celebration of ANZAC Day, which is very timely given that ANZAC Day is coming up later in the month. It was interesting to read two books for young adults – one (A Rose for the ANZAC Boys, by Jackie French) which tells the tale of a sixteen

I've spent a goodly part of my Good Friday afternoon updating Aussiereviews with twelve new reviews. As always, the majority are children's and young adult titles, though this time round there are two nonfiction titles and one adult fiction. My favourite from this batch is probably Cold Skin, a verse novel by Steven Herrick, a master of the form. Having been recently working on verse novels

Have just added twelve new reviews to Aussiereviews, mostly contributed by my friend Claire Saxby. Enjoy!

Have just added eight new reviews to Aussiereviews - the first for 2008. It feels good - hope you enjoy them.

Have added three new reviews to Aussiereviews today. It's rare for me to add so few in one go - usually I had them in batches of around ten - but with Christmas and the end of the school year approaching I have been too busy to write many new reviews. In fact these three were written by other reviewers. School finishes Thursday, so I'm looking forward to getting so much more reading and

Another busy day today – I did over 14 000 steps, mostly while sweeping and mopping my floors! So I have clean floors, but still managed some work (household chores don’t count as work – they are just a tedious necessity). I added nine new book reviews to Aussiereviews, including three by other reviewers. I also helped Pemberthy to compose a new poem – his first for quite some time – in

Today was my second full day wearing a pedometer. I’ve been working hard on my fitness the past couple of months, and figured a pedometer might motivate me to keep active. Yesterday I managed 8500 steps, without changing my routine at all – which I thought was pretty good, considering my Friday routine involves a good amount of time at my desk. But today’s total is better – 11990 steps so far (at