Byron Bibliotherapy

02/03/2026

I’ve been meaning to get off social media for dozens of months now. Every time, I’ve been compelled to stay to share what’s happening in the🌎

Especially after friends & acquaintances kept looking at me like I was crazy when I was talking about all the momentous events occurring at an unprecedented pace.

Like many of you, I’ve been struggling mentally & emotionally. I appreciate my kind friend noticing at a read-in for , before the latest Gaza rally in Brisbane. Despite trying to hold it together for the camera (see last 🛝), she must have noticed my despondency. She reached out, & now I’m paying it forward.

Here’s a compilation of 🛝🛝 about things making me heartsick. My head feels airy, but sticky, like cotton candy💭

They range from the bombing of girls in Iran, the onset of a war that has been brewing in clear sight, despite silence in our media. Did you know that Iran is a signatory to the Non Nuclear Proliferation Treaty, & that the US removed their signature in 2018? Did you know Iran has no nuclear weapons but Israel has approximately 90? I didn’t think so.

The 🛝🛝 move to murders in Gaza & Minneapolis. Our own rising authoritarianism in Australia, proving we aren’t immune to 🌍 politics.

The Epstein Files have proven another exhausting distraction & demoralising exercise, as we see the evidence of these capitali$t crimes, but no sign of justice being served. Once again, our liberal institutions are failing us.

The demoralisation continues as we witness“upstanding” public intellectuals & moral leaders exposed. Including women & POC.

Culminating in the launch of WW3 in the dead of night.

How are you doing? What are you doing to maintain your emotional & at this time?

Despite feeling as if the world of liberal publishing & books has failed us, I am reading, learning & educating myself for the struggles to come.

Didn’t get to mention & 😮‍💨

25/02/2026

Pancake poem just dropped.

23/02/2026

Stopping by Chinatown on a humid evening
(After Robert Frost, Richard T Morris and )

Whose ferns these are I think I know.
The boba’s in the village though;
They will not see me reading poems
To ferns that sway there to and fro…

Thanks to my daughter for filming while drinking her bubble tea🧋🤩

Sorry about the litter in our cosmopolitan urban jungle🌿🌺🌿

I love PBs about poems and poets so much, I think I’ll do a listicle of them 🔜 Stay tuned!

23/02/2026

That time, over two years ago, when I had not one, but two books on this list!

🔎: THE BILL DUP🌵 & NOTHING ALIKE👯

Picture books are fantastic gifts for kids of all ages. They wrap easily, introduce visual literacy alongside the joy of words, and give endless joy when they hit the spot – just ask any parent who’s been asked to read a favourite picture book over and over again. But how…

12/02/2026

Such a thrill to stumble across this story-time reading of NOTHING ALIKE👯

The illustrations are just so vivid and awesome!

Reuben can't tell Esme and Eunwoo apart, or can he? This book explores the fact that everyone is unique and has their own personal preferences, even though ...

09/02/2026

Another peaceful rally & march in Magandjin/Brisbane, with a huge turnout for a school night (in the thousands)! People are livid that genocidal war criminal Herzog (named by ICJ) is getting the red carpet treatment from our bipartisan federal and state leaders.

Proposed state legislation in QLD may prohibit us from protesting with Miffy 😢🐰

Unfortunately we learned of news of police brutality in Sydney, with pepper spray, violent use of horses and disgraceful assaults on praying Muslim men.

Photo credits to & unknowns
Reel post credit to
Excellent analysis as usual at

If you’re in the CBD tomorrow morning, check out the mock trial of Herzog (see final 🛝).

01/02/2026

My latest review is up!

“I anticipate that this may be the most important children’s book published in Australia this year.”

Check it out at (🔗 in bio)

🖊️ Sara Haddad
🎨 Baraa Awoor
📖 UQP

👧🏽🧒🏼👦🏻 For Ages 8+

24/01/2026

Happy Sunday 🌳🚙🏞️

Repost • The Sunday Drive Machine. More play and problem solving!
When I was in primary school I played the part of the ‘backdrop’ in the nativity play. This involved two kids holding a roll of painted butchers paper and rotating it around ourselves as Mary rode by on a donkey. I’ve been wanting to experiment with this idea on a small scale to make automaton and have just discovered that these can be called a crankie, a moving panorama or a moving-picture toy.
I’m keen to keep exploring this idea and experiment with light and some old pianola rolls I’ve been hoarding.

