This month, Eddy Popcorn’s Guide to Parent Training was published by Scholastic Australia, but believe it or not, I started writing it almost TEN years ago.

At first I wrote it as a self-help book for kids, a parent training guide.  It didn’t really have a story to go along with it. My son, who was the same age as Eddy at the time called it my ‘fake non-fiction’. But of course there’s no such thing. Nobody goes into a bookstore and says ‘I’d like to buy a fake non-fiction book’.

That was the problem. It wasn’t fiction but it wasn’t non-fiction either. I added Eddy’s personal (made up) story and fixed that problem.

To write this book I drew on my person experiences of having possibly the most embarrassing parents in the world.  At least it certainly seemed like it when I was eleven.

Why I wrote Eddy Popcorn’s Guide to Parent Training

I discovered that bookstores were full of self help books for parents like ‘Toddler Taming’ and ‘The Teenage Brain’, but there was nothing to help kids deal with problem parents. And seeing as my son was eleven, I thought it might come in handy for him.

So What’s Eddy Popcorn’s Guide to Parent Training About?

The school holidays have started and EDDY POPCORN is about to turn twelve. Then disaster strikes — Eddy is GROUNDED for not doing his homework. Parents suck!

Faced with not seeing the beach, or his mates, for the WHOLE holidays,

Eddy puts all of his FRUSTRATION into a helpful book for kids: EDDY POPCORN’S GUIDE TO PARENT TRAINING!

Chock FULL of laughs and mushrooms, this guide is sure to be a HIT! And hopefully, Eddy will get to have at least one surf before the school holidays end.

Book 1 in an hilarious new series – great for reluctant readers.

The amazing pics

These have been created by talented illustrator, Ben Johnston. He must have had problem parents too because he could tell from the text, exactly what Eddy’s life was like.

What’s next for Eddy?

Eddy and I are currently working on his second book, Eddy Popcorn’s Guide to Teacher Taming and it will be out next year.

We’re also staying busy in lockdown, making pop motion movies (stop motion using popcorn) Here’s our first one … Popcorn Racing.  The next one’s social distancing and it will be out soon. You can follow Eddy’s excellent escapades at my/our website https://www.deescribe.com.au/eddy-popcorn

How are you keeping busy during lockdown? If you’re doing something creative … perhaps writing or drawing … Eddy and I would love to hear about it.