Children's book author lands on award shortlist

Speech Pathology Australia announced its shortlist with Ms Kuhne’s board book, Noisy Nature, competing against 10 other finalists for the 0-3-year-old prize. 

The awards are judged against criteria in oral language and literacy development to promote quality Australian books that help children develop strong literacy foundations,  according to their age group.

“I think it has a lot of merit,” Ms Kuhne said. 

“Noisy Nature is a new look at developing early language by listening to the sounds of the Australian bush, outback and waters. It introduces early language sounds in an interesting way and encourages spontaneous speech play. 

“There are a lot of books out there for early language development and are about farm animal sounds like 'baa baa’ and ‘moo’, this is the same purpose but focuses on native Australian animals,” she said. 

Ms Kuhne self published the book in 2015

“My nephew did all of the illustrations, which is a special thing, he is profoundly deaf which makes it more special, the illustrations bring the book to life,” Ms Kuhne said. 

“I had a book launch at the Katherine library, the book features a lot of Territory animals like the magpie goose, barramundi, mud crabs.

“I moved here this year to work at Macfarlane Primary School as a family educator for the Families as First Teachers program. I am originally from country Victoria, from Dumbalk in South Gippsland,” she said.

The winners will be announced in early November.