New release for local children's book author

A teacher, speaker, web site manager, reviewer, story teller, PhD Candidate and, of course, author, Mrs Murphy also finds time to look after her six children and one grandchild and continue working on projects.

And the Dalyellup super woman has just released her most recent children’s book, Looking Up.

Beautifully illustrated by Aska, the story follows Pete who is desperately hoping for a telescope. There’s nothing he wants more for his birthday. But when a mysterious card arrives in the mail from the grandfather he never knew, what Pete wants is turned upside down. The book focuses on families that fall apart, and those who choose to mend them.

After spending most of her life growing up in Collie reading and writing with her mother, Mrs Murphy decided in 2001 to dedicate herself to her dream of being a children’s author and now has 40 books in print.

Mrs Murphy is best-known for her books Pearl Verses the World and Toppling. 

Her first illustrated verse novel, ‘Pearl Verses the World’ was an Honour Book in the Children’s Book Council of Australia Book Awards, and won Indie Book of the Year in 2009.

Toppling, an illustrated verse novel about childhood illness, won a Queensland Premier’s Literary Award and a Western Australian Premier’s Book Award for the Children’s Book category.

Some of her other loved children’s fiction books includeThe Floatingest Frog, Pemberthy Bear, and Snowy’s Christmas. 

Mrs Murphy will be participating in the first Fremantle Press Great Big Kids Book Read at the State Library on 24 June, following the success of the release of Looking Up on May 1.

‘Looking Up’ is now available from all good book stores, or online at booktopia.com.au.