Dacked!
Author : Andrew Daddo
Illustrator : Terry Denton
Format : Paperback, 217 pages
Condition : Used. Minor corner damage, no other marks or tears.
Dimensions : 13cm x 19.5cm x 1cm
Get other Andrew Daddo books here
About Dacked!
Dacked is about the adventures of Fergus Kipper, his friends and his family, written in five short stories. The topics are surfing, water-skiing (with a mad driver!), a contest between two fishermen to see who can catch a legendary fish, getting stuck (finger only) in a miniature giant clam and a family holiday that goes absolutely haywire.
The book has a strong humorous side, featuring events such as the discovery and use of an old twin-fin surfboard, a water-skiing adventure that turns into a game of chicken with a catamaran, a covert operation to find a ’secret’ fishing place, being attacked by a giant clam and ending up in all sorts of trouble at a family holiday near Christmas.
About Andrew Daddo
Andrew was born Andrew Dugald Daddo on February 18, 1967.
For the whole of his childhood he wondered what he’d done to his parents to give him a middle name like Dugald. Then he thought about his twin brothers’ middle name – Beilby – and realised all he’d done was be born a twin and they would be both have to live with weird middle names as a kind of funishment. Yes, that’s funishment, a fun punishment!
It was only later the two boys discovered that Dugald and Beilby were both special family names and since then Andrew and Jamie have stopped pretending they didn’t have middle names at all.
For Andrew, school was normal. There were broken arms and fingers, scrapes and scratches, girlfriends, hot chips and a football team that refused to win a premiership. There was even a fight. Just one – in grade six. And it was enough for him to realise that fighting would not be his thing because unless you were really good at it, you got hurt.
There was no gap between finishing school at Melbourne Grammar to starting university at Monash for an Arts degree. In fact, a lot of Andrew’s friends noticed the first year was spent windsurfing on Port Philip Bay so, really, it kind of was like taking a year off.
During the second year things got a bit busier. Andrew took a job with Network Ten as the host of a kids afternoon TV show. It was cool. The following year, 1987, Andrew moved to the ABC to host its live national music show The Factory. There were lots of black t-shirts and tight jeans and enough time to finish his Arts degree with major in Politics and History. The Factory lasted for two years, then Andrew was lured to New York to be the first Australian VJ on American MTV. It involved all sorts of shirts and stretchy jeans and saying “awesome” a lot.
After MTV Andrew decided to leave the music industry behind and become an actor. It was more out of necessity than anything else, and in 1992 he scored the Plum role in the TV production of Cluedo. It was two seasons of slicked back hair and purple clothes and he’s kind of glad no one seems to remember it.
There was a stint on Round the Twist playing a Ghost and a couple of movies that he’s really glad everyone’s forgotten and the penny dropped like a slab of concrete that acting might not be his thing.
Maybe it would be writing books. Hmmm. He’d need a story first, and given he didn’t have one to tell, Andrew joined the Seven Network in 1995 as an all round network dogs body. His first program was as co-host of The World’s Greatest Commercials with Cane the Dog.
It was the first of a long list of programs with the network over a fifteen year period that included the long running news program 11AM, two Olympics, Funniest People (not that funny), Kidspeak, professional traveling on The Great Outdoors and various specials.
It was whilst presenting 11AM that the writing bug got into Andrew’s system.
It started badly with an unpublished book called The Big Green Smiling Wobbly. It was not a memoir if that’s what you’re wondering.
Happily for Andrew, the blow of his first rejected ‘manuscript’ was not enough to make him stop. His second effort was eventually accepted and about a year and half after he started it, Sprung! was released. A book of stories about a boy called Fergus who could easily have been Andrew at the age of ten but no one is admitting to that.
Andrew is now described, amongst other things, as an ‘accomplished author.’ He has written books for all ages – picture books, chapter books, short story collections, young adult novels and adult non-fiction.
Since the beginning of 2008, Andrew has been part of the team at ABC radio, hosting the Evening Program for 702 in Sydney and NSW as well as 666 for Canberra and the ACT.
He’s also very excited about some new stories he’s written and the next chapter in his own life that looks set to unfold.
Andrew lives on Sydney’s Northern Beaches with his wife Jacquie, three children – Felix, Anouk and Jasper and their dog Flog who continues to surprise everyone by waking up in the mornings.
About Terry Denton
Terry Denton is one of those lucky people who can both write and illustrate. He has written more than twenty children’s books himself and collaborated on countless more with some of Australia’s most popular children’s authors.
Terry has a sense of what interests and amuses kids. His books are noisy, humorous, colourful, dramatic, wild, imaginative and always a challenge to the reader's lateral thinking skills. Then there is that devious sense of humour too.
He was born in Melbourne in 1950, the second youngest of five boys. His mind grew wild and chaotic as a result of being trapped in a big house with his four brothers for the first eighteen years of his life.
Terry’s love of drawing and science lead him to study Architecture. But he soon became unhappy with that course, left Uni and set about discovering what kind of artist he really wanted to be.
Over the next seven years he tried animation, painting, theatre, etching, sculpture, cartooning, and worked part-time with a friend running a music shop.
In 1984 he wrote and illustrated Felix and Alexander. It was published in 1985 and won the CBC Picture Book of the Year in 1986.
In 1991-92 Terry worked for the Australian Children’s Television Foundation on Lift Off acknowledged as one of the most innovative children’s TV shows produced in Australia. He spent a year helping to devise the program, and another year designing the puppets and the look of the program.
He has illustrated more than 100 books, twenty of which he has also written. He won both the Multi-cultural Book of the Year and the Best Designed Picture Book in 1993. In 2003 and 2008 he was shortlisted for the Aurealis Award.
His work has also won more than 40 children’s choice awards throughout Australia. In 2008 Just Shocking! won all six children’s choice award in Australia. He has also been shortlisted by the CBCA many times.
Terry spends part of each year talking to school kids and doing workshops, when he can be coaxed away from his studio in bayside Melbourne.
Books
Check on me
Cheeky Monkey
Creepy Cool
Dacked
Dog of a day
Flushed
Girl Trap
Good Night Me
I do It
Letters to Santa
Muffin Top
Sprung
Sprung Again
The Aussie Christmas Book
Writing in Wet Cement
Your Dropped
Youse Two
Run, Kid, Run
It’s all good
Dacked!
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