Storytime with Kirsten Ealand

Join us for a free story time with Kirsten Ealand as she reads her picture book, Like a Gannet - a first experience story about finding your courage and summer days at the pool. Learn all about gannets with a special visit from Kirsten's gannet puppet and make a gannet finger puppet to take home.

Recommended age 3-7 yrs

About Like a Gannet

Little Francie feels capable and confident in the water, so when she watches her bigger cousins diving like gannets from the diving boards at the local pool, she wants to do it too. But can she be a gannet if she cannot even dive?

Like A Gannet is a story about aiming for the stars, or in this case the highest diving board. A fresh take on a first experience story, it depicts the joy of swimming and the universal excitement and apprehension of that first time on the diving board.

This story is inspired by memories of being a child who wasn't very sporty but who felt capable and graceful in the water. Just like a gannet, whose short legs and webbed feet make them slow, clumsy waddlers on land, but who transform into Queens of the Sea when they dive.

Cheer Francie on as she faces the challenge her own way in this joyous celebration of summer days at the pool, cousins and one little fledgling who wants to be a gannet.

About Kirsten Ealand 

Kirsten Ealand writes stories for kids that she hopes will leave the world a better place. Her debut picture book, Like a Gannet is a fresh take on a first experience story. Cheer Francie on as she experiences all the feels of that first time on the diving board in this celebration of summer days at the pool and one little fledgling who wants to be a gannet. Her second picture book, The Big Backyard Plan is coming in March, 2025. Kirsten lives in a little patch of rainforest on the Far North Coast of NSW and when she’s not writing she works in her local public library getting kids excited about books and reading, and loves deep water running at her local pool.