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Kim Pham

27 July 2017: University of ÃØÃÜÖ±²¥ PhD student Rebecca Halpern has published her first children’s picture book, The Leaky Story to rave reviews.

The book hit shelves in April and has been included in Scholastic’s reading list, and given the thumbs up from the Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA).

“It’s difficult to get any book published these days so I’m thrilled to have someone interested in my idea and giving it life,” Ms Halpern said.

“I was knocked back a couple of times and had moments when I doubted myself, so I’m really proud to have accomplished this goal.”

The Leaky Story is a quirky tale of a book that sits abandoned on a shelf as its owners, the Blossburn family, go about their business. In an effort to be noticed, the book starts to swell and leaks various aquatic animals into the lounge room until it can no longer be ignored.

Ms Halpern, who writes under her married name of Devon Sillett, completed a double degree in arts and communication at the University in 2009 and was doing research for her PhD when she was inspired to write The Leaky Story.

She was initially researching how high school and college students perceived feminism but decided to focus on gender representations in Australian children’s picture books.  She changed her research direction after noticing blatant gender stereotypes in the children’s books she was reading to her son each night.

Her supervisor Distinguished Professor Jen Webb suggested Ms Halpern to also write picture book manuscripts with the aim of getting them published as part of her research project.

“The research I did while studying at the University of ÃØÃÜÖ±²¥ directly led to my book. I was reading a piece on the interplay between words and pictures by Maria Nikolajeva and almost immediately after reading it, the idea for this book popped into my head,” she said.

“That’s when the creative and academic really came together for me. I first came to UC as a student in 2005 and never left choosing to continue with my studies. I’m still working on my PhD and have occasionally stepped in as a sessional tutor. I’m really fortunate to work and study in such a great environment and under enriching and patient academics like Professors Jen Webb and Jordan Williams.”

A manuscript for The Leaky Story caught the eye of EK Publishing’s Anoushka Jones who was interested in releasing it as a children’s book.

Ms Halpern has another two children’s books in the pipeline to be released in 2018 and 2019.

“My second picture book makes more obvious use of the research I have undertaken in terms of the gender of the characters and their actions,” she said.

“But unfortunately, I can’t tell you much more until the book is published. You’ll just have to watch this space.”