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  • Published: 1 October 2018
  • ISBN: 9780143792185
  • Imprint: Puffin
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 192
  • RRP: $24.99

The Short & Curly Guide to Life



Dive into the mind-bending world of ethics with the Short & Curly team and their Brains Trust of researchers. Based on the hit ABC podcast!

What makes something good or bad? Why are things the way they are? How come it's so hard to work out the right thing to do? The Short & Curly Guide to Life is an imaginative look at some of life's biggest and trickiest questions. Figuring out what's right is way more fun than you think!

You’ll find yourself wondering if it’s okay to break a promise – even if it's in a video game! Questioning whether you would want to spend the rest of your life in an amazing virtual reality. Umming and ahhing over whether there’s anything wrong with keeping an adorable baby fox as a pet. Putting ideas like fairness, what's normal and what's brave under the microscope . . . and so much more!

Covering topics such as fairness, bullying, bravery, friendship and choice, The Short & Curly Guide to Life is a must-read for every child, parent and teacher.

  • Published: 1 October 2018
  • ISBN: 9780143792185
  • Imprint: Puffin
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 192
  • RRP: $24.99

About the authors

Dr Matt Beard

Dr Matt Beard is a husband, dad, pop culture nerd, moral philosopher and ethicist. Matt is a Fellow at the Ethics Centre and the resident philosopher for the kids ethics podcast Short & Curly. He appears regularly in print, radio and TV discussing ethical issues from vampires to anti-vaccination. Matt believes everyone is already a philosopher who, given the right circumstances and skills, can live a wise, enriched and ethical life.

Kyla Slaven

Kyla Slaven is the producer of the kids ethics podcast Short & Curly. Kyla has been making radio and podcasts for a long time – working in community radio, as a reporter at Triple J and heading up the then-new current affairs show, Hack. She also worked on the philosophy podcast (for grown ups) The Philosopher’s Zone, where a chance encounter with a bunch of school kids gave her the idea for Short & Curly. Kyla loves that her job combines the serious with the silly, and the smart with the fun.

Simon Greiner

Simon Greiner is an illustrator who lives in Sydney, Australia, with his beautiful wife and two boys. His work has appeared all over the place, including the front cover of the New Yorker magazine, as well as the kids’ books Regal Beagle, The Short & Curly Guide to Life and the League of Llamas series.

Praise for The Short & Curly Guide to Life

If you’ve loved the Podcast as much as my children and I have, then this is a must-have book for the entire family. I’m also buying it for the teacher in charge of our Philosophy Club at school – perfect stimulus material in one handy package! Like the podcast of the same name, the book poses curly questions which bend minds both young and old into spaces and places they don’t often go.

Megan Daley, Children's Books Daily

Lying, happiness, fairness, promises and integrity are just some of life’s big issues covered in this thought- provoking book that will change the way you see the world and make decisions.

Olga de Moeller, West Australian

For those struggling with the Ethical Understandings strand of the Australian Curriculum, this is a solid base for your program, one that will reach far beyond both the classroom and a particular academic year.

Barbara Braxton, The Bottom Shelf blog

This is not only a useful publication for school age children, but for parents and teachers as well.

Patricia Halsell, Magpies Magazine

This guide is a handy go-to manual that kids can visit in chunks when they need to that equips them with skills and philosophies to enrich their moral wellbeing. Interesting and useful to share with your child when moral dilemmas arise.

Boomerang Books

This is a marvelous book, based on a popular ABC podcast. It’s philosophy based on case studies, philosophy that asks, how are we to live? How can we make the most ethical decisions when faced with the usual complexities of family life, friendship, the possibility of happiness.

Kevin Brophy, CBCA Reading Time

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