Brontosaurus Books

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Brontosaurus Books

One author school teacher + one illustrator school teacher = Brontosaurus Books! Imaginative, fun, adventurous picture books for kids, parents and teachers.

Ben and Megan Kitchin

13/08/2026

Yesterday I had a lot of fun reading Audrey to a bunch of cheerful kids, parents and grandparents at Henley. No one threw rocks at me before, during or after the reading and many kids enjoyed the Audrey themed colouring-in and craft activity options I also brought along. Reading a book that is exciting and unusual to kids is a real privilege and a fun thing to do in my view. Big thanks goes to Aileen and Linda for helping to organise and run the show. Big thanks also to those who attended.

After a fun picture book or two for little kids? The Very Steep Hill and Audrey are both available at Dymocks Glenelg and at www.brontosaurusbooks.com.au. 🙂

05/08/2026

In news the mainstream press has been bafflingly slow to pick up, Brontosaurus Books has recently upgraded its free, Storytime activity resources! People can now download a fashionable papercraft ice-cream vendors hat for The Very Steep Hill and Audrey has a full suite of new options!

Interested in picture books for 3-7 year olds with dress-up options?! Grab yourself a copy of The Very Steep Hill or Audrey at Dymocks Glenelg or www.brontosaurusbooks.com.au. 🙂📕🦕

03/08/2026

I tried to post about this via a story the other day but the text was deleted or something. I still can’t work out social media stories… arguably everything gets deleted in life so why utilise a platform that deletes what you have to say faster than other options!?! ⌛️😄

Anyway, I’m just here to say that Audrey and The Very Steep Hill are presently only available from our website and Dymocks Glenelg. 📕🙂

Also Dymocks Glenelg are open to having a “Buyer’s Review” card beneath Audrey’s shelf position. Are there any happy Audrey purchasers cheerful enough to write a “Buyers Review” I can send to Dymocks? I reckon something betwixt 3-6 sentences would be matching the established standard. If anyone’s keen, please feel free to post your review here or DM us. Or maybe someone has a little tacker who is happy to do this? Negative buyer’s reviews will also be considered. 🙂

29/07/2026

We’re pretty happy with the story climax of Audrey as it features a giant kangaroo with a pouch full of people leaping over a burning bridge in the rain. 🦘🔥☔️😄

We also think The Very Steep Hill’s ice-cream-shop-reveal is another climax cracker. ⛰️🍦

We wonder what other people’s fav picture book peaks are?

If you’re after a picture book for a 3-7 year old with a fully-fledged story arc, go grab yourself of copy of Audrey or The Very Steep Hill or BOTH at Dymocks Glenelg!

Of course Audrey and The Very Steep Hill are also available at www.brontosaurusbooks.com.au for folks not living within cooee of Adelaide’s west.

Like what Brontosaurus Books is doing? Please feel free to tell your friends about us. 🙂🙏

22/07/2026

Here is the back page of our released-this-week picture book Audrey. Also some pics of the books being delivered (I think the delivery bloke said they weighed 450kg). Audrey is another book just like The Very Steep Hill in that it is fun and imaginative and the little kid reviews that have come in so far have all been great! 😊🦘

Available at www.brontosaurusbooks.com.au.

15/07/2026

Audrey has arrived! Yesterday we received 2000 copies of Brontosaurus Books’ second title and it’s available here: https://brontosaurusbooks.com.au/books .

If your child, grandchild, niece, nephew or students really enjoyed The Very Steep Hill, we really think they’ll enjoy Audrey. 🙂🦘

09/07/2026

As of yesterday, Ben has now called every public library/library cluster in Australia about The Very Steep Hill.

Beginning with a call to Holdfast Bay Library mid last year, the telemarketing odyssey ended with a call to Yass Valley Library yesterday. Hundreds of poor, unexpecting librarians have listened patiently to Ben’s unsolicited, 45 second spiel about TVSH and BB over the past 12 months and he’s very grateful for the overwhelmingly cheerful and supportive reception he was given. He’s also very grateful for the new partnerships forged with library suppliers ALS, James Bennett, Peter Pal, Westbooks, Sound Text Media and MDM Entertainment.

Potentially now equipped with the contact details of many happy library customers, Ben hopes future marketing efforts will be less extreme.

Know a 3-8 year old who could do with fun picture book? Grab them a copy of The Very Steep Hill at Dymocks in Glenelg, Dillons in Norwood, Mostly Books in Mitcham, Dymocks in Adelaide, Over the Edge in Melrose or www.brontosaurusbooks.com.au.

