Today is a behind-the-scenes deep dive duo chat with children’s author and teacher/literacy interventionist Brooke Graham, and award-winning Australian illustrator Kristen Willis.

This is a fascinating chat about how Brooke and Kristen created Family Feast, releasing 29 September and published by EK Books.

As we've already heard about Kristen's creative background in episode 8 of The KidLit Pod, Shara Curlett asks Brooke to share her background, and Brooke tells us how creativity came from early reading, her 26-year-long teaching career, and one-on-one intervention work supporting children with dyslexia/dysgraphia. She also shares how her earlier books, Go Away Worry Monster! and Nova’s Missing Masterpiece, drew on anxiety and self-regulation strategies after family challenges, including her husband’s death.

From here we do a deep dive into Family Feast. Brooke shares how her loud Maltese family and childhood embarrassment inspired the words, how she felt throughout the illustration process, and we also hear from Kristen, who shares how despite having already illustrated three published picture books, Family Feast was actually her first illustration contract!

Kristen shares her process (character design, storyboards, gouache/colored pencil, emotive color palette) and Brooke shares at what stage she saw it all, and how she felt seeing her words translated into images. Brooke also shares how important her critique group was throughout this process, including connecting Brooke with Kristen after other illustrators fell through.

Following this, Shara, Brooke and Kristen share a fun 'live reveal' of their favorite spreads from the book, followed by a quick fire would you rather game.

Family Feast will be launched at Quick Brown Fox bookstore on 11 October at 11am.

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LINKS:

Family Feast by author Brooke Graham and illustrator Kristen Willis

Family Feast launch information

Brooke Graham on Instagram: @brookegrahamauthor

Brooke Graham Website: www.brookegrahamauthor.com

Kristen Willis on Instagram: @tondocreative

Kristen Willis Website: www.tondo.com.au

OTHER BOOKS MENTIONED:

Go Away, Worry Monster! by author Brooke Graham and illustrator Robin Tatlow-Lord

Nova's Missing Masterpiece by author Brooke Graham and illustrator Robin Tatlow-Lord

Peek-a-Boo Lottie by author Laura Holloway and illustrator Kristen Willis

Casa Mia by author Josie Montano and illustrator Kristen Willis

Evie's Spare Love by author Bec Nanayakkara and illustrator Kristen Willis

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Follow The KidLit Pod on Instagram (@thekidlitpod)

Find out more about The KidLit Pod host, Shara Curlett, here:

Shara Curlett on Instagram (@sharacurlett)

Shara Curlett Website (www.sharacurlett.com)

During Covid, Lauren Hackney lost her aviation job, had to sell her house, and also had to navigate her husband's life threatening heart attack. And creativity is what saved them.

In episode 18 of The KidLit Pod, host Shara Curlett welcomes Queensland author and screenwriter Lauren Hackney, who began writing with her children during this challenging time. Their bedtime idea became the internationally sold chapter book, The Lolly Shop, which was later adapted into an award-winning animated screenplay.

Lauren discusses early creativity through a love of music. When she later discovered travel, her world view was opened up and she pursued a career in the aviation industry. But when Lauren found herself without a job after sixteen years, she had to rethink everything, digging back down into those creative roots and deciding to embark on the pursuit of a creative path, leading Lauren to believe that everyone's story is important, and it may not land where you thought it would, but it's still going to land somewhere if you believe in it.

Since then, Lauren has persisted through many rejections, learning to “foster the no,” and has slowly built relationships in publishing and screen. She explains how her curiosity led to her YouTube interview series organically unfolding, which came from her innate curiosity of really wanting to know how others got into the hot seat, and how could she get there. This in turn landed her a role the content manager for Inspiring Minds Magazine.

Now, Lauren is fully immersed in the kidlit world. Alongside pursuing her passion of creativity, she has also developed a workshop to help bridge the gap with English. Lauren shares her classroom workshop “Build a Burger,” a kid-friendly story-structure analogy adaptable to books, film, and articles, which helps to understand storytelling in a fully immersive way that hits all the sense.

Lauren also talks about her debut picture book Panda (Daisy Lane Publishing), about a cow who believes she’s a dog, which explores identity and friendship, before sharing upcoming launch plans and current reads.

LINKS:

Lauren Hackney on Instagram - @lbe.hackney

Lauren Hackney's YouTube Interview series

BOOK SPOTLIGHT - Panda by Lauren Hackney, illustrated by Emma Hay

Emma Hay, illustrator on Instagram - @emmahayillustrator

SHOUT OUTS:

Jennifer Sharpe of Daisy Lane Publishing

Jess Galatola on Instagram - @jess.galatola

Julie Ann Grasso on Instagram - @julieannegrasso_books

Adam Wallace on Instagram - @adamwallacestuff

READING:

Theo of Golden by Allen Levi

Black Gully - Jack Roney

Dragon Snare by Rhiannon Williams

Beautiful Chaos by Jess Urlichs

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Follow The KidLit Pod on Instagram (@thekidlitpod)

Find out more about The KidLit Pod host, Shara Curlett, here:

Shara Curlett on Instagram (@sharacurlett)

Shara Curlett Website (www.sharacurlett.com)

Patience, persistence, and passion are three core elements that led Shara to writing her middle-grade fantasy novel, Protector of Beyond (Penguin Australia), which is out the day this podcast goes to air.

This episode of The KidLit Pod flips the usual format, as Jennifer Ennion, a freelance travel journalist and emerging children’s author/illustrator with her first picture book slated with Thames & Hudson, interviews Shara to mark the release of Protector of Beyond (Penguin Australia), where they discuss its origins, title, themes of found family and self-belief.

Throughout this in-depth chat, Shara shares how her writing journey began because of a significant period of grief, where she took to writing to process this and wrote two 90,000 word novels. Following this, she had further challenges that led her to writing in "the cracks" in whatever way possible and persisting despite what was thrown at her.

This chat delves into resilience, parenting challenges, the pantser process, and the editing process. Shara and Jennifer discuss community, including the KidLitMums, as well as Shara’s debut middle-grade novel, Welcome to Miracle (Scholastic Australia, 2025), before Shara asks Jennifer to share a bit more about Jen's debut picture book novel with Thames & Hudson.

They talk illustrations and covers, and finish with Shara sharing her upcoming launch events in Brisbane and Sydney.

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Jennifer Ennion on Instagram:

@jenniferennion

@jenniferennion_art

Follow The KidLit Pod on Instagram (@thekidlitpod)

Find out more about The KidLit Pod host, Shara Curlett, here:

Shara Curlett on Instagram (@sharacurlett)

Shara Curlett Website (www.sharacurlett.com)