Coes Creek author brings Funky Chicken to Book Week festivities

By Tani Du Toit

With Book Week approaching fast, Coes Creek based author, Chris Collin and his partner, Nadia Rabiller are hard at work in preparation for sharing their unique musical picture books with young readers. Each year Chris visits schools for Book Week the theme this year is Reading is Magic!

Funky Chicken is the original character dreamed up by Chris, and is central to three of Chris’s popular musical picture books. He was born in 2013 in a tent at Borumba Dam where Chris wrote him into a play for his son’s primary school camp theatre night. 

“I always had a knack of coming up with rhyming, funny stories for my son Sam,” he said. 

“I stayed up all night to write the story about which animal was the most unique and this chicken just appeared before me. 

“After Funky Chicken, if an idea came to me, it was put on paper,” he said. “I have a jar at home for my ideas, called The Think Tank.” 

The behind-the-scenes production of his books is a veritable mission and Chris said if it weren’t for his life partner and wing woman, Nadia Rabiller, his original stories might still be gathering dust in a drawer at home.   

As a civil construction project manager at the time with a secret yearning to be an author, it was her encouragement that spurred him on to quit his lucrative career and follow his heart.   

“Nadia found the stories and asked me when I was going to publish them,” he said.

I replied, “maybe one day, when I’m retired”. 

Her response? “What about now?’”

Chris said from the outset, they wanted to create quality poetry-in-rhyme books using processes, materials and music that would allow children of all abilities in every classroom and preschool to engage in literature. Their commitment to quality paid off and today, the self-published Funky Books are not only a sheer joy for readers young and old but offer an extensive literacy resource for teachers with lesson plans to match the Australian curriculum. What’s more, it boasts impressive digital resources, including the narration of each story to full orchestral backing scores, and songs performed by Chris himself. 

An ‘author on wheels’,  his highly energetic performances and creative workshops are welcomed at schools, libraries and festivals across Australia and overseas.  

Chris said his next project is The Great Big Book of Ridiculous Rhymes, with a wider age-range in mind, including children in middle to upper primary years. 

• To find out more about Chris and his books, go to www.funkybooks.com.au

Chris Collin and Funky Chicken