17/01/2026

Did anyone else find it really hard to read and finish books last year?

I did.

These are ones that captured and maintained my interest.

Many of them are graphic novel format and there’s a play as well. What they all had in common were parallels to our current reality.

📕 AXIOM’S END by Lindsay Ellis 👽recommended by , whose recos I often ❤️ First contact sci-fi with an Assange-like minor character.

📕 WHEN THE SKY FALLS by Fred Fordham & 🦍 Powerfully adapted and haunting GN of a troubled evacuee in WW2, and his developing relationships with a tetchy woman and a gorilla.

📕 THE DAWN OF ADONIS by 🐒 Fast-paced, heartwarming prequel to the above.

📕 THE CAT AT THE WALL by Deborah Ellis 🐈‍⬛ See post from last year. Recommended by Dajo Finlayson, retired teacher-librarian extraordinaire, it’s a clever fantasy where a mean girl is transported into the body of a stray 🐈‍⬛ in the West Bank. The story of IDF soldiers staking out a Palestinian home, with an autistic boy inside, is clever and heartbreaking.

📕 GIANT by Mark Rosenblatt 🎭 A play about Roald Dahl’s controversial statements that were interpreted as antisemitic. Please read it before reading the reviews! It had me on tenterhooks & dying to know what my husband thought.

📕 THE OTHER SIDE OF TRUTH by Beverley Naidoo. A fast-paced, thought-provoking adventure about two children escaping their parents’ political persecution in Nigeria. I led this one at Last Tuesday Book Club, and it was well-received.

📕 RED ROSA by Kate Evans 🔻🌹 Graphic novel bio of socialist revolutionary, Rosa Luxemburg.

📕 PRIDE OF BAGHDAD by Brian K Vaughan & Niko Henrichon 🦁 of the escape of lions from the Baghdad Zoo during the Iraq War. The story is from the perspective of the lions, who each have a different political viewpoint. An allegory of resistance and the impulse to freedom.

📕 ICEBERG by Jennifer A Nielsen 🧊 A new favourite author. This is at its finest, and is a great companion read for the Titanic film.

Sorry this is so late. Only of these is a new release, so hopefully you can find a LibraryCopy

15/01/2026

Today’s Find-A-Word ✏️

Can you see your friends’ names in today’s Sydney Morning Herald/Age?

Answers p3 ➡️➡️

08/01/2026

✨ Coming soon! ✨ MY SUBWAY RUNS, written by James Gladstone and illustrated by Pierre Pratt.

🚇 A young child accompanies their mother on a subway journey across the city as they take in the sights of the city and the those around them — people on their way to work, kids going to school, and “the sleeper,” whom no one else seems to see.

“This beautiful gem offers simple joy and a dreamy glimpse into subway travel. A must-purchase to bring joy, movement, and poetic wonder to shelves.” — School Library Journal 🚃

🔗 MY SUBWAY RUNS publishes February 3rd, click here to learn more: https://houseofanansi.com/products/my-subway-runs

07/01/2026

Check out Identity Mountain! ⛰️

DISCUSSING CLASSROOM VALUES WITH BOOKS AT THE BEGINNING OF THE SCHOOL YEAR (AND REVISITING REGULARLY)
The Island of Classroom Values has been designed to help younger students learn and remember the values that shape the classroom community through engaging picture books. Each landform (Language Lagoon, Culture Cove, Thinking Trails, Bravery Bluff, Belonging Village, Identity Mountain and Empathy Bushland) represents a different value. Every location is paired with a carefully chosen picture book that brings that value to life through story and characters. As students “travel” around the island, they build a shared language for talking about classroom values. This helps turn abstract ideas into places they can picture and values they can practise.

This resource can be downloaded from the Reading Opens Doors website on the 'free resources' page here: https://www.readingopensdoors.com.au/free-resources