In this episode of the Your Kid’s Next Read Friday First Chapters series:
Nic Gill reads ‘Maya Follows Her Nose’
Nic Gill reads from ‘Maya Follows Her Nose’, the first book in her new middle-grade series inspired by real-life working dogs, illustrated by Jake A Minton
About Nic Gill
Nic Gill is a Tasmanian author and conservation dog handler, who writes on nature, humans and other animals for both adults and children. Her writing has featured in The Monthly, Island, The Guardian, Good Weekend Magazine and in The Best Australian Science Writing.
Her first book for younger readers, Animal Eco-Warriors, was a CBCA (Children’s Book Council of Australia) Notable Book in 2018, and Poo, Spew and Other Gross Things Animals Do, written with her friend Dr Romane Cristescu, won a Whitley Award for best Children’s Investigative Zoology book.
When Nic isn’t writing, she’s often busy with her conservation detection dogs, Zorro and Gromit, and the ecologists of the Australian National University’s Difficult Bird Research Group, working to find out more about Tasmania’s mysterious, endangered masked owls, or doing surveys under wind turbines in the Tasmanian highlands.
About Jake A Minton
Jake A Minton is an illustrator and graphic novelist living in Melbourne with his cat. After being shortlisted for the Little Hare Illustration Prize in 2020, he has gone on to create CBCA recognised picture books There’s No Such Book and Two Turtles.
Jake is also the illustrator of the bestselling graphic novel Inked and the popular junior-fiction series Zombie Diaries.
In 2025, he was awarded first prize in the Established Illustrator category of the SCBWI Australian Picture Book Illustrator Award.
About ‘Maya Follows Her Nose’
When Maya the border collie is abandoned at the local animal shelter, she’s scared she’ll never find a forever home. But just as her hope starts to fade, Dr Romane ‘Rom’ Cristescu appears, looking for a dog with a keen nose to help with her research. Rom needs a pup to help her find koalas by their sniffing out their poo – could Maya be the perfect dog for the job?
Join Maya and her new friends on a koala conservation adventure, as she faces her fears and learns some new tricks. Maya Follows Her Nose is a story of embracing your uniqueness, finding courage, and lending a paw for wildlife – one sniff at a time!
Book #1 in the Sniff Squad series.
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Friday First Chapters #48: Beverley McWilliams reads ‘Bandoola’
Friday First Chapters #43: Cassy Polimeni reads ‘Ella and The Call of the Wild’
Friday First Chapters #2: Dianne Wolfer reads ‘Soaring With The Sugarbird Lady’
First Chapters #3: Deb Fitzpatrick reads ‘Kelpie Chaos’
FIND A LIST OF ALL OUR FRIDAY FIRST CHAPTERS EPISODES HERE.
Our books
The Garden of Lost Girls by A. L. Tait
The Last Word by A. L. Tait
Danger Road by A. L. Tait
Willow Bright’s Secret Plot by A. L. Tait
The First Summer of Callie McGee by A. L. Tait
The Maven & Reeve Mysteries by A. L. Tait
The Ateban Cipher (duology) by A. L. Tait
The Mapmaker Chronicles series by A. L. Tait
The Beehive by Megan Daley
Teacher, Teacher (anthology), edited by Megan Daley
Raising Readers by Megan Daley
DISCOVER THE YOUR NEXT READ JUNIOR FICTION SERIES HERE
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