I'm Phil Kettle and I'm an author. I spend a lot of my time writing books for children and visiting schools to talk about reading and writing. The first series of books I wrote was the TOOCOOL series. There were 8 books in Series 1, another 8 books in Series 2, and then another 8 books in Series 3. I got sick of the number 'eight' so I wrote 10 books for Series 4. That makes 34 TOOCOOL books! I hope you've read them all.

Every time I finished a TOOCOOL story with SPIKE, WONG and MARCY, there was this voice that seemed to follow me around.

"Hello … Mr Kettle. Are you there? Are you listening to me? Hello … Is there anyone there?... Come on Mr Kettle - it's MY turn for a book series - me MARCY! … Hello …" MARCY now has her own series of 10 books – and there are more on the way. I hope you've enjoyed reading the MARCY books. I hear from lots of boys and girls who have read these books and it seems like they all know that MARCY is in charge, and that TOOCOOL is a legend in his own lunchtime!

There are also 36 BOYZ RULE books and 24 GIRLZ ROCK books, 8 BILLY KOOL books and the TOOCOOL and MARCY Jarvis Walker Kids Fishing books.

I have written 20 GET REAL books recently, and I'm sure you'll laugh until your tummy hurts reading about Harry and Jesse and their wonderful time machine. Get laughing with GET REAL!

I have also had a great time writing the OUR AUSTRALIA series for Australian Geographic. You'll love the beautiful photographs and the great illustrations. We launched 8 books in 2010, and there will be more books in 2011 and 2012. Each book is a journey of discovery as Taha and his mum explore special places around Australia. The books provide you with an opportunity to feel like you too are visiting these special places and getting to know OUR AUSTRALIA better.

AS FOR ME - I was born in Mildura, which is in northern Victoria. I grew up on a farm a few kilometers away from Mildura, in a small town called Cardross. This town was so tiny there was only one shop, one garage, one school and a town hall. Our post office address was PO Box 1 and our telephone number was 12.

I lived on the farm with my mum, dad, brother, sister, and Labrador dog called Skipper. I really enjoyed living on the farm. There was always plenty to do, plenty to eat, and time for lots of adventures. The farm was a place where I could use my imagination all day, every day. It was where I first started to use my imagination to create stories.

My favourite subject at school was sport, then more sport. I really loved football and cricket. Actually I loved any sport where you could hit, kick or throw something. I also really loved reading and writing – and being an author all started from there! I have been involved with writing over 160 books. I hope you have as much fun reading them, as I have had writing them.

That's all from me. Bye for now.
PHIL KETTLE