Ponkidoodle
Things don’t go bump in the middle of the night – it’s just Ponkidoodle!
‘Ponkidoodle’ is based on an imaginary friend created by Neridah’s father to ease night time fears. Just knowing that Ponkidoodle was there gave the children great reassurance and security.
Ponkidoodle is a loveable friend who keeps watch over the family home at night. The antics of Ponkidoodle are hilarious. He likes to hang out on the roof, underneath the house and even on the loo! Above all the one thing he loves more than anything is children and this is who he wishes to protect the most. With Ponkidoodle around there is no need to be scared!
Many of the world’s best children’s books are born from the bed time story ritual. These stories ooze the warmth and feeling of parents sharing life’s most memorable moments with their children. Ponkidoodle comes from such stock. He is a funny, clumsy and loveable little monster, who manifested from a father’s desire to ease the night-time fears of the small Bade children. Neridah McMullin has delightfully re-created Ponki, from her childhood memories, into a beautiful picture book that will comfort and enthrall young children. Aaron Pocock’s masterful illustrations perfectly capture Ponkidoodle as the loveable, but rascally rogue culprit of the night-time noises, and the result is a book that will be read and re-read every bedtime
Peter Whitfield, Managing Director, Little Steps, Sydney, N.S.W
About the author
I had the perfect childhood surrounded. I was surrounded by animals, cats and dogs (kittens and puppies too, of course) canaries, doves, chickens and ducks (yep, chicks and ducklings), turtles, ferrets, rabbits, cattle and sheep (calves and lambs) and horses and foals. And I had a thousand acres to run around in – they were happy days and that’s why I write for children.
My Grandfather was a stockman and he bred, trained and raced his own racehorses. I spent hours in the saddle as a child, riding with my cousin. We’d hang out in the stables, watching all the comings and goings. There was trackwork, yearlings being broken in, young horses being educated, farriers shoeing racehorses. It was a busy place. We’d help where we could and afterwards, we’d sit around on upturned feed buckets and listen to stories.
Photo By: Prue Sheed