Tiny Bookwormy Things

Some intrepid Bookworms went hunting for ten tiny things in and around the Koorliny Arts Centre in Kwinana.

Look what they found!

Ella: I found a little leaf on the carpet.

Why are these buttons outside?

Mia: A flower in the vegetable garden.

Ella: My baby brother is fast asleep.

Dean: I found a hole.

Dean: I found these blankets too.

I like this leaf.

Ethan: I can see a silver thing.

Look! A sticker!

Ava: I can see a tiny plant.

Thank you, Book Worms! What an interesting collection of tiny things you found. How lucky to find an actual baby! We also particularly love the hole, which is never just a hole but always a doorway to another fantastical world. This particular hole looks like a very interesting one - black, and with all sorts of tiny planets orbiting around it. And of course, a blanket would be a very useful thing to take when you set of on an adventure in such a place ...

Bunnies and Magpies and Snakes! Oh, My!

After a brief interlude to celebrate the book launch of Ten Tiny Things, we return to our regularly scheduled celebration of the many tiny things around us.

Today's pictures come from a recent school holiday adventure. Matilda (6), Joseph (8), Pippa (10) and Nadya (10) visited a park south of Perth for a last play before Term 3 began. Here's what they found ...

Matilda: Look! A funny tiny note left behind by another kid.

Joseph: It's an annoying magpie which always went around the food.

Matilda: It looks like a bunny with an ear and an eye. It's really the gate lock though.

Matilda: Stripy sand. It looks like a tractor drove through here ...

Matilda: The fence looks like a snake's skin when you look closely.

Pippa and Nadya: This slimy worm in the sandpit looks like a little U. 
Joseph: or a mini banana.
Matilda: or a little smile.

Pippa: Nadya's little sand sculpture and a tiny stone we found when we were digging. We're leaving them for the next park visitors to find. 

Matilda: It's a brown tiny nut with a cross on it like X marks the spot.

Joseph: The end of a trunk of a tree that has been completely chopped down. It looks like there's an eye there. It's a good shoe size for stepping onto.

Matilda: This is a bit like a picture-book picture. It's a tree that grew out of a nest.

We love the way the gate lock turned into a bunny. It's amazing how things can change when you look at them in a different way. We're going to see that bunny every time we go through a gate now!

It's interesting that you saw so many different things in the slimy worm. I bet he had no idea he was so fascinating!

And the picture-book tree is brilliant - we love how you've begun imagining a story around it. That's very similar to the way Meg writes her stories - taking something around her and spinning it in an unexpected way. Maybe this tree will find itself in the middle of someone's story one day?

Thanks so much for sending in your photos. Even though school's back now, we hope you can still find chances to go out walking sometimes.

Ten Terrific Things ...

... about the Ten Tiny Things launch.

 1. It was held in the State Library, at "The Place", to which all visitors are greeted by a welcoming book-themed cow.

2. It featured many foods of the tiny variety - sushi, tiny teddies, and other teeny delicacies. In keeping with the theme, we understand they were gone in the tiniest blink of an eye.

3. Award-winning illustrator and known rabble rouser Frané Lessac launched the book with a DIY rocket launcher, propelling it unwittingly into the arms of Meg's daughter, the original inspiration for the book.

4. Hilary from the State Library unexpectedly whipped the crowd into a frenzy of high fives

5. More than ten books were sold. More than ten times ten. Some people even bought ten copies each (they may or may not have been related to Meg and Kyle...).

6. The lines were long but spirits remained high. Meg and Kyle signed and signed and signed.

7. There was an exhibition of Kyle's original illustrations for the work, which were done on wood panels.

8. There was a display of Kyle's early sketches and notes about the project.

9. On the back wall, there were projects from the Ten Tiny Things school holiday activity, giving people something to look at while standing in line.

10. Even though it was a Thursday night and people are busy and tired and oh, I just can't be bothered; isn't it time we had a night in, Beryl? lots of people were bothered. Lots of people came out.

Thank you, everyone, for coming out. For celebrating the arrival of this lovely book with us.

It was a wonderful evening. It was a fantastic launch. It was, in fact, the world, and you were in it.