Ashling Kwok lives in Sydney’s North Shore, a magical place with lush green landscapes, beautiful flowers, and kookaburras that wake her up every morning at the crack of dawn.
Ashling has been writing books for as long as she can remember. She feels there’s nothing more satisfying than finding the right combination of words to bring my ideas to life. She spends her days dreaming up new ideas, working on my latest manuscripts, and browsing local bookstores, marvelling at all the wonderful books created by talented children’s authors.

After graduating from University, Ashling went on to become a journalist and magazine editor, before setting up her own freelance writing company. Over the years, Ashling’s work has appeared in a number of newspapers and magazines, and she is a regular contributor to a variety of online publications.
When she’s not writing you’ll find her taking her very energetic border collie, Jed, for a walk or hanging out with her husband and two children. Ashling also enjoys spending time with friends and making the most of every single moment.
 

Please follow Ashling at these links:

www.ashlingkwok.com.au

https://www.instagram.com/ashling_kwok/

https://www.facebook.com/ashlingkwokwriter

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Busy Izzy and Friends a multi-media initiative comprising:

Picture books – Audio books – Songs – Interactive music videos – and an all-New Stage Show.
Promoting friendship, fun and healthy food, the series is for children aged 3-8 years.
Centred around the adventurous world of Izzy, a 12-year-old girl and her diverse group of friends, her rescue puppy, Newly Truly, and her life in Green Grass Grove where she has a store called Nix & Nax.

“Busy Izzy always knew exactly what to do” and never too busy for her friends.

Why Busy Izzy is Special –

• Inspired by emotional and educational developmental drivers.
• Strong values – manners, kindness, generosity, patience, honesty, sharing, respect, love, open-mindedness and anti-bullying.
• Characteristically multi-cultural Australian.
• Multi-media approach
o Rhythm & rhyme is a key part of every book
o Shares healthy recipe snacks
o Outdoor fun, veggie gardens and trees
o Includes sing-a-long songs and music
o Live shows and performances for schools and events
o Interactive website and videos
o Digital picture/audio books
o Absence of any form of aggression
o Endorsed by World Literacy Foundation

The tenor of the stories from the series is upbeat, happy and considerate whilst building and reinforcing the expectation that positive attitudes will achieve great results.
Two years running, Roxanne and Stephen won first, second and third places for their children’s songs in the Australian Songwriters’ Association’s Song Competition.

Book 1: Busy Izzy and Friends – Busy Izzy and Friends includes: important elements of early education, introducing the alphabet through song and simple spatial and interactive concepts, which are further developed on the online portal.

Book 2: Busy Izzy and Newly Truly – The Big Surprise! is about the adventures of Busy Izzy and her adopted puppy, Newly Truly. Izzy has never had a pet of her own. She visits the SPCA and meets a cheeky little stray, who is looking for a home. It’s a heart-warming story which will engage the hearts of children everywhere.

Book 3: Busy Izzy and Talkative Tess: Busy Izzy’s talkative friend, Tess, learns, through a series of amusing, but educational scenarios, the importance of listening, friendship, kindness and co-operation. “When things go wrong unexpectedly, sometimes a friend is all you need to be”

Quotes:
“The Busy Izzy and Friends books are full of phonological fun and clever wordplay. We have been studying the Busy Izzy books within our literature unit for the past two years. The books have been so rich in rhythm and rhyme. The children love exploring the world of Izzy through interactive opportunities such as the read long CDs, songs, the website and the videos. Not only did the books do well in complementing our English learning outcomes, but also integrated beautifully with our key learning areas such as the creative arts, PDHPE content, interpersonal relationship skills and communication. We had so much fun reading the books and can’t wait for the next ‘Busy Izzy’ book to come out.” – Nazile Bright – Head Teacher Junior School Amity College Prestons Sydney Australia

“I am delighted to be associated with the Busy Izzy books and highly recommend them to you. Children across the globe enjoy the characters, songs, music and games, as well as the rhythm and rhyme. As a result, the Busy Izzy books help develop a love for reading that will last a life time.” –
Andrew Kay – Founder and CEO World Literacy Foundation

“So excited to be the voice of Talkative Tess! She is so vivacious, likeable and talkative! A beautiful story about acceptance and reminding us how polite it is to take turns.” – Bec Hewitt Australian Actor

“Beautifully illustrated, ‘Busy Izzy and Friends’ is book one in a series of children’s books that promotes a caring, fun-filled and busy lifestyle for kids. It is full of fun recipes, sensible advice about safety, and exciting adventures about Busy Izzy and her friends to follow. There are songs to sing, recipes to try out, and fun facts to learn.
Busy Izzy provides a great role model for children to follow by promoting an active lifestyle that is filled with cooperation and caring.” – Sandra Graudins, Clinical Psychologist