Printed in Adelaide by Finsbury Green. 100% Australian Made.

PS If you know anyone who might be interested in our content/books, please let them know we exist Brontosaurus Books. 🙂

02/07/2026

Check out how cheerful and AMAZING these kids’ pics are!! After reading Harry and the Moon Buggy, Megan’s kids got SCI-FI!!! At Brontosaurus Books, we love it when one kind of art inspires another kind of art.

Know a 3-8 year old who could do with an art-inspiring picture book? Grab them a copy of The Very Steep Hill at Dymocks in Glenelg, Dillons in Norwood, Mostly Books in Mitcham, Dymocks in Adelaide, Over the Edge in Melrose or www.brontosaurusbooks.com.au.

Printed in Adelaide by Finsbury Green. 100% Australian Made.

PS If you know anyone who might be interested in our content/books, please let them know we exist Brontosaurus Books. 🙂

14/06/2026

This weekend we confirmed going ahead with a quote from Australian printer, Finsbury Green. Sometime soon, Finsbury Green’s Melbourne based printing operation will be churning out 2000 Audrey picture books and of course we’re very excited about it (Finsbury’s Thebarton based plant has been closed due to the South Rd extension and they haven’t set up their new place somewhere on Grange Rd yet).

I will say here though that I am AMAZED how many picture books are not printed in Australia at present. To me, the picture book industry these days seems very much absorbed in teaching kids about morality in different arenas ie how to treat people, how to treat the environment, how to treat oneself etc etc and yet my guess is that more than 95% of the books preaching these things are printed offshore by Australian publishers taking advantage of cheap labour and less stringent environmental manufacturing regulations to save a couple dollars. And in our experience it is literally just a couple of dollars!

When printing The Very Steep Hill, we ended up paying $4.80 per book to Finsbury Green and a Chinese company quoted us $2 per book (that was with poorer quality paper weights and binding options - we didn’t get another offshore quote matching the Finsbury specs to compare exactly but obvs the gap would’ve been smaller still). I’m a huge fan of Australian made things and I was worried the offshore quote would be miles more affordable than any Australian options but it wasn’t.

I don’t want to be mean about what’s happening with the manufacturing of books in Australia right now but for me the hypocrisy of the situation is certainly there and I think more people should call it out. Don’t people think it’d be better if WAY MORE books that were written and illustrated in Australia were printed here too?

Of course I’m no saint, all three books I had published with Scholastic and New Frontier were printed offshore. I don’t recall requesting those publishers consider an Australian printing option… I would request it now. I don’t think I cared much whether something was Australian made or not for years with my different purchases and it took me a very long time to work out how damaging almost-everything-being-manufactured-offshore has been to Australian society. Here’s a link to a Facebook post I made years ago on this topic if anyone’s interested:

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1DpysevbrA/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Know a 3-8 year old who could do with a fun picture book? Grab them a copy of The Very Steep Hill at Dymocks in Glenelg, Dillons in Norwood, Mostly Books in Mitcham, Dymocks in Adelaide, Over the Edge in Melrose or www.brontosaurusbooks.com.au.

Printed in Adelaide/Melbourne by Finsbury Green. 100% Australian Made.

PS If you know anyone who might be interested in our content/books, please let them know we exist . 🙂

PPS I asked ChatGPT how many CO2 emissions in transport alone, locally printing 2000 books weighing approximately 380 grams would save and it came back with 97kg in sea freight and between 100-150kg in total with truck transport from printer to ports etc added in. Interesting hey!?!

24/05/2026

Yesterday Megan and I sent a fully-illustrated Audrey PDF to Sally Odgers for a final edit before printing. If you are a writer and you’re trying to work out if your work is any good or how to improve it, I highly recommend Sally O and Affordable Manuscript Assessments. When I received nothing but wordless rejections/redirections from publishers, Sally helped me see that my efforts did have value and that I should persist. And I didn’t need to take out a second mortgage for her super sage advice!

Sally is first and foremost an author herself and here’s a link to an interesting article about her:

Sally Odgers – The Creative Mind Behind 400 Books - Reader’s House

And here’s a link to Affordable Manuscript Assessments:

Affordable Manuscript Assessments

Brontosaurus Books says, “Sally Odgers for PM!” 🦕😄

PS Sally Odgers also put Megan and Chris Collin in touch with one another so that’s how that very productive collab started! Are there any limits to Sally’s spectacular utility? None have ever been recorded. 😄

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Adelaide, SA

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http://www.brontosaurusbooks.com.au/

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