Elizabella Meets Her Match

Elizabella, Book One

It's hard to be good when your head is practically exploding with schemes! The hilarious Elizabella series is middle-grade at its finest.

Elizabella – ten and a quarter – is a Poet, Fixer of Fairytales and the biggest prankster in the history of Bilby Creek Primary. And when her plans involve making a swimming pool in the playground without consulting a single teacher, the students are behind her every step of the way. But what happens when Minnie, an even bigger prankster, shows up? Can Bilby Creek handle them both? And more importantly, can they handle each other?

Zoë Norton Lodge is a writer, actress and television presenter, known for her work on ABC TV's The Checkout and the live storytelling night and podcast Story Club, as well as her collected short stories Almost Sincerely. Elizabella Meets Her Match is her debut children's novel.

By day Georgia Norton Lodge leads her graphic design team at an award-winning interior design and branding agency specialising in the hospitality industry. By night she is an illustrator, married to her side project Georgia Draws a House where she delights people with deliveries of their hand-drawn homes. She's also Zoë's younger sister – this is their second book together.

Elizabella Meets Her Match
Walker Books Australia
Author: Zoë Norton Lodge
Illustrator: Georgia Norton Lodge
ISBN: 9781760650544
RRP: $14.99

Interview with Zoë Norton Lodge

Question: What inspired you to begin writing the Elizabella books?

Zoë Norton Lodge: When I first sat down to make Elizabella, I thought about what I wanted to be like when I was ten. And what I wanted to be was everything. Elizabella is a writer but she's also an inventor, a chef, a prankster, a visionary and she's not afraid to break the rules. She's also not afraid to make a big old mess.


Question: What do you hope young readers take from the Elizabella books?

Zoë Norton Lodge: I hope people see that it's ok to make mistakes, to be messy, to feel jealous and sad. We all feel these things sometimes. Elizabella is brave and she thinks big - but makes plenty of mistakes along the way. The important thing is that she knows how to pick herself up and get on with it - she doesn't let it get her down. But Elizabella is far from perfect, but she can forgive herself when she isn't.


Question: What was the best part about creating the character of Elizabella?

Zoë Norton Lodge: Working with my incredibly talented baby sister (ok she's not really a baby anymore) who illustrated the book was amazing. Georgia really brought our scruffy little heroine to life. Elizabella has a lot of things to be proud of, but she's most proud of the giant knot in her hair which she makes a little bit bigger every day.


Question: What's next for Elizabella?

Zoë Norton Lodge: Elizabella's next adventure is called Elizabella and the Great Tuckshop Takeover. And it's pretty epic. The school is falling apart, and misery sets in when a big corporation takes over the Bilby Creek Tuckshop, leaving poor Miss Duck out of a job. Meanwhile there's a lice outbreak at Bilby Creek and a competition to write the school song.


Interview by Brooke Hunter

 

Elizabella Meets Her Match
Walker Books Australia
Author: Zoë Norton Lodge
Illustrator: Georgia Norton Lodge
ISBN: 9781760650544
RRP: $14.99