Lorraine de Kleuver, from Sale, has embraced her inner child through writing and illustrating imaginative stories, with her new children’s picture book, The Professor and the Smelly Green Goop, based on a friendly goose who resides at the local lakes.
The book has an important message: why you shouldn’t feed bread to the birdlife.
Mrs de Kleuver, a retired nurse, has written and illustrated nine children’s picture books, and is passionate about sharing the beauty of her local surroundings with her readers.
The main character, Professor Grey Goose, has made himself at home with the other birds at Lake Guthridge and Lake Guyatt in Sale. In the book, the Professor encounters a nasty smell.
The last thing you want at breakfast is to be overrun by a foul smell. So, on the hunt to find the source of such a horrid aroma, Professor Grey Goose and his friends, Gwendolyn and Gertrude, search Sale Wetlands.
They are on their way to Lake Guyatt, and who do they meet? Why, Mr. Tortoise and Mr Goanna, of course. And poor Mr Goanna. He has become unwell. What is in the water that seems to be causing him trouble?
Luckily, the Professor is on the case!
Mrs de Kleuver said the book’s main takeaway was that feeding bread offers no nutrition to birds, with bird seed a suitable alternative.
“(Bread) makes them poo a lot, which in turn rots at the bottom of the lake, which is one contributing factor to massive growth of blue algae, which leads to the ’Smelly Green Goop’,” she said.
Ms de Kleuver’s self-published book, The Professor and the Smelly Green Goop, can be purchased at the Sale Produce Market at Sale Showgrounds on the third Saturday of each month. It’s also available at Mrs de Kleuver’s website: cuddleschildrensbooks.com.au
