DuckStar / Cyberfarm

A two book series of back-to-back stories with delightful illustrations certain to captivate younger readers.

In Book 1, Duckstar, Duck and his friends have a problem: their farm will be closed down unless they can find the money to improve its safety features. Their big chance comes when they are asked to appear as extras in a television advertisement. Will their plan work? In their second adventure, Cyberfarm, Duck and his friends are going to be replaced by robots and virtual farm animals. They devise a plan to win back the tourists by performing a show.

In Book 2, Operatic Duck, Duck and his friends are asked to take part in a community performance of the opera Aida. They all want the show to be a success, but rehearsals aren't going well... In their second adventure, Duck on Tour, Duck and his friends take the show on the road, heading to the outback to perform Aida there. But then it starts to rain, and before long their train is cut off in the middle of nowhere by floodwaters. Is there anything the animals can do to save everyone?

Hazel Edwards is a Melbourne-based author who writes books and scripts for children and adults. She has written 200 books, which have been widely translated.

She won the 2009 ASA Medal for services to the writing community & is short-listed for the 2011 Astrid Lindgren Children's Literature Award.

There's a Hippopotamus on our Roof Eating Cake is her best known title, which has continually been in print for 30 years and adapted for stage, radio, video, and puppetry.

Her most recent IP Kidz title is Plato the Platypus Plumber (part-time), illustrated by John Petropoulos.

Christine Anketell is a graduate of Sydney & Melbourne Universities and NIDA. She has worked in Music Theatre, Opera, Puppetry and Young People's Theatre. Christine has been a resident actor with QTC, where she had major roles in productions such as The Circle, Hello Dolly, Amadeus, On Our Selection and Galileo. She performed in over 20 ABC radio dramas and was on-air presenter of Education Today, the ABC Radio Education news for QLD schools.

Among her many directing roles, Christine wrote and directed Sea of Space and Aesop's Fables for Patch Theatre and conceived and directed The Hobbit, a puppetry based production which received a Helpmann nomination for Best Visual Theatre. For Oz Opera she directed Sid the Serpent and Hansel and Gretel, adapted and directed The Magic Flute and The Barber of Seville.

She is currently based at Kardinia International College, Geelong.

Mini Goss has written and illustrated many children's books, including When Mum was Little and When Dad was a Teenager. Mini was born in Melbourne in 1963, and when she was two she and her parents moved to London. Over the next ten years they lived in London, New York and Melbourne, as well as travelling through Europel.


As a child Mini spent most of her spare time drawing. Her favourite things to draw were her pets and to copy models in fashion magazines. As a grown-up Mini still likes to draw her many pets, as well as her three children. They have been the models for many of her characters.


In 2002 Mini was awarded the Crichton Award for best new illustrator of a picture book for When Mum was Little. Rhino Neil was listed as a notable picture book by the Children's Book Council.