The awards keep coming for the Tales from the Farm series of children’s books co-created by Raglan illustrator Margery Fern, her graphic designer daughter Ezra Andre and writer Jennifer Sommervell – Margery’s Christchurch-based sister.
Their fifth title ‘Uncle Allan’s Stinky Leg’ has just won two Purple Dragonfly first-place awards for excellence in children’s literature.
It continues a remarkable run as each of the previous titles in the series also won the trio a first place in the US-based awards.
Their stinky leg story is a quirky farm tale reminiscent of Kiwi cartoonist Murray Ball’s comic strip Footrot Flats. It picked up first places in humour and interior design with honourable mentions in picture books (over six years), best illustrations, best cover design and historical fiction.
The story follows the misadventures of a lovable uncle who brought his plaster-clad leg to the family farm in the 1970s. The educational section in the book features information about bones, fractures, plaster casts and how to look after them.
The series is based on the sisters’ stranger-than-fiction adventures growing up on the family dairy farm in southern Hawke’s back in the 1960s and 70s.
They are now working on their sixth book, about the family’s 1921 Republic truck which was first featured in their second title ‘The New Old Truck”.
