Lucy's Book Club

Ms HOOD (Adelaide) (15:16): It is my pleasure to rise for the second edition of Lucy's Book Club, which is an opportunity to share with the parliament the works of creative locals in our community who are published poets, authors and experts in their field. The theme for this edition of Lucy's Book Club is children's books, and I have four books written by locals in my community which I am delighted to share with the parliament today. The authors are sitting in the gallery and I welcome them and their guests and thank them for their contribution to children's literature in our state.

The first book is Beeing Proud! My Life With Autism, written and illustrated by Prospect local Sam Bateman. He is joined in the gallery today with his mum, Denise. The book's character, Bonnie Bee, is a young bee girl who is smart, creative, does her own thing and has autism. Sam's idea for the character came about after Sam noticed how much social interaction and cooperation is built into a bee's biology, much more so than in humans, where bees basically cannot survive as individuals but as a collective looking after the hive.

So, Sam wondered, how would this work for a hypothetical bee with autism who wears their individuality on their sleeve and needs more downtime from the rest of the hive? Through his book, Sam wants to teach people of all ages that being autistic can be a fun and beautiful thing. Congratulations Sam, and thank you for your creative and inclusive work that you have shared with the world.

The second book is Chloe the Orchestra Dog by Bruce Stewart, illustrated by Deborah Baldassi. Bruce is a CBD local and a professional musician, composer and arranger who adopted Chloe, a little Jack Russell rescue dog, in 2018. Chloe's first night with her new dad was spent sitting on his lap watching the royal wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. As the orchestra librarian for the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, Bruce started to take Chloe to work with him, where the orchestra players fell in love with her too.

Chloe's connection with the orchestra players inspired Bruce to compose a special piece for the orchestra and a narrator designed to educate people of all ages about classical music. Through this idea, a children's book, Chloe the Orchestra Dog, was born. It was a pleasure to personally attend the launch of Chloe the Orchestra Dog just over 12 months ago at the Duke of Brunswick, where we were treated to the specially composed piece inspired by Chloe, which was performed by Adelaide Symphony Orchestra players.

Bruce thanks those at PetRescue and the Scruffer Lovers team who rescued Chloe from her first house and allowed him to adopt her. As Bruce told PetRescue, 'I might have rescued her, but she's also rescued me. She's the best thing that's happened to me.' Thank you, Bruce, and Chloe, who could not be here today, for your efforts in inspiring the next generation to love classical music as much as you do.

Last but not least are two books, The Farmer and The Soldier, by Prospect local Sam Braidwood and illustrated by Marina Dajneko. Sam is joined in the gallery today by his wife, Hayley, an early childhood educator, and their children, Olive and Patrick. It was having to read the same books to his two children every night that inspired Sam to create these entertaining early childhood rhyming books which detail the daily duties of interesting characters that are based on real people performing their everyday occupations.

The Farmer is based on Sam's father-in-law, Roger, a passionate farmer in the Adelaide Plains region of South Australia and a genuinely great guy, while The Soldier has a character whose appearance is based on Sam's friend Steve, who tragically passed away when they were younger. Steve was a wonderfully talented, respectful, polite, fit and healthy young man who possessed the stature and physique of a brave soldier. I am sure we all agree that teaching children about how important these two roles, both farmers and soldiers, are to the success and the safety of our nation is a very worthy endeavour. I thank Sam for sharing these stories with the world.

My guests and I will now be heading to the Parliamentary Library to present the children's books to our Parliamentary Librarian, Dr John Weste, so that they officially form part of the library's collection. Thank you again to our local authors and guests for coming in today for the second edition of Lucy's Book Club.