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VOTE for Looking for Lily in the
2023 West Australian Young Readers' Book Award
A statewide, young readers’ choice award, Looking for Lily has been nominated by children, schools and libraries.
Click on the oval button on the W.A.Y.R.B.A. homepage to VOTE for Looking for Lily now!
Looking for Lily
Take a fantastical trip to a magical world and meet four tiny sprites with attitude!
In between heavy metal practise sessions and cheeky pranks, Talia, Lily, Marri and Dawn get caught up in some scary adventures. When Lily suddenly disappears, her sprite siblings fear the worst.
Who can they trust? Winston the rainbow trout? Rocket the magpie? Who is friend, and who is foe?
With a clever plan, and a few tricks up their sleeves, the sprites bravely face up to the dangers and risk themselves to save each other. But are they too late?
Set in Donnybrook, Western Australia, and including local flora and fauna, Looking for Lily touches on the impacts of land clearing.
Looking for Lily is shortlisted in the 2023 West Australian Young Readers' Book Award and won second place in the 2022 CYA Aspiring Authors writing competition.
LOOKING FOR LILY BOOK TRAILER
HEAR THE FIRST CHAPTER
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LISTEN TO KRISTY SPILL THE INDIE PUBLISHING BEANS ON
"Why can't you tell stories like this, Mum?
It's like ... pretty good!"
Tyler - 7 Year Old - WA
"So cute and fun! I loved the recognisable Australian references and messages about caring for the environment."
Bianca - LoveOzYA - WA
"She devoured your book and then read it again straight away. Then she chatted about sprites during our bush walk."
Heather - Mother - WA
"With its fast-paced plot, memorable characters and engaging illustrations, Looking for Lily is perfect for young readers graduating to chapter books."
Writing WA
"Kristy has written a lively and imaginative story that builds with each chapter. The strong characterisation and plot line keep the reader wanting to know what will happen next."
Buzz Words Magazine
"An absolute romp of a story. I'm pretty sure I'm related to some of these sprites."
Rebecca Timmis - Author - QLD
"What an absolute delight Looking for Lily is! Kids will love reading about these cheeky sprites and their adventures — and adults will enjoy reading it aloud. Kristy's imaginative and charming world is so much fun to spend time in. And bonus points for the terrific and engaging illustrations."
Kathryn Lefroy - Author - WA
"I love your writing style. It's so nice to see well written kids books with great imagery and tough female characters!"
Mel - Book Face - ACT
"We are up to chapter 12, and the girls yell at me when I say the next chapter is for tomorrow night."
Michelle - Mother - WA
"I’ve been reading it to my kids and they love it! So it comes highly recommended by my 6yo and 11yo boys!"
Hannah Beazley - MP - WA
"I heard Kristy read the first chapter on Instagram and I was hooked!"
Sarah - Voices of Today - QLD
"Looking for Lily is simply gorgeous. It's a fun, quirky read and kids love it. My daughter loves it. I love it. We all love it!"
The HYBRID Author Podcast
"I've read the first 4 chapters as her bedtime story. She is loving it. She asked if she can go as a sprite for book week. She thinks she would make a great Dawn!"
Jo - Mother - WA
"Talia, Lily, Marri and Dawn are teeny-tiny, head-banging, hard rockin’, heavy metal loving, awesome little critters with ATTITUDE!"
Reading with a Chance of Tacos Podcast
"She loved it and I thought it was great. It feels like there could be so much more to the series."
Gary - Father - WA
Acknowledgements
"If you don't see the book you want on the shelf, write it."
Beverly Cleary
Looking for Lily would not have been possible without the love, encouragement and support of my fans, friends and family.
Thank you to Gregory Apps for reading way too many drafts and not complaining too much when I asked silly questions about tiny things in the middle of the night. Or wrote when I should have been sleeping! Thank you to my team for helping me publish independently: Alison Mutton, Arnetta at Line Upon Line, Makenzi Crouch and Ingrid Waltham. Thanks to my researchers: James Florisson (my fish dude), Annette McCutcheon (my flora and fauna gal) and Peter at Seed West (my seed guy). Thanks to HM Waugh and Shirley Marr for the tea and quiet times; and Nat Amoore, Kathryn Lefroy, Deb Fitzpatrick and Sue Whiting for the advice. Thanks to Sally Rippin, Meg McKinlay, Rebecca Timmis and Tim Harris for answering my questions without knowing me. Thank you to Daniel Holliday at 2D Films for a beautiful book trailer. And lots of hugs for my beta readers: Julie Brown, Jo Cochrane, Thomas Clarke, Claire Ramsay, Emily Rostirolla, Claire Morgan, Lucy Veryard, Holly Veryard and members of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) Australia West. Thank you to the Australian Society of Authors and John Reed Books for distributing Looking for Lily into bookstores, libraries and schools in Australia.