MOOKi vs The Big Scary

With 2 Olympic medals, 9 X Games medals and 3 World Halfpipe Championship gold medals, Scotty James is one of the most accomplished athletes in snowboarding today.

At the age of three, Scotty fell in love with the sport and at fourteen he started competing professionally, making history as one of the youngest athletes to ever compete in the Winter Olympics. Since then, Scotty has ascended to the top ranks and continues to break records and win championship titles. Renowned for his remarkable talent and groundbreaking performances on the halfpipe, he has cemented himself as a global icon who continues to push the boundaries of the sport with his unparalleled skills and relentless drive for excellence.

Off the slopes, as a child Scotty was encouraged to tap into his creative side and was often doodling cartoons and animations. Inspired by his childhood nickname ‘MOOKi’, Scotty brought this alter-ego to life through his drawing of a character of the same name, geared up in an astronaut suit and, of course, Scotty’s signature red gloves. MOOKi was created as a symbol to always shoot for the moon and dream big – values instilled in Scotty by his family from an early age.

Scotty embraces MOOKi as a constant reminder to conquer any hurdles that come his way. A proud husband, brother and uncle, with this debut book series Scotty hopes to inspire others to embrace their own inner MOOKi and fearlessly pursue their dreams.

Steve Worland has worked extensively in film and television in Australia and the USA. He wrote the screenplay for the smash hit Australian family film Paper Planes with director Robert Connolly, won the ACCTA award for best original screenplay for the same film, and adapted the movie into a bestselling novel for young readers. Steve has written screenplays for Working Title, Icon Productions and The Jim Henson Company, worked in script development for James Cameron's Lightstorm and wrote Fox Searchlight's Bootmen, which won five ACCTA awards. Steve also wrote the action-comedy telemovie Hard Knox for New Line Television, episodes of the Southern Star action series Big Sky and the Saturn award-winning Farscape. He is the author of the action-adventure novels Velocity, Combustion and Quick as well as the charity joke book The Bloke-a-saurus, which he wrote with his brother, Gus.

Dave Atze is a freelance Illustrator from South Australia.

Dave illustrates amazing books for kids that sell all over the world. These include Scotty James’s MOOKi series, Anh Do’s The Champ series, Belly Button Fluff and Numbskull and Nincompoop. He is often found at schools and libraries, teaching kids to draw and talking about his books.

As well as books, Dave creates creatures and characters for cartoons, comics, toys, video games and advertising.

During his time as an Illustrator, he has worked for some amazing clients. Penguin Random House, Anh Do, Scholastic, Allen and Unwin, Ford St Publishing, Redgum Book Club, Big Sky Publishing, Moose Toys, Zuru Toys, EB Games and Silver Sun Pictures.

When Dave’s not busy drawing up a storm, you can find him spending time his wife Ashleigh and daughter Ella, watching cartoons, mountain biking and taking photos in nature.