BOOK WEEK EVENTS
17-25th August

INCURSION

Tuesday 17th August

Meerkat Productions x 3 sessions in the HALL

P-2: 9:30 - 10:30am

3-4: 11:30am - 12:30pm

5-6: 2:15 - 3:15pm

P-2 are seeing ‘Dear Broccoli” and 3-6 are seeing “Inked”

Dear Broccoli
by Jo Dabrowski & Cate James
Dear Broccoli is a laugh-out-loud, high-energy story told through a series of hilarious letters between a determined broccoli-hating boy, Frank, and one very polite — and surprisingly persuasive — piece of broccoli. As Frank pulls out every excuse imaginable to avoid eating his greens, Broccoli calmly (and cleverly) argues back, turning the battle into a witty war of words packed with humour, personality, and escalating antics. With its playful structure, sharp dialogue, and twist ending, Dear Broccoli is a deliciously funny picture book that is sure to open up conversations about persuasion, perspective, and trying something new.
PRAISE FOR THE BOOK
"Entertaining story… skilfully written and humorous.” Read Plus
“Highly recommended… Lively and playful banter includes clever puns and amusing wordplay.” Reading Time
“Utterly brilliant… there isn’t a parent or child who won’t relate.” Can You Tell Me A Story
Based on the book entitled DEAR BROCCOLI
Text copyright © Jo Dabrowski 2025.
Illustrations copyright © Cate James 2025.
Adapted for the stage by permission from Affirm Press, a Simon & Schuster (Australia) Pty Limited company. All rights reserved.
Inked
by Karen Wasson & Jake A Minton
Inked is about a kid who just wants to blend in and an opera-singing octopus who loves to stand out! Can these frenemies find a way to work together?
This marks the first time Meerkat Productions has adapted a graphic novel for the stage, bringing its visual storytelling into live performance to strengthen inference and narrative understanding through a new modality.
Graphic novels like this align with the Ochre Education Reading Spine by offering high-quality multimodal texts alongside explicit, systematic teaching of reading strategies, and from a Science of Learning perspective they support dual coding, manage cognitive load for developing readers, and build comprehension through repeated retrieval of meaning across visual and verbal cues. This makes them a rigorous complement to chapter books.
PRAISE FOR THE BOOK
“...readers will be surprised and delighted by thoughtful character development, witty dialogue, and Jake A. Minton’s warm, polished artwork... An excellent, wildly entertaining read for ages 9+.” Readings
We’re excited to bring you the world premiers of these book adaptations. Our creative team, which showcases some of the best talent available in the Australian theatre scene, are already hard at work adapting the books into musicals and developing the original songs, puppets, sets and costumes.

Web: meerkatproductions.com.au