Paparoa Street School Visit

Last week I was invited to Paparoa Street School for their 'Caught Reading Club' Fish & Chip evening. Thanks so much for having me — I had a great time!

Breens School Visit

I had a great time visiting Breens Intermediate School today, to introduce The Day the Plants Fought Back, and to talk about writing. I brought some vegetables along to see if the kids could identify them and I was pretty impressed! A couple of the weird-looking veges had the students stumped (and some of the teachers too!). Thanks for having me!

Vege Quiz - Prizes to be won!

All sorts of weird and wacky veges can be found in our grocers and supermarkets, and also in my book, The Day the Plants Fought Back! See if you can identify these ones below. The first people to email the correct answer to belindaokeefe1@gmail.com will receive a prize. Be sure to include your full name and school in the email!

These little chaps grow on a stalk,

What would they say if able to talk?

"We're packed full of iron and Vitamin C,

But many don't like to cook us for tea.

Dress us in butter and fresh lemon zest,

Then you'll agree we're simply the best!

Who can identify this little guy?

He's knobbly and bobbly, a strange-looking kai!

Bake him or boil him or mash him with spice,

Or roast him with meat and serve him with rice.

He's lumpy and bumpy and orangey-pink,

He looks like a thumb - what do you think?

This chunky dude's from a sturdy root crop,

Cream on the bottom and purple on top.

Grown in the winter, he doesn't like heat,

Mash him with cream for a scrumptious treat.

Bake him, roast him, turn him into chips,

Dip them into sauce and lick it off your lips!

KIDSFEST SCORPIO BOOKS

Free in the second week of the school holidays? Come along to the amazing Scorpio Books bookshop!

Russley School Visit

Last week I had the pleasure of introducing Russley School to The Day the Plants Fought Back. What a great bunch of kids!
I brought along some unusual vegetables to see if the kids could identify them. We had some 
interesting answers!

Thanks so much for having me, I had a blast!

NATIONAL EAT YOUR VEGETABLES DAY

Today, 17th June 2019, is NATIONAL EAT YOUR VEGETABLES DAY! So make sure you have a big plate of those tasty colourful energy-boosters! These guys visited Russley School last week to introduce new release The Day the Plants Fought Back. More posts about the visit to follow soon...

VEGES COME TO LIFE!

Wow, what talented young artists we had entering our 'Create a Vegetable Character' competition!

Check out the pics below!

BOOK LAUNCH

A big thank you to everyone who came to celebrate my book launch for 

The Day the Plants Fought Back. 

It was a blast!

'NAME THE VEGE GANG' Winners

CONGRATULATIONS to the winners of the 

'NAME THE VEGE GANG' competition at the launch of 

The Day the Plants Fought Back!

Meet Steve, named by Corban Burnett.

Meet Barry, named by Holly Harbour & Zak Lewis.

Meet Lucy, named by Sam Fisher.

Meet Gus, named by Lewis Hawkyard.

The prizes are on their way out to the lucky winners. Thanks for entering!

2 DAYS TO GO!

ONLY 2 DAYS TO GO UNTIL The Day the Plants Fought Back HITS THE SHELVES!

LIMERICK TIME

I love to rhyme. LIMERICKS are one of my favourite styles of rhyming, because they're short and funny, and fun to read out because of their musical rhythm.

Here are few of mine. I've used towns and cities in New Zealand as my inspiration. 

(If you want to have a go yourself, I've included the rules to Limerick-writing below. Have fun!)

A fearless young girl from Temuka,

Had an enormous verucca.

The doctor was useless, 

His efforts were fruitless,

She blasted it with a bazooka!

A cranky old rooster from Clyde,

Just couldn't crow, but he tried.

When he opened his beak,

He'd do nothing but squeak,

He squeaked till the day that he died.

An odd little boy from Kirwee,

Was crazy, you'll have to agree.

Wore a wetsuit to school,

Then jumped in the pool,

And swam until quarter past three.

A funny old man from Hawkes Bay

Couldn't cope with his hair turning grey.

He was too scared to dye it,

Afraid he would fry it, 

so wore a clown's wig every day.

The Rules for a Traditional Limerick

* Your Limerick should have a total of 5 lines.

* The 1st, 2nd and 5th lines must rhyme, and have between 7 and 10 syllables.

* The 3rd and 4th lines must rhyme, and have between 5 and 7 syllables.

* And most importantly, it must be funny!

Swannanoa School Visit

First School Visit – Swannanoa School

I had my first school visit this week, introducing the Swannanoa kids to The Day the Plants Fought Back! They were super lucky, as the release date isn't for another three weeks!

I was so impressed with how polite and respectful all of you were – thank you so much for having me!

MONSTER CUCUMBERS

Check out these bad boys! (The cucumbers, I mean, not Dylan!) I'm struggling to fit them in my fridge! These cucumbers are even bigger than Enzo, who couldn't be bothered to wake up and have a look.

This reminds me of the cucumber in my book, The Day the Plants Fought Back, due for release on 1st June. Patrick and Wayne (the two rascals in the book) also come face to face with an angry vine creature, a mean gang of leeks, and a fruit-firing cranberry bush. Speaking of cranberries, here are some we picked today. Yum!

TONGUE TWISTERS

Motor Mouth Malcolm is a character in my book, Trouble With a Capital T. He loves making up tongue twisters. Here are a few for you to try. See if you can say them as quickly as you can without tripping over your tongue!

• Grumpy Grandma grumbles when Greedy Grandad gobbles Grandma’s gross grilled gherkins and gravy greedily.

• Brilliantly bizarre books about big bandits, barbecued baked bean burgers, bunyips’ bulging belly buttons and book-binders’ big bottoms makes boisterous boys bonkers.

• The terrifying T-Rex tromped towards the tiny town of Templeton, trampling on two thousand and twenty-two trembling tuatara tails.

Perhaps you could try making up some tongue twisters of your own. Just pick a letter of the alphabet, and go for it!

WORD SURGERY

Have you heard of a SPOONERISM? It's when the first letters of two words get switched around. For example:

Belly Jean = Jelly Bean

Chewing the Doors = Doing the Chores

Keys and Parrots = Peas and Carrots

You can also do it with compound words, for example:

Bunchlox = Lunchbox

Pickenchox = Chickenpox

Poothtaste = Toothpaste

See if you can figure these ones out:

Shake a tower 

Runny babbit 

Bead a rook 

Gubblebum 

Fidnight meast 

Billy sook 

NAME THE VEGE GANG

The Vege Gang

So here is the Vege Gang – they remind me a little of the plants in my book, The Day the Plants Fought Back. Because they look like such funny characters, I've decided they need names. That's Russell on the left (he's a Radish). Can you come up with creative names for the other vegetables?

We have a Lettuce, a Carrot, Asparagus and Beetroot.

THE DAY THE PLANTS FOUGHT BACK!

I'm very excited to announce that my first book, The Day the Plants Fought Back! will be released on 1st June 2019! 

An action-packed, hilarious story about two wild, rascally boys and the trouble they cause in the garden, until the plants decide to teach them a lesson ... because, as the boys discover, plants have eyes and ears too!