“From the moment I read this book and listened to the content I loved it. It engages children of all ages immediately. It’s bright, vibrant, innovative characters are instantly popular and interesting with readers.
The use of rhythm and rhyme of the text is terrific and can be used as an example for students to use in their own writing.
This is an excellent resource for teachers as it incorporates many areas of literacy and integrated other Key Learning Areas such as music. Teachers will be able to use this to encourage and build on students’ writing techniques; rhyme, rhythm and music; learn the letters of the alphabet (26 BFFS song) with a catchy tune to remember; learn to spell and read; and show children how to be with one another in an engaging story line. What an awesome resource that incorporates so much! Invaluable!” – Sandra Santoro – BA Ed BA Teach – Teacher K-6/Assistant Principal

“Dear Roxanne and Stephen, thank you for the wonderful incursion earlier this week. Our students and teachers loved it! The Busy Izzy and Friends show was highly engaging and interactive, and many meaningful messages were given in the story line. Thank You again” – Nazan Polat – Principal – Amity College, Prestons Primary

About the Creators:

ROXANNE KIELY – Author – Producer – Songwriter – Musician
Prodigiously creative, Roxanne has used her talent in a variety of fields including song writing, poetry writing and children’s stories. Roxanne has released two albums of original music, has had songs featured on international television programs and, more recently, on a popular ABC radio compilation.
Born and raised in a musical family and writing songs, stories and poetry from the age of seven, Roxanne has made a significant contribution to the Australian music industry.
Roxanne is the Director of ScoopFX Music and President of the not-for-profit song writing organisation, Songsalive! Australia: as well as “Singing Teacher to the Stars of Today”. Roxanne’s stellar list of students includes Delta Goodrem, Bec Hewitt, Hayley Warner and Marlisa, to name just a few.
As passionate as she is about all her activities, there is a special place in her heart for children and children’s stories, which is why she has created the Busy Izzy series. Now the much loved story books come alive from page to stage promoting; friendship, resilience, inclusivity, anti-bullying, mindfulness, healthy food, exercise, music and fun.

STEPHEN KIELY: Creative Director – Producer – Songwriter – Musician

Stephen is a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, producer and performer who writes and produces film soundtracks, advertising jingles and songs covering genres as diverse as rock and country, through to swing and jazz.

Beginning his professional music career at age eighteen, Stephen has worked on stage with many of Australia’s top-ranked performers. He was an early adopter of computer sequencing software and is comfortable producing on any number of recording applications on both Mac and Windows platforms.

Working in the ever-expanding studios at ScoopFX Music, Stephen has written, performed and produced songs for many of Australia’s rising stars, while creating the complete recordings of the Busy Izzy project, co-written and produced with Roxanne Kiely.

Book Live Stage: https://busyizzy.com/pages/the-busy-izzy-show-live

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/busyizzyandfriends

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/busyizzyandfriends

As a mother of four boys, Kelly Jarris has been lucky enough to see the diversity in each child, which is how the characters came about for her first book, Wonderful Wishes. Kelly also writes and appreciates stories from life experiences, with her recently released picture book, Imagine Our Special Place. Her sister’s journey with terminal cancer inspired Kelly to write a book that touches on sibling bonds, imagination and feelings of the unknown. The story has been described,

“Their imagination takes them out of their reality into other happy places”. 

Kelly’s sister’s take on what she was facing inspired her to write a book that would touch on sibling bonds, imagination and feelings of the unknown. Imagine Our Special Place is about two sisters who go on a journey together in the sky, meeting the Queen of all the rainbows, riding its arch-like a waterslide, sipping tea from a cup made out of the golden sun and having a tea party with a pink fairy. Parents can read this book knowing the deeper meaning and children can channel their creative thinking throughout the story.

Kelly has a background in veterinary nursing and was once an Australian wildlife rescuer.

As Sandra loves to read great mysteries or adventures, it seemed only natural that her passion for writing would one day lead her to writing adventure mysteries too. Einstein is quoted as saying ‘Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.’ Through her stories Sandra hopes to build on children’s imagination to help take them on their journey to the future, wherever it may lead. With literacy and a little imagination, the possibilities are limitless.
Her desire to write continued to grow throughout her teaching career until one day when she decided it was time to leave the classroom and focus on writing full-time. Through her writing, Sandra hopes to help parents and teachers improve literacy in our children. She appreciates the struggle of teaching reading to reluctant readers and understands the importance of hooking children with reading from an early age. Sandra is devoted to writing stories that engage and entice readers with excitement, adventure, a bit of mystery and a whole lot of fun.
These days she enjoys invitations for classroom visits to read from her stories, discuss the writing process or run writing workshops. The rest of her days are spent dreaming up characters and plots for new stories while taking her dog for walks in the country around the area where she lives just outside of Canberra.
Sandra has independently published two picture books and two early readers, and has had seven short stories published across five anthologies, including the Share Your Story – Thrilling Tales for Brave Kids, and Tell ‘Em They’re Dreaming.

The Adamson Adventures is a series of three siblings exploring mysteries and culture in exotic and unusual places. These middle grade chapter books for ages 7 to 12 include Secrets Hidden Below, A Lighthouse in Time, and Fossil Frenzy.