LEO AND RALPH

A beautifully rendered story about the friendship between an eccentric boy and his imaginary alien friend, and what happens when they have to say goodbye.

Leo and Ralph follows a shy, introspective kid called Leo as he's trying to say goodbye to his imaginary friend, Ralph.

How anyone could say goodbye to a friend as sweet as this, I don't know, but Leo wants to try because he knows his parents are worried about him. He knows they wish he'd make some real friends like his outgoing younger sister, Peg. Before they move house, Leo says goodbye, but as they settle into their new home in the dusty western rural town of Dundle, he realises Ralph might not be so easy to shake.

Told with Pete's trademark humility and set in an evocative rural world, Leo and Ralph will be another special book for young readers. Pete was inspired to write this story because his own daughter had imaginary friends who she found hard to let go of.


PETER CARNAVAS writes and illustrates books for children. He has made many picture books, such as The Children Who Loved Books, Last Tree in the City and A Quiet Girl. His novel The Elephant won a Queensland Literary Award and was shortlisted in four other national awards. He has won an Australian Book Industry Award and a SCBWI Crystal Kite Award, and his books have been published widely across the world. Peter's latest book, My Brother Ben, won the 2022 Patricia Wrightson Prize for Children's Literature at the NSW Premier's Literary Awards, was shortlisted at the 2022 Speech Pathology Book of the Year Awards, longlisted for the 2022 Australian Book Industry Award's Book of the Year for Younger Children, and was a 2022 CBCA Notable.