Hello!

deborahhuff-horwood.com

Welcome to my Blog


This is Blog Number 1 and YOU may be the very first reader.... congratulations!

'When I write, I step into the world. And I want to stay as long as I can. 
But when I read, I step outside my world for a period and become a tourist in another’s life, or place, or time.'  

That's what I wrote a few months ago and it is true, each and every day.  I do both, every day... write and read, (and then write and read some more). There are SO many books to read and the wonderful bookshop Paperchain  (Manuka, ACT) makes them look so enticing, it is hard to resist. The pile of books beside my bed was looking a little teeter-tottery yesterday and came down--crash!  I don't expect the bunnies in  'Fierce Bad Rabbits –The Tales Behind Children's Picture Books' (by Clare Pollard,  pub. Penguin 2019) were very impressed; they were probably fiercer and badder (oops, worse) for being dropped on their heads! (Sorry, bunnies.) 

Yesterday I took delivery of a bundle of books from Ford Street Publishing. Oh, the fun of reading 'Colin Cockroach Goes to Caloundra', by Chris McKimmie!  I ordered it a month ago and have been just itching to get my hands on it, but it was still at the printer's. The book has only JUST been released – hot off the press. Chris McKimmie's illustrations make me giggle (and wriggle a little bit, for the hero IS a cockroach...) and I recommend this story 100 percent for any child over the age of four, for it really is adorable. The little guy must make a dash for safety when the owners of his home spy cockroaches in the kitchen. They panic! They have the bug spray! They're going to fumigate! OH NO! Colin and his relatives rush to safety on their spindly little cockroach legs and young Colin (our hero) jumps in a box of groceries and gets whisked off to Queensland on a road trip.
Does he have fun? You betcha. Does he see some pretty incredible sights and even fall in love? Of course, he is totally adorable (once you get to know him and see beyond his shiny brown flat body.) Will I tell you what happens next? NO way!
Buy the book ;-)... and:
 'step outside (your) world for a period and become a tourist in another’s life, or place, or time.'
​You'll be in Queensland, hooray—even if you're stuck behind the border in the ACT like me right now. 

Okay, now I'd better write. The story I'm working on today is about a little seagull who wants to be human. It is called SEAGIRL. I was chatting to my favourite seagull beside the lake this morning, and she told me to get on with it! 

Happy READING!
​Deborah

---

I will read picture books forwards and backwards and inside out if they are as much fun as this story!  Each page is an artwork in itself.
Colin Cockroach Goes to Caloundra', by Chris McKimmie, published by Ford Street Publishing, August 2020
​