Peculiar Parents introduces us to 60 Australian animal species, focusing on all things family - picking a mate, making a home, having babies, finding food and looking after one another.

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.

Awards

• Shortlisted: Book of the Year Awards, CBCA, Eve Pownall Award 2026
• Winner: ACT Literary Awards, Children’s Literature, Non-Fiction 2026

Reviews

Aussie Animals

• It is the kind of book that gets read repeatedly, with favourite pages bookmarked and facts deployed at family dinners. Read more

Lynne Babbage, CBCA Reading Time

• Stephanie Owen Reeder has done it again with this fascinating and informative book about unusual courting, mating, nest-making and baby rearing practices of quite a few Australian animals … This is an interesting book full of little-known information about many of our native species. It will be a source of information for readers young and old alike. Read more

Sue Warren, Just So Stories

• … it’s a perfect book to curl up with and linger over and I have no doubt your kiddos will think the same. Read more

Akina Hansen, Good Reading Magazine

• Peculiar Parents is beautifully illustrated, complementing the engrossing information. There is lots to learn about Australian native wildlife within this book. Read more

Ashleigh Meikle, The Book Muse

• This is another interesting book from the publishing arm of the National Library of Australia, who always publish unique stories that give insight into the world around us in Australia. Read more

Barbara Braxton, The Bottom Shelf

• … our young ones are curious about and are interested in the real world around them and are very willing to read about it, particularly when it is written in such an accessible way as this one and accompanied by real-life illustrations that can lead them on all sorts of new investigations and adventures. Read more

Digital Classroom Module

Encourage students to dive into the science behind Australia’s peculiar fauna. This module is aligned with Australian Curriculum: Science and Humanities and Social Sciences for Year Three to Six students.

About the author

Dr Stephanie Owen Reeder is the author of over 25 books for children and adults. She has worked as a schoolteacher, a librarian, a book editor, a university lecturer and a Hansard Editor at Federal Parliament. Stephanie has won many awards, including the CBCA Book of the Year Award and the NSW Premier’s History Award. In 2019, Stephanie was presented with the CBCA Laurie Copping Award for Distinguished Service to Children’s Literature. Her latest children’s books include the Heritage Heroes compilation Courageous Kids and Their Amazing Adventures and the non-fiction picture book Australia’s Wild Weird Wonderful Weather.

About the illustrator

Based in Meanjin/Brisbane, Ingrid Bartkowiak is an artist and illustrator who works primarily in watercolour. Her hand-painted work features native flora, fauna and fungi. Ingrid has a fascination with all things small and intricate, from tufts of moss on a footpath to the fungi sprouting from a wombat dropping. Ingrid has worked across a diverse array of projects, including picture book illustration, murals, packaging designs and even pet portraits.