What's next, SHANE?

How does a wild, free-spirited, intelligent cockatoo pass the time during a 100-year life span? With play!

This delightful book explores the antics of the popular sulphur-crested cockatoo. These infamous characters are highly visible and regular visitors into Australian urban landscapes. What kind of lives do they live? Why do they do the things they do? What drives their behaviour?

Meet Shane, a very energetic sulphur-crested cockatoo. Curious and restless—and bored with squawking— Shane is on the hunt for new things to say and do. “There must be more to say than ‘squawk!”. Shane explores his local environment, all the while learning new skills and, most importantly, new words.

Shane interacts with nature and the human-made world that surrounds him. We learn Shane is a natural mimic, and a very clever bird. The book comes alive with some very noisy onomatopoeic words.

About the Author

Maree Coote is author and illustrator of three award-winning local histories and more than 20 children’s books with high-concept Design and Art themes, each with a notable sense of place. Coote has maintained a prolific output since 2003. She is also renowned for her fresh and playful take on typography that blurs the boundaries between word and image. Her unique ‘Letter Art’ or ‘Fontigram’ typographic style has generated exciting collaborations and numerous exhibitions in Italy and in South Korea.

Coote’s books have been shortlisted for the Children’s Book Council Awards in Australia; won the Non Fiction Mention Prize at the Bologna Ragazzi Fiere in 2017, and been awarded South Korea’s Nami Concours 2017 Distinction Prize, the Royal Historical Society of Victoria Gold Award 2012, Silver for Best Illustration in Moonbeam Awards USA, 2018, and three times Gold for Best Regional Book in the USA Independent Publisher Awards USA in 2014, 2015 and 2023.