Friday First Chapters #18: Lora Inak reads ‘The Cockatoo Crew’

September 12, 2025

In this episode of the Your Kid’s Next Read Friday First Chapters series:

Lora Inak reads ‘The Cockatoo Crew’

Lora Inak reads from ‘Elif’s Itchy Palm’, book one in her new junior fiction series ‘The Cockatoo Crew’, illustrated by Kruti Desai

About Lora Inak

Lora began her writing journey aged ten, but it wasn’t until 2010 that her first short story titled Tap Tap Tapping at my Window was published by Black Dog Books.

Her debut novel, Unspoken Rules, was published by Rhiza Edge in 2017, and then a memoir piece, One of A Kind, was published in Pan Macmillan’s Arab, Australian, Other Anthology in 2019 – co-edited by Sara Saleh and Randa Abdel-Fattah.

A business leader in her professional life, with a strong background in marketing, brand, and communication, Lora lives in the burbs of Melbourne with her husband, her two children, and her rescue dog Rookie.

Find out more.

About Kruti Desai

Kruti Desai is an illustrator who loves to capture emotions and moments into amusing illustrations filled with vibrant colours and texture.

As a migrant herself, she understands how moving between cultures shapes the way we see and share stories. This perspective inspires her to create illustrations that celebrate diversity, belonging, and the joy of finding your place in new surroundings.

Whether sketching on paper or painting digitally, she brings curiosity and warmth to every project, always hoping to make children smile, feel seen, and feel at home.

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About ‘The Cockatoo Crew: Elif’s Itchy Palm’

It’s Elif’s first day at Cockatoo Hill English Language School, and although she learned a little bit of English in Türkiye, she’s worried she won’t make any new friends in Australia.

But when Elif’s palm itches in class and her very special $2 coin goes missing, she discovers that the kids in her class are part of a secret ‘superhero-ish’ group called The Cockatoo Crew.

Can they help Elif find her coin? And could The Cockatoo Crew be the new friends she’s been hoping for?

Find out more.

Published by UWA Publishing