Dad frustrated by talking potatoes writes children’s book starring his son
A man frustrated his young son was seeing talking potatoes on television has created his own children’s book, and an animated series is just months away from hitting the screen.
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After seeing talking potatoes on a children’s show his son was watching Carseldine father Mark Hardingham figured there was room for improvement.
“I was sitting there thinking ‘What am I watching?’” Mr Hardingham said.
“I felt like: ‘I could do better than this’.
That was in mid-2019, just a week before Mr Hardingham flew to Russia for a controversial stem cell transplant to cure the CIDP which had been rapidly destroying his nervous system.
He used the time recovering from that to come up with ideas and stories for a children’s program, and to develop the characters.
“I thought to myself, as a parent what do I like, what keeps me engaged as an adult,” he said.
“I want something that’s fun for kids, fun for adults and teaches kids about Australian animals and icons and landmarks.”
The result is the book Ollie and Kenzo: Where Are You, Animal Friends?
Ollie is modelled on and named after Mr Hardingham’s son Ollie, 3, and Kenzo is his friend the baby koala.
Together they go on adventures in places such as the Great Barrier Reef, the Sydney Opera House and the outback.
They are joined by other characters such as Dolly the dolphin and Miss Daisy the crocodile.
And being a children’s book there has to be a villain, and for Mr Hardingham a cane toad named Kane fitted the bill.
The book has been self-published and he has commissioned an animated video series to be produced by Brisbane digital artist Bec Owen.
The first episode is due to be launched on YouTube in August.