Peculiar Parents by Stephanie Owen Reeder and Ingrid Bartkowiak

Welcome to the charmingly funny and perfectly peculiar world of Aussie animal mums and dads, and their awesome kids. Peculiar Parents explores 60 Australian native animals, focusing on all things family, including their courting practices, gestation periods, births and the raising of their young.

Discover the weird and wonderful, the cute and cuddly – even the slimy and ugly! You’ll meet parrots that play the drums and cuttlefish that can change colour, as well as dancing spiders, travelling turtles, kissing lizards, plonking pobblebonks and many more amazing Aussie animals.

This new title from multi-award-winning children’s book author, Stephanie Owen Reeder, features hundreds of fun and wacky animal facts to educate and entertain readers aged 6-12. Stephanie is an ACT author of over 25 books for children and adults and has deep roots in the local community. She is a recipient of the CBCA Laurie Copping Award for Distinguished Service to Children’s Literature, a winner of the NSW Premier’s History Award and a winner of the CBCA Book of the Year Award. She is also an Ambassador for the ACT Chief Minister’s Reading Challenge and a life member of the Children’s Book Council of Australia.

Accompanied by watercolour, family-portrait style artworks of each animal by talented artist Ingrid Bartkowiak, who was shortlisted for the CBCA Award for New Illustrator in 2023, Peculiar Parents connects to key areas of the national curriculum, such as biological sciences, geography and sustainability.

This book is perfect for young readers eager to explore the fascinating world of Australian wildlife.

Peculiar Parents will be released in July 2025.