A gently funny yet powerful coming-of-age middle grade novel about surviving the odds, unlikely friendships and the magical music of Elvis.

It’s not eggsactly easy being Jimmy Baxter ’cause:
· The real Jimmy’s hiding inside
· Ned Kelly’s giving him the evil eye
· Mum’s stopped going to work and stays in bed
· There’s no eggs in the fridge — or anything else.
AND there’s new jobs, bad-at-school brains and a whole lot of trouble called Duke.
But then . . . there’s Mac.

b]PRAISE FOR THE BOOK[/b]
A moving story told with moments of absolute delight author, Morris Gleitzman

This is a middle-grade novel with great depth of soul. On one level, it is a delightful tale of a young Aussie finding himself and his place in the world. On another, it is a story that doesn’t shy away from the harsher realities many children have to live with, including domestic violence, parental loss, bullying, and mental health struggles. It is a hopeful book: as in life, these troubling themes don’t occur in bleak isolation. Instead, ‘Being Jimmy Baxter’ is filled with humour, bravery, the love of found family, and the flavours of smalltown Australia. Goodreads

Please note that we always handle challenging themes sensitively and in an age appropriate manner. If you have any questions please get in touch with us.

ABOUT THE SHOW
Each year, in celebration of Book Week, we adapt two books shortlisted by the Children’s Book Council of Australia for the Book of The Year Awards

We choose one book from the Picture Book category & one book from the Younger Readers Chapter Book category and create two 40-minute musical productions including original songs and puppetry.

As far as we’re aware, we’re the only company adapting both a picture book and a younger readers chapter book each year; therefore, ensuring age appropriate performances for all students.

We also support Australian authors by paying royalties for every child that attends a performance of one of our adaptations

We encourage audience participation and active engagement in all of our performances and we use puppetry to fully engage the students and to broaden the possibilities of the way we stage our shows.

Our post-performance Q&A is structured and focused on the themes raised in the show and a behind the scenes insight into how our set, props, puppets, etc. work and how they were made.

We also provide a teachers resource pack to support our incursion both before and after we've been to the school and host a targeted, structured and informative Q&A session with the performers which which supports the school’s delivery of the Critical and Creative Thinking curriculum and explores the themes of the book and performance and also supports Inquiry learning as we discuss how the shows were produced and how the puppets and props were made.

Was great how it was run by you and not just the kids asking random questions.(10/10)– Bargara State School, Bargara QLD

BOOKINGS
To make a booking or enquiry, simply press the GREEN Enquiry/Booking Request Button above right to directly contact the booking team. They will answer you promptly to discuss your booking including when payment will be required.

Shows for Schools not only gathers all the great available shows, it also makes booking easier!

CREATIVE TEAM
All of our shows are fully staged musicals lasting 40 - 45 minutes (plus Q&A). The music is written by Tim Smith (The Lion King, Billy Elliot) & Luke Hunter (Come From Away, The Sound of Music) and the productions are designed by Elizabeth Millington (founder of Dead Puppets Society), Jemima Eva (Trash Puppets) and Astrid Mendez (internationally touring Puppeteer)