'Beware of Lulu' - by Rhonda Tallnash
Rhonda Tallnash is the local author of Beware of Lulu
Violet Town has a number of authors, not the least of who is children's author Rhonda Tallnash.
Rhonda's story, published in the Plucky Pets Series and illustrated by Vasja Koman, is a children's picture book all about a sheep that thinks it is a guard dog.
They have been hiding in a filing cabinet for nearly twenty years but one is finally out and the rest are on their way. Rhonda Tallnash's 'Beware of Lulu' children's book, the first book of five to be released in the 'Plucky Pets Series', made its Melbourne debut at the Eltham Branch of the Yarra Plenty Regional Library.
Rhonda, who is a special educationalist, wrote the books two decades ago after running out of reading material to interest her students who were often reluctant readers and listeners. She knows they are enjoyed by audiences of all ages as she has tested the most critical market herself - children! "I even had a friend ask if he could take 'Lulu' as a dummy book and the other manuscripts to England last year to read to his relatives, he enjoyed them so much," said Rhonda.
Rhonda Tallnash is a graduate of Eltham High School and La Trobe University. She grew up in Research and taught at Loyola College in Watsonia in the 1980s
This confidence was boosted somewhat when a well-known children's book illustrator Vasja Koman offered to illustrate the books after only one reading. "He just laughed and laughed," said Rhonda. "Actually it was a little embarrassing at first, but then he told me that he could picture the images in his head and I was flabbergasted when he was describing them exactly the way I imagined."
Vasja, whose other works include 'The Dream' is currently working on Rhonda's first book of five in the 'Cranky Contraptions Series' entitled 'Don't Mess with Frederick' about a school staffroom fridge who becomes extremely annoyed when left alone for the school holidays.
... Lulu heard the gate spring shut,
Then charged head down, poised to butt
Him in the bum, flying heels over head,
He landed 'splat' in the flower bed.
Grandma came to check out the noise,
And saw Mister Stout regaining his poise.
She said, "Bad girl, you gave him a fright,"
So Lulu was locked in the shed for the night.
Lulu was sad that Grandma was upset,
She doesn't trust people she hasn't met.
Wasn't she supposed to patrol the yard,
And act like a woolly security guard?...
... extract from 'Beware of Lulu' by Rhonda Tallnash
Rhonda, who grew up in Research and is a graduate of Eltham High School, has visited fifteen schools entertaining 1,500 children in north-eastern Victoria reading 'Lulu' and some of her other stories from the manuscripts with limited illustrations. The children thoroughly enjoyed the rhyming quirky all-Australian stories and wanted to know when the rest would be published.
Yet twelve publishers have rejected all of them, some saying that they didn't have time to read them! So for Rhonda and her husband David (who is organising the book's marketing and distribution) they had waited long enough and it was time to go it alone! The publishing was co-ordinated out of their home in Violet Town in north-east Victoria.
The book proudly boasts being an Australian product using Australian humour, language and artistic expertise. "The American culture and language to which so many of our children are constantly exposed just makes me cringe!" said Rhonda. We are so proud to say that this is true blue fair dinkum Aussie, right down to being printed in Shepparton by Prominent Press. 'Beware of Lulu' had its regional launch in the Shepparton Library in time for Book Week.
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For details/interview call the Editor on (03) 5798 1858