Festival Fun: Clancy of the Outback

Welcome to the Clancy of the Outback series.

Eleven-year-old Clancy has been thrust into life out woop-woop. These are the stories of his outback adventures at his uncle's sheep station, Overflow Station.

In 'Festival Fun', the mayor of Chance, the ubiquitous Mel Bell, decides that this small town on the bank of the Darling needs a cultural event. To 'liven up' the town. The townsfolk decide to have a music festival, Miss Aphrodite organises the school kids to perform and the whole population of the Overflow gets involved. There is a lot of singing and practising on new instruments - some, like the lagerphone - created in Dad's shed. The music leans towards country but with a good smattering of corny old ballads.

At the conclusion of this book there is an Outback Facts section which the Australian country music scene, there some poems about ukeleles and the all-important, Outback Jokes section.

These chapter books were developed for 7-10-year-old independent readers, who are starting on their first chapter books. They are high interest, easy language level.

Phil Kettle is an author and writer. He lives in Regional Victoria and spends his time writing books for children and visiting schools to talk about reading and writing.

Co-author, Bob Andersen, spends his days in Melbourne, writing, publishing and developing online literacy programs for school students.

Shane McGowan is an award-winning illustrator and writer of picture books, and editorial and advertising illustration.