Violet Mackerel's Natural Habitat

VIOLET MACKEREL has a new theory. It is the THEORY of HELPING small THINGS.

VIOLET MACKEREL quite likes helping. She PARTICULARLY likes to help SMALL THINGS. So when Violet makes friends with a tiny ladybird called SMALL GLORIA, she wants to give her a HELPING HAND. But sometimes it’s hard to know the best way to help a SMALL THING – especially when it’s not in its NATURAL HABITAT.

About the Author

Anna Branford was born in the Isle of Man and spent her early childhood in Sudan and Papua New Guinea before moving to Australia. Creative writing was her favourite subject at school and she wrote stories in all these different countries. Anna is a doll maker and a sociology lecturer at Victoria University. Violet Mackerel's Brilliant Plot is her first published work for Walker Books Australia.

About the illustrator

Sarah Davis grew up in New Zealand, wearing gumboots and falling in rivers. She worked as a secondary school teacher before moving to Sydney. Sarah is a very busy, award-winning artist who has collaborated with Sue Whiting on Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy (New Frontier) and Jennifer Poulter Mending Lucille (Lothian), for which Sarah won the 2009 Children’s Book Council of Australia’s Crichton Award for Best New Illustrator. Most recently, Sarah’s title Fearless, written by Colin Thompson, was short-listed for the 2010 Children’s Book Council of Australia Awards.