Violet Mackerel has outside-the-box ideas—and they’re all included in this in-the-box collection of illustrated chapter books. Violet Mackerel is quite a small girl with quite brilliant ideas. Violet’s ideas come in handy when helping out at the market, digging for dinosaur bones, knitting unusual leg warmers, braving tonsillectomies, feeding ladybugs, planning weddings, and inventing useful theories. Learn her Theory of Finding Small Things in Violet Mackerel’s Brilliant Plot, her Theory of Giving Small Things in Violet Mackerel’s Remarkable Recovery, her Theory of Helping Small Things in Violet Mackerel’s Natural Habitat, and her Theory of Leaving Small Things Behind in Violet Mackerel’s Personal Space . And there’s one more theory you’re likely to the Theory of Reading Small Books. Because once you read one of these charming chapter books, you’ll want to read them all!
Author
I was born in 1975 on the Isle of Man and spent my childhood there, in Sudan, in Papua New Guinea and in Australia. I did lots of my daydreaming in planes, trains and boats including one boat that my dad made with a glass base so my little sister and I could see fish and coral going past underneath us. For a little while I had a mouse and the best present my mum and dad ever gave me (apart from my sister) was my own piano. My favourite books were The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame and the Ramona stories by Beverly Cleary. Though I love returning to those stories (especially Wind in the Willows) these days my favourites are anything by bell hooks or Alain de Botton. I live in Melbourne near a river, write books for children, make dolls, nests and the occasional skirt, go to lots of markets and have cups of tea with my friends. I have a special interest in helping people to find the kind of work that is right for them. I don’t spend quite as much time on planes, trains and boats as I used to, but I walk up and down mountains whenever I find a spare moment. And I still have that same piano.
