E-Books
We are proud to support UNICEF Australia by donating 50% of royalties from the sale of all E-Books in Shirley’s Imaginarium series.
UNICEF is the world’s largest organisation working to protect children since 1946 in more than 190 countries and territories. “Our sheer scale means we’re able to get the money to where it’s needed most while working at community and policy levels to influence meaningful, long-term and sustainable change.”
UNICEF Australia works in cooperation with UNICEF, supporting humanitarian and development programs around the world and in Australia. From global and national emergency relief to long-term development solutions, UNICEF Australia works alongside its partners to ensure that every child is healthy, educated and safe so that they can thrive to reach their full potential.
This fundraiser has been verified by UNICEF Australia.
Shirley's Imaginarium Series
These modern days practically everyone has a modern garden, sophisticated, smooth, spotless and spangled with spectacular sculptural splashes of extravagant displays. How boring! Ugh.
Miss Shirley’s garden was not. It was delightfully disarrayed, undecluttered, undecisive and dotted darlingly with dabbled notions of delicate imaginary worlds, dazzling and daffy.
You see Miss Shirley had lived a lifetime of doing studious, sophisticated, successful, stupendously sane, serious and sanitized stuff. The worthwhile kind, but with no room for living playfully. Now she felt in her old, tired toes that her long ignored imaginings of all things around her, had to have their say. So, she let them, along with her mobile camera to capture somewhat blurry glimpses of the extraordinary lives of the inhabitants of her garden.
This series is her record of the life of animate and inanimate things she gave home to in her Imaginarium situated in a quiet coastal town lying by the big wide sea caressing a bit of Australia in a “Place where the sea makes a noise” – Kiarama or more familiarly known as Kiama.
But as there would always be much beyond her garden that would entice her imagination, you may find her whimsiness in other literary expansions beyond this series.
For now, it is time to welcome you to the beginnings of Shirley’s Imaginarium.
What might life be for an Australian Cockatoo who wants to live a high-flying life? Might it have something to do with eating while perched on a very tall Gymea Bay Lily or having lots of parties? And who would a Cockatoo invite to his parties?
Wocky only wanted to invite colourful birds this time, and it was going to cause the worst havoc for everyone.
This is a charming story of Wocky, the Cockatoo who lost and found friendship when the youngest of all the inhabitants in a small garden showed everyone the way.
What’s in a name? Have you ever wondered? Isn’t it interesting that when you are born, you are given a name and don’t choose it yourself? Well for birds, that’s also the same. Except, that birds don’t give each other a name, at least as far as is known. Birds are given names by humans. And these names are so unique that they branch out from being ordinary to being special.
Set in her garden situated in a bit of Australia in a “Place where the sea makes a noise” – Kiarama or more familiarly known as Kiama, images captured by Shirley’s mobile camera, reveal the extraordinary time when the inhabitants of her garden, animate and inanimate, had a debate on a matter of much significance to do with what each of them is called.
Mr Magpie, Miss Kookaburra and Mr Wombat tried to convince Mr Toad, that they have not just ordinary names, but special names, as he persisted in debating otherwise.
Book 2 in the series, ‘Shirley’s Imaginarium.’ emphasises the importance of identity being created through a special name, and through friendships, as one can ruminate on such matters together, and grow in thinking and feeling.
This is a story that spans cities and regions. Including adventures in places in the centre of New South Wales in Australia, the book appreciates what is basic and unique to all – our name.
It is not unusual to find, as we go about our business every day, we forget to pause and admire nature around us.
But I wonder if birds also forget to admire nature around them, as they go about their daily business?
Is it only by pausing and looking at everything, that we can see how beautiful things are around us?
The answers to these questions unravel in this story, as Mr Toad who loves to ponder and notice the world around him, decides to get everyone
to do the same.
A Garden Contest to take in the beauty of Shirley’s Garden in Spring in Kiama in Australia might sound audacious, but surprisingly, Mr Toad
soon discovers that there is more than one way to enjoy the beauty of the garden in Spring.
Book 3 in this Series inspires children to appreciate nature by slowing down, noticing it, and above all, being in it to experience it.
Brimming with pictures of the birds and inanimate objects in a small coastal garden in Australia, Shirley’s Imaginarium Series continues to delight readers with meaningful narratives of curious events and quandaries, explored whimsically through Australian fauna and flora.
It is commonly known that when one wants to find out something, one asks questions to gain information. This would seem fairly straightforward, even interesting and calming, as one looks at things from different angles to
understand everything.
Though, what if this simple task becomes fearful? What if you are forced to answer questions or you are insulted for your answers to a question, and what if, what you say, is used against you by the one asking the questions?
In Shirley’s Garden, a simple search for answers unfolded in such a manner when the garden residents were trying to work out what Tammy, the Garden Fairy had witnessed the human gardener carrying into a room in the garden.
Rufeus Jerome Stanford, the high-brow crested Pigeon was at the epicentre of this storm, demanding answers to his questions, not to help the garden residents, but to change their lives for the worse.
Fearful of him, the garden residents do submit to him at first, but some of them find the courage to stand up to him and challenge his bullying.
This book in the series, ‘Shirley’s Imaginarium,’ takes a look at how ugly bullying is and how one can stand up to the bully with courage, the support of one’s friends, thinking about what the bully is up to and what is at stake, and speaking up, as best as you can.
This book also inches closer to uncovering the mystery of what Shirley’s Imaginarium is, and how the garden residents discover it amidst them, in their home in Kiama in Australia.
