Hot news from Nan Bodsworth
Mike’s Birthday Bulldozer (1981), Mike’s Bulldozer and the Big Flood (1994) and Hello Kangaroo! (1986) have just been republished in handsome new editions by Wattle Bay Books wattlebaybooks.com
Special Book Packs from wattlebaybooks.com and seabods@westnet.com.au
Each book is individually signed by me – Nan Bodsworth
1 book direct from me is $20.00 + $8.00 postage/handling = $28.00
2 Pack of Nan’s bulldozer books at $36.00 + $8.00 postage/handling = $44.o0
3 books or 1 each of the above and Hello Kangaroo! at $49.50 + $10.00 postage/handling = $59.50
4 books or 1 copy each of all 4 of Nan’s picture books (includes A Nice Walk in the Jungle – Penguin imprint) at $60 + $18.00 postage/handling = $78.00
These postage charges are for Australia only. For other requirements; overseas postage charges or multiple copies, please contact Nan Bodsworth at seabods@westnet.com.au
All about me
Growing up on a farm beside Australia’s iconic Murray River near Swan Hill in country Victoria was a lot of fun. Catching yabbies and learning to swim in the irrigation channels, fishing along the river and having big family picnics with our cousins, and reading, reading, reading.
But all that was a bit ordinary for me: I dreamed of being an Olympic swimmer, a beautiful princess or a brilliant trapeze artist!
I went to Beverford Primary School and Swan Hill High School. Whenever I was by myself I made up stories and poems, and was usually the fearless hero of every one of them.
I always wanted to be an artist and spent a lot of time reading, drawing and daydreaming.
After training as a secondary art and craft teacher in Melbourne, I taught at Camperdown and Yallourn High Schools, marrying an engineer, Brian Bodsworth, in 1958. The early Sixties were spent at Prahran Technical School, teaching craft, drawing and painting to trainee art teachers.
In 1964, after the birth of our first child, we moved to Port Moresby, where I worked part-time at home as Medical Artist for the Papua-New Guinea Health Department, and later established a fashion business.
We returned to Australia and settled in Geelong, where I worked half-time for nineteen years teaching design to fashion students. During this time I wrote and illustrated Mike’s Birthday Bulldozer, Hello Kangaroo! and A Nice Walk in the Jungle, and in 1989 retired to spend more time working on my children’s books, notably Mike’s Bulldozer and the Big Flood and Peg Leg Meg. Most of my books have come from ‘What if …?’ situations, and funny things that have happened in our family.
Having had such a wonderful life of interest and adventure through using libraries and reading, I want everybody to have the same chances. I really care about books and literacy, working closely with local primary schools refining my stories, finding models for the characters in my books and even making puppets of them. I don’t think the children were very flattered!
Brian and I live at the beach on the Bellarine Peninsula near Geelong in Victoria. We have three wonderful adult children and six lovely grandchildren.
I still spend a lot of time day-dreaming, thinking, listening to the birds, looking at our beautiful world and exercising; swimming, riding my bike and gardening.
I love cooking, fishing, snorkelling, and making things with my hands (especially puppets and toys).
Bad behaviour upsets me: bullying, bad language, vandalism, spitefulness and cruelty.
You know how a writer has to imagine the character (no matter how bad) of everyone in the story?
If we all tried to understand how other people feel and treated them with kindness, what a wonderful place the world would be…
Nan’s Books & Awards
I have written and illustrated five children’s books: one short novel and four picture books, all published by Penguin. The Picture Puffins are: Mike’s Birthday Bulldozer (1981), Mike’s Bulldozer and the Big Flood (1994), Hello Kangaroo! (1986) and A Nice Walk in the Jungle (1989).
A Nice Walk in the Jungle was short listed in 1990 for the Australian Children’s Book Council’s Picture Book of the Year Award, as well as being listed for several children’s choice book awards, including one in Nevada, USA. Peg Leg Meg (1999) is a short novel for 8-12 year olds, for the Penguin Aussie Bites series. Peg Leg Meg is currently out of print.
I am delighted to announce the republication of 3 of my children’s picture books, Mike’s Birthday Bulldozer(1981), Mike’s Bulldozer and the Big Flood (1994) and Hello Kangaroo! (1986) by Wattle Bay Books. Rescanned by Splitting Image Colour Studio splittingimage.com.au, redesigned by Ann Wojczuk, and printed in Melbourne, the three books are individually signed and available for AU$20.00 each at wattlebaybooks.com and directly from me at seabods@westnet.com.au
I’ve illustrated two books for other authors:
Princess Euphorbia (1997) by Vashti Farrer for the Longman Supa Dooper series, and Bill the Inventor(1998) by Garth Nix for the Koala Books Tadpoles series.
AWARDS:
Some of the nicest moments in my career as an author/illustrator have been the second!! placings in children’s choice awards for A Nice Walk in the Jungle; most particularly in the Croc Awards when the placings were Nan Bodsworth 2 and Paul Jennings 1 , 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8. And you can imagine how I felt about the Bilby Awards. What wonderful company to keep!
A Nice Walk in the Jungle (1989) written and illustrated by Nan Bodsworth published by Viking Kestrel. Shortlisted 1990 Children’s Book Council of Australia, Picture Book of the Year Award.
No. 2, Croc Awards, Ten most popular Australian children’s books in the Northern Territory, 1991.
No. 2, Yabba Awards, Victoria, Picture Book section, 1991.
Bilby Awards, Most Popular Read Aloud Books, Queensland, 1991
- The BFG by Roald Dahl
- Charlotte’s Web by EB White
- Equal: A Nice Walk in the Jungle, by Nan Bodsworth, and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, by CS Lewis
Also nominated for the Nevada Young Reader’s Award in the Primary Category, 1992-3, USA.