Busy Izzy and Friends a multi-media initiative comprising:

Picture books – Audio books – Songs – Interactive music videos – and an all-New Stage Show.
Promoting friendship, fun and healthy food, the series is for children aged 3-8 years.
Centred around the adventurous world of Izzy, a 12-year-old girl and her diverse group of friends, her rescue puppy, Newly Truly, and her life in Green Grass Grove where she has a store called Nix & Nax.

“Busy Izzy always knew exactly what to do” and never too busy for her friends.

Why Busy Izzy is Special –

• Inspired by emotional and educational developmental drivers.
• Strong values – manners, kindness, generosity, patience, honesty, sharing, respect, love, open-mindedness and anti-bullying.
• Characteristically multi-cultural Australian.
• Multi-media approach
o Rhythm & rhyme is a key part of every book
o Shares healthy recipe snacks
o Outdoor fun, veggie gardens and trees
o Includes sing-a-long songs and music
o Live shows and performances for schools and events
o Interactive website and videos
o Digital picture/audio books
o Absence of any form of aggression
o Endorsed by World Literacy Foundation

The tenor of the stories from the series is upbeat, happy and considerate whilst building and reinforcing the expectation that positive attitudes will achieve great results.
Two years running, Roxanne and Stephen won first, second and third places for their children’s songs in the Australian Songwriters’ Association’s Song Competition.

Book 1: Busy Izzy and Friends – Busy Izzy and Friends includes: important elements of early education, introducing the alphabet through song and simple spatial and interactive concepts, which are further developed on the online portal.

Book 2: Busy Izzy and Newly Truly – The Big Surprise! is about the adventures of Busy Izzy and her adopted puppy, Newly Truly. Izzy has never had a pet of her own. She visits the SPCA and meets a cheeky little stray, who is looking for a home. It’s a heart-warming story which will engage the hearts of children everywhere.

Book 3: Busy Izzy and Talkative Tess: Busy Izzy’s talkative friend, Tess, learns, through a series of amusing, but educational scenarios, the importance of listening, friendship, kindness and co-operation. “When things go wrong unexpectedly, sometimes a friend is all you need to be”

Quotes:
“The Busy Izzy and Friends books are full of phonological fun and clever wordplay. We have been studying the Busy Izzy books within our literature unit for the past two years. The books have been so rich in rhythm and rhyme. The children love exploring the world of Izzy through interactive opportunities such as the read long CDs, songs, the website and the videos. Not only did the books do well in complementing our English learning outcomes, but also integrated beautifully with our key learning areas such as the creative arts, PDHPE content, interpersonal relationship skills and communication. We had so much fun reading the books and can’t wait for the next ‘Busy Izzy’ book to come out.” – Nazile Bright – Head Teacher Junior School Amity College Prestons Sydney Australia

“I am delighted to be associated with the Busy Izzy books and highly recommend them to you. Children across the globe enjoy the characters, songs, music and games, as well as the rhythm and rhyme. As a result, the Busy Izzy books help develop a love for reading that will last a life time.” –
Andrew Kay – Founder and CEO World Literacy Foundation

“So excited to be the voice of Talkative Tess! She is so vivacious, likeable and talkative! A beautiful story about acceptance and reminding us how polite it is to take turns.” – Bec Hewitt Australian Actor

“Beautifully illustrated, ‘Busy Izzy and Friends’ is book one in a series of children’s books that promotes a caring, fun-filled and busy lifestyle for kids. It is full of fun recipes, sensible advice about safety, and exciting adventures about Busy Izzy and her friends to follow. There are songs to sing, recipes to try out, and fun facts to learn.
Busy Izzy provides a great role model for children to follow by promoting an active lifestyle that is filled with cooperation and caring.” – Sandra Graudins, Clinical Psychologist

“From the moment I read this book and listened to the content I loved it. It engages children of all ages immediately. It’s bright, vibrant, innovative characters are instantly popular and interesting with readers.
The use of rhythm and rhyme of the text is terrific and can be used as an example for students to use in their own writing.
This is an excellent resource for teachers as it incorporates many areas of literacy and integrated other Key Learning Areas such as music. Teachers will be able to use this to encourage and build on students’ writing techniques; rhyme, rhythm and music; learn the letters of the alphabet (26 BFFS song) with a catchy tune to remember; learn to spell and read; and show children how to be with one another in an engaging story line. What an awesome resource that incorporates so much! Invaluable!” – Sandra Santoro – BA Ed BA Teach – Teacher K-6/Assistant Principal

