Julie Murphy writes about animals and the environment, mainly for children 4-8. She aims for her books to encourage children to become lifelong readers, learners and nature-lovers.
Before becoming a children’s author, Julie was a zoologist and zookeeper.
Along the way, she has helped to measure fur seals on Kangaroo Island, catch giant sea stars in Port Phillip Bay, breed Leadbeater’s Possums and stick insects, and cuddle baby wombats. www.juliemurphybooks.com
ABOUT TINY POSSUM AND THE MIGRATING MOTHS
Tiny Possum and the Migrating Moths follows a year in the life of a mountain pygmy-possum – an endangered species found nowhere else but the mountains of the Australian Alps, in the southeast of mainland Australia. These little marsupials that could fit in your hand hibernate under snow during winter and feast on bogong moths in the spring. * Tiny Possum and the Migrating Moths is illustrated by Ben Clifford and Published by CSIRO Publishing, 2021.
THE HARDEST THING ABOUT WRITING THIS BOOK
The hardest thing about writing this narrative nonfiction book was ensuring everything was accurate, without getting in the way of a good story. Sometimes information I wanted simply wasn’t known yet. But how could I find out what wasn’t yet known, and what I simply hadn’t yet discovered in the published scientific papers? That’s when I was very grateful to be able to ask a specialist scientist who has been researching mountain pygmy possums in the field for decades. Expert knowledge to the rescue!
THE MOST FUN THING ABOUT WRITING THIS BOOK
The most fun thing about writing this book was watching it come together as a book. Ben Clifford’s beautiful illustrations, my text, and the publishing team’s creative design elements produced a book I’m very proud of.
WRITING PROMPT BASED ON THE BOOK
The first lines of the story are:
Blink and you’d miss her. Flitting between moonlit boulders, barely bigger than a mouse, she’s a mountain pygmy-possum…and she’s on the hunt.
Notice the word “flitting”, which I chose to give the idea of speed and agility, with a hint of being in secret.
Your mission is to choose an animal, then write a paragraph about something it does (you may need to do some research about the animal to do this). Next, look at the verbs (doing words) you are currently using, and try to replace them with choices that are a bit more unusual or extra descriptive. For example, “flit” instead of “run”, “stomp” instead of “walk”, and “chirp” instead of “call”.
* If you are interested in finding out more about the mountain pygmy possum and bogong moths, read this interesting KidsNews article. It has some very cool photos.https://www.kidsnews.com.au/animals/hungry-times-ahead-for-endangered-pygmypossums-as-billions-of-bogong-moths-go-missing/news-story/7b54c06511dea3ca63ad7840512e0b4d
