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Welcome to the world of the Kingsley Kids

The Kingsley Kids are Jaxon, Leo and Taylor, three seemingly ordinary, Aussie kids who go on some extraordinary adventures. The stories are designed for children who are just getting into reading chapter books, with bigger font, easy-to-follow storylines and relatable characters.

Available exclusively in Australia is the ORIGINAL release, The Adventures of the Kingsley Kids. This book includes the first three Kingsley Kids stories (The Invisible Spray, The Tiny Babatool People and The Babatool Banquet).

Our retro Kingsley Kids book features full-colour pictures created by Harry Bullard, and is on sale now!

Children as young as five have enjoyed reading the stories (with some help from parents or teachers), but older children aged nine or ten can also happily read the stories to themselves.

In many ways, the challenges faced by the Kingsley Kids along the way are things other children can relate to; bullying, planning birthday parties, broken iPods and sharing time between separated parents.

Like all good stories, children reading can see parts of themselves in the characters, but then stretch their imagination as fantasy and magic creeps into the books. By setting the stories in the real world with real children who discover hidden secrets, the reader is smoothly transported into a world where things are a little more magical. Magic and mysterious creatures are logically explained and worked into the story so children reading can wonder if these magical secrets might really exist just out of sight.

The Kingsley Kids and the Invisible Spray

The Kingsley Kids and the Invisible Spray is the first of the adventures, where a mysterious substitute science teacher accidentally leaves Jaxon with a spray that can make things invisible.

Jaxon uses the spray to have some fun, like sneaking into the kitchen to eat cookies after dinner, and spraying his homework to make it disappear. The spray is not without problems. For one thing, although it can make things invisible, it has the stench of dog poo! Even when things can’t be seen the nose can detect them, and invisible homework is not actually completed homework.

Kingsley Primary School is a pretty great place, except for the school bully, Jacob. With a secret weapon of magic invisible spray, Jaxon, Leo and Taylor decide it is the perfect opportunity to teach the school bully a lesson about how to treat people.

Will their secret stay hidden? And what else will they learn along the way?

The Kingsley Kids and the Tiny Babatool People

In the second adventure of this series, the Kingsley Kids are called upon to help relocate an entire tiny nation. The children are the only ones who know about the people, who are no bigger than a soft drink can, living beneath Jaxon’s dad’s backyard.

The underground home of the tiny Babatool Munkens has been a secret from humans for hundreds of years and the Munkens had lived happily out of sight. But now their home is crumbling, and only Jaxon, Leo and Taylor can help.

Moving thousands of small creatures is more difficult than it sounds, and the children need to use all of their problem-solving skills to get the job done. They can’t ask their parents for help, so they set about building trailers for their bikes secretly transporting the Babatool Munkens to their new home below the park.

Of course, even with the best laid plans things can go wrong. Can the Babatool Munkens safely make it to their new home? Or will thousands of creatures be left homeless?

The Kingsley Kids and the Babatool Banquet

The third adventure for the Kingsley Kids sees the friends placed under a magical shrinking spell to visit their new Munken friends underground. Jaxon, Leo and Taylor are thrilled to experience the mysterious tiny world, and what better way to experience it than to become tiny too?

Under the ground, and a secret from most humans, is a whole new world inhabited by tiny creatures. The children can hardly believe the beautiful tunnels that exist just below their local park. They make friends with more Munkens, attend magic school and even learn some magic themselves.

As thanks for their help during the big migration, the Munkens put on a huge banquet for the children. The banquet is like nothing the children have experienced before. In fact, it’s the sort of meal that requires the wearing of raincoats and glasses before the food is served.

But a shrinking spell is surely a little risky. Will the children safely make it home again?

The Kingsley Kids and the Unreal Birthday Party

It’s Leo’s birthday and time to celebrate with his friends by having a costume party. What could possibly go wrong at such a fun event?

It turns out, when a grumpy magic tree casts a spell, a fun party can turn into a disaster very quickly.

All of the guests become trapped in their costumes, and unfortunately some of the party guests were dressed as monsters and other things that don’t behave properly at a party.

Leo dressed as a pirate, which means he is swiftly taken away on a ship. Taylor becomes a tiger who can only roar at her friends. Ivy and Fletcher become two tiny rabbits, who have to avoid becoming tiger lunch. Luckily Jaxon dressed as a superhero, but can he save the day before his best friend walks the plank?

Will the Kingsley Kids get out of this mess or will they be stuck in their costumes forever?

The Kingsley Kids and the Bouncy Goo

In the fifth story of the Kingsley Kids series, Ms Higglebottom returns with more strange science experiments. In this adventure, she gives Leo the left over ingredients to make slime at home.

However, there’s something strange with one of the ingredients she gives him, and just a sprinkle of this magic powder turns water into super bouncy goo!

The Kingsley Kids take this magic powder with them when they visit Leo’s grandparents’ farm, and this makes for lots of crazy, bouncy fun!

 

Reviews

Rated 5 out of 5

As a primary school teacher, I have read these books to many of my classes. Every single class has loved the stories and they have been the most popular books on our class library shelf! The storylines are relatable to children, and the magic is believable, creating the most amazing experience for children to be swept away in.

Rated 5 out of 5

These books take the reader away to a realistic world that happens to be filled with relatable magic. My own children (ages 5 and 7) absolutely loved the first book (and asked for the following adventure to be purchased!) Wonderfully written. As a primary school teacher, I highly recommend this book!

Rated 5 out of 5

From the 7 year old: “I think that it is a great book because it was good to see that a bully was taught a lesson. I liked the book because each chapter ended with an exciting part so I wanted to keep on reading. I liked all three characters but my best of the three was Taylor. And I liked the magic because I love books with magic.”
From the mom: “My 7-yo is not the most enthusiastic reader so I was really pleased to see how happily she read this book. She really didn’t want to put it down and is keen to read more in the series. It was very appropriate for her reading level and she could read it independently (she read it aloud so siblings could join in). It was a fun and relatable story. Recommend!

Rated 5 out of 5

The students in my after school care LOVE these stories; the characters are relatable and likeable and we feel totally transformed from our little school into the world of the Kingsley Kids. No doubt many of our adventures have been inspired by them! It’s great to have stories based in an Australia school, aimed at the kids who live in that world each day. The younger kids in my care are always captivated when we read together, and the older kids love the challenge of reading these books to themselves. Great great great!

Rated 5 out of 5

Great book and very well written for younger ages that are starting with chapter books. My niece sat down to read it and it kept her attention. Read it and actually talked about what she read afterwards. Great read, great author!!