Billy: A Lolly Leopold Story

by Kate De Goldi, Jacqui Colley (Illustrator)

Room 7 is the classroom of Lolly Leopold and Billy Button—and a bunch of competitive teacher's pets, which makes preparing for the annual Pet and Produce Day absolutely dreadful for these two loveable and clever elementary school students. As Billy works on his entries for the competition, he is sent to the Quiet Room five times. He hates the overachieving Freddy and can’t seem to keep his opinions about it to himself. As their mindful teacher Ms. Love helps Billy find his creative strength, Lolly and Billy discover their own ingenuity and win special innovative prizes. Written with imagination and complemented with striking, inventive illustrations, this school tale is both touching and hilarious. 

Genres: Picture Books

32 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2008

About the author

Kate De Goldi is a full-time writer who grew up in Christchurch and now lives in Wellington. Her first book was for adults: called like you, really, it was published under the name Kate Flannery, and gave a series of interlinked short stories about the women in a Catholic family. Since then she has won numerous awards and accolades for her fiction, including the American Express and Katherine Mansfield Awards for short stories, and the overall Children’s Book Award in 1997 for her young adult novel Sanctuary.

In 2000, her novel about adoption, Closed, Stranger won an Honour Award in the New Zealand Post Children and Young Adults' Book Awards, and in 2001, Kate was made an Arts Foundation Laureate. Her book Clubs, illustrated by Jacqui Colley, won the picture book category of the New Zealand Post Children’s and Young Adult Awards in 2005; that year it also won the overall book of the year, and it also gained the Russell Clark Award at the LIANZA Book Awards.

Kate’s most recent novel, The 10PM Question (2008), won Book of the Year and Best Young Adult fiction at the 2009 New Zealand Post Children and Young Adults' Book Awards. It was also runner-up in the Fiction category at the Montana NZ Book Awards 2009, at which it won the Readers' Choice Award. It was a finalist in the LIANZA Children's Book Awards for the Esther Glen Award, and was shortlisted for the Nielson BookData NZ Booksellers' Choice Award.

The 10PM Question has been selected to appear in the prestigious international publication The White Ravens 2009 and with sales of over 14,000 copies the book now wears a Silver Premier NZ Bestseller sticker and remains at No. 1 on the NZ Bestsellers List (week ending 22 August 2009). The rights have been sold to Allen & Unwin Publishers in Australia, and Dutch and German rights have also been sold. It is due to be published in North America later this year.

Kate is also very well known as an astute and energetic book reviewer for radio and television.

Reviews

[LauraW · Rating 4 out of 5]

The 10 PM Question by Kate De Goldi is one of my favorite books, but it is completely different from this book. I am actually a bit surprised that they are by the same author. This book, and its companion, Clubs, are really graphic stories - not really picture books - they are clearly targeted for an older set than most picture books. Yet, they are not manga or cartoons. Maybe illustrated story would be a better description. In some ways, they are similar to the Wimpy Kid books, in that there is a mix of story and illustration, and they contain typical school kid humor. But the illustrations for these two books are far and away above the illustrations for the Wimpy Kid books. The illustrations should get billing along with the author, as they are equally important. The illustrator is Jacqui Colley.

The story is fairly standard school kid fare, albeit with kind and understanding adults, which is typical of books from Oz and Kiwiland. It doesn't have the depth of The 10 PM Question, but it probably has greater kid appeal, because of the pictures.

[Marike]

Billy: A Lolly Leopold Story by Kate De Goldi and Jacqui Colley

A story with a generous heart – about a boy who is a bit different and a teacher who encourages him to find his own way despite over-achiever competition and standard awards. Billy has to sit in the quiet corner a lot. He asks all sorts of wayward questions.

The illustrations are done with a collage feel to it and the text is written by hand, giving a sort of scrapbook-journal feel to it, the story told by a young girl in Billy’s class who notices. The story itself seems to become a project put together with care and love.

[Cassandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kate de Goldi really nails the dynamics of NZ primary schools.