Buzz Off!

Noor can't sleep. That pesky fly will not leave him alone! He even thinks he can hear it talking! If he only knew how to get rid of it, everything would be better-or would it?

From Randa's website:

My second children's book, Buzz Off, has been released by Scholastic as part of its Aussie Mates series. As you can see by the cover, I'm very lucky to have had Dan McGuiness grace the book with his wonderfully quirky and original illustrations. I can't stop looking at them! THANK YOU DAN!

The Aussie Mates series features stories that have a uniquely Aussie flavour. When Scholastic approached me to write for the series they gave me the freedom to write on any topic of my choosing. It was January 2009 and I vividly remember sitting at my grandmother's house, hot and bothered in the summer heat, trying to brainstorm ideas, when an irritating fly started harassing me like it was on a mission to ruin my 'time-out' session (Noor, my baby, was asleep so the chance to sit down was too precious to waste). That's when the seeds of the idea for Buzz Off came to my mind. It's basically about a boy called Noor who discovers he can hear flies talk. When the backyard barbeque threatens to be ruined by swarming flies, Noor chances upon the secret to getting rid of these pesky insects. But will Australia cope?

You'll notice in the book that the family are Muslim. The illustration of Noor's mum is a lady wearing a hijab with a swagman's hat and dangling corks over it. The family barbeque is to mark the end of Ramadan. Those are the only indicators that the family are Muslim. This is not an 'issues' based book. It is not a book about being Muslim. It is a book about a boy who happens to be Muslim who can hear flies talk. I really hope that in some small way Buzz Off will take its place as one of those books which attempts to challenge how we view 'mainstream' fiction. I hope it will offer young readers exposure to more diverse characters, drawn from all kinds of backgrounds, without the book becoming an issues-based book.

But ultimately, I hope kids will read Buzz Off and laugh... and maybe tune their ears a little more closely the next time a fly buzzes around their bedroom in the silence of the night. Who knows what conversations they might hear?

About the Author

Randa Abdel-Fattah (born 6 June, 1979) is a Muslim writer of Palestinian and Egyptian parentage. Randa was born in Australia and her debut novel, Does My Head Look Big in This?, was published in 2005.