“Dear Roxanne and Stephen, thank you for the wonderful incursion earlier this week. Our students and teachers loved it! The Busy Izzy and Friends show was highly engaging and interactive, and many meaningful messages were given in the story line. Thank You again” – Nazan Polat – Principal – Amity College, Prestons Primary

About the Creators:

ROXANNE KIELY – Author – Producer – Songwriter – Musician
Prodigiously creative, Roxanne has used her talent in a variety of fields including song writing, poetry writing and children’s stories. Roxanne has released two albums of original music, has had songs featured on international television programs and, more recently, on a popular ABC radio compilation.
Born and raised in a musical family and writing songs, stories and poetry from the age of seven, Roxanne has made a significant contribution to the Australian music industry.
Roxanne is the Director of ScoopFX Music and President of the not-for-profit song writing organisation, Songsalive! Australia: as well as “Singing Teacher to the Stars of Today”. Roxanne’s stellar list of students includes Delta Goodrem, Bec Hewitt, Hayley Warner and Marlisa, to name just a few.
As passionate as she is about all her activities, there is a special place in her heart for children and children’s stories, which is why she has created the Busy Izzy series. Now the much loved story books come alive from page to stage promoting; friendship, resilience, inclusivity, anti-bullying, mindfulness, healthy food, exercise, music and fun.

STEPHEN KIELY: Creative Director – Producer – Songwriter – Musician

Stephen is a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, producer and performer who writes and produces film soundtracks, advertising jingles and songs covering genres as diverse as rock and country, through to swing and jazz.

Beginning his professional music career at age eighteen, Stephen has worked on stage with many of Australia’s top-ranked performers. He was an early adopter of computer sequencing software and is comfortable producing on any number of recording applications on both Mac and Windows platforms.

Working in the ever-expanding studios at ScoopFX Music, Stephen has written, performed and produced songs for many of Australia’s rising stars, while creating the complete recordings of the Busy Izzy project, co-written and produced with Roxanne Kiely.

Book Live Stage: https://busyizzy.com/pages/the-busy-izzy-show-live

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/busyizzyandfriends

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/busyizzyandfriends

Series Overview: 

A delightful series featuring Ginnie & Pinney and their friends. Their daily social interactions, concerns and decisions pose dilemmas that model positive self-identity and behaviours: selflessness, persistence, sharing, inclusiveness, responsibility, accepting difference and learning to say sorry.

Ginnie & Pinney ‘Learn & Grow’ is an innovative, award winning series helping young children develop social and emotional wellbeing, empathy and ethical thinking. It includes eight animated videos and a teacher resource. Questions online assist in stimulating dialectic reading and lively discussion between adult and child.
‘We will be donating 5% of our 2020 net sales at the end of the year, December 2020 to Animals Australia and WIRES. We feel strongly that supporting organisations in time of extraordinary need demonstrates that we put into practice empathy and ethical behaviour. We will post the receipts on our social media at the time we make the donations.’

With their delightful characters, engaging stories and whimsical approach, the Ginnie & Pinney Learn & Grow series of books and videos will encourage ethical thinking, empathy and emotional intelligence in young children.

Ginnie & Pinney is:

An engaging and award-winning series comprising an 8-book set, free animated videos accessible by QR Code, and an extensive teacher resource. Each title is also available separately.

Designed to stimulate lively discussion & deep thinking about social and emotional themes suitable for all levels of readiness.

Developed by an award-winning writer and animator, in consultation with Australian experts in education, linguistics and psychology. Trialled in schools.

Awarded as a HundrED 2019 innovator. Selected from across 39 countries by HundrED’s international panel of educators, academics and young people as one in 100 innovative educational programs.

Features nine characters whose ethical dilemmas replicate those daily decisions children face across the world and will stimulate lively discussion, ethical thinking and emotional development between adult and child.

Based on learning outcomes from Australian Government Frameworks aligning with Social and Emotional Learning (which are relevant across the globe).

Developed to support the Australian Curriculum – Ethical Understanding and Personal and Social Capabilities including Health and Wellbeing and Being Healthy, Safe and Active (F-2).

Developed within the Principles of, and to support the Learning Outcomes of the Early Years Learning Framework for Australia.

Simulates dialectic reading.

About the Author:

Penny Harris is a multi-national and international award-winning animator, author and multi-media developer. She has worked with the Australian Children’s Television Foundation, Film Victoria as well as a number of Australian universities and institutions.

About the Illustrator and digital media designer:

Winnie Zhou has a Masters of Multimedia Design from Monash University and is a talented illustrator and multimedia developer. Winnie lives in Melbourne and has worked closely with Penny to develop the series.