Information about our Wonderful Australian Authors Graeme Base is one of the world's leading creators of picture books. His alphabet book Animalia, received international acclaim when it was first published in 1986, and has achieved classic status with worldwide sales approaching three million copies. It has now inspired an animated TV series. Other favourites by Graeme Base include The Eleventh Hour, My Grandma Lived in Gooligulch, The Sign of the Seahorse, The Discovery of Dragons, The Worst Band in the Universe, The Waterhole (and The Waterhole Board Book), Jungle Drums and Uno's Garden. In 2007 this last title featured in six major awards and was winner of three: Speech Pathology Book of the Year, younger readers; The Green Earth Book, USA; The Wilderness Society Environment Award. In 2003, his first novel for young readers, TruckDogs, was released. It was short- listed for the Children's Book Council of Australia Book of the Year Awards the following year. In 2009 Graeme produced the fascinating, beautiful and challenging book Enigma; can you crack the code? Graeme's most recent book is The Golden Snail. Graeme lives in Melbourne with his artist wife, Robyn, and their three children - James, Kate and Will. Katrina Germein is a best-selling Australian picture book author, published worldwide. Her first book, Big Rain Coming, has remained continuously in print for over ten years and her most recent title, My Dad Thinks He’s Funny, was Highly Commended in the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards. The sequel, My Dad STILL Thinks He’s Funny, will be published in 2013. Katrina’s work has been featured on children’s television programs such as Wurrawhy, Yamba’s Playtime and Play School and several of her titles have won Notable Book commendations from The Children’s Book Council of Australia. Katrina’s newest story, a lively, rhyming tale titled Somebody’s House, will be published by Walker Books Australia in 2013. Katrina calls Adelaide home but follows the sun around Australia as best she can. Hazel Edwards is an Australian author who has written 200 books, including the classic children's book There's a Hippopotamus on Our Roof Eating Cake, which recently celebrated its 30th anniversary and is a short film by Pocket Bonfire. Hazel was born in 1945 in Melbourne, Australia. She has been nominated for an Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award Alison Lester was born on 17 November, 1952 at Foster in Victoria, Australia. She grew up on a farm overlooking the sea and first rode a horse as a baby in her father’s arms. She still lives in the country and rides her horse Woollyfoot, whenever she can. Her picture books mix imaginary worlds with everyday life, encouraging children to believe in themselves and celebrate the differences that make them special. Alison spends part of every year traveling to schools in remote areas, using her books to help children and adults write and draw about their own lives. Alison began illustrating children’s books in her late twenties. After training as a secondary art teacher she found that although she loved teaching art, she didn't like the everyday routine of school. When her first baby, Will was born, Alison knew that she wanted to work from home, so she looked up publishers in the Yellow Pages, found Oxford University Press, rang up and asked for a job. She was lucky to be interviewed by three book to illustrate. After five years of illustrating other people’s stories she found herself getting picky with their texts and had a go at writing her own. Clive Eats Alligators was the result, and she has been writing and illustrating her own stories since then. In 1997 Alison's first children’s novel, The Quicksand Pony was published and The Snow Pony followed in 1999. "I hope I can continue to write both ‘chapter books’ and picture books,” she said at the time “My heart is always with the little kids, but as my own children get older I find myself more and more interested in novels". Mem Fox was born in Australia, grew up in Africa, studied drama in England, and returned to Adelaide, Australia in 1970. She is Australia’s best loved picture-book author. Her first book, Possum Magic, has sold over four million copies and is still the best selling children’s book in Australia, 29 years after its publication. She has written over 40 books for children among which are the perennial favourites: Possum Magic, Time for Bed and Where Is The Green Sheep? and several books for adults also, including her best selling book for parents: Reading Magic: how your child can learn to read before school and other read aloud miracles. Her book: Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes was on the New York Times best-seller list for 18 weeks in 2008—2009 and also won best book for young children at the 2010 Turin International Book Festival in its Italian edition. Her books have been translated into 19 languages. Pamela Allen is a phenomenon in the world of children's books. In 25 years, she has produced thirty-two picture books; many of which have won prestigious awards and commendations both in Australia and overseas. Pamela's books are full of the music of language; they are 'fragments of theatre', designed to be read aloud and shared between an adult and child. Eight of Pamela's titles were adapted for the stage by Patch Theatre Company, and performed in Sydney Opera House. Pamela's picture books have earned classic status through their enduring popularity with the very young. 'From Pamela Allen's first publication in 1980 it was clear that here was a creator of picture books with all the glow, gesture, din and dance to capture the attention, engage the imagination, teach, show, tickle and excite small children' Dame Lynley Stuart Dodd DNZM is a prominent author of children’s books from New Zealand. She is best known for her "Hairy Maclary" series, and its follow- ups, all of which feature animals with rhyming. Born in 1941 in Rotorua, New Zealand, Dame Dodd was educated at the Elam School of Fine Arts. She has been nominated for an Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award. Janeen Brian was born in South Australia and although she’s travelled to various parts of the world, she’s lived most of her life in South Australia. She began teachers' college at sixteen and taught junior and primary school for over twenty years. She also acted in a professional children's theatre company, and has done dozens of television and radio commercials as well as voice-over presentations for video documentaries. Her overseas travels have included a live-in, double-decker bus trip through Britain as well as visiting New Zealand, Bali, Singapore, Hong Kong, Canada, Spain, South America and living for three months in India in a remote village, called Ki, in the Himalayan Mountains. Janeen and her husband Jon live in the seaside suburb of Glenelg, in South Australia. They have two grown-up daughters and a grandson. Rod Clement: Humour prevails in Rod′s books with wacky and exaggerated situations and illustrations, and his nature-lover′s eye helps him portray the animal world with a precision and flair that makes images leap off the page. When he went to school, Rod′s main ambition was to draw and to make people laugh. Living in Papua New Guinea for several years as a child gave Rod an intense awareness of nature and his initial work was in the realism mould. Rod soon decided that this was too restrictive and that he wanted to draw straight from the imagination. His acclaimed picture books include Counting on Frank and Just Another Ordinary Day. Narelle Oliver is the author and illustrator of a number of award-winning children's picture books including, The Best Beak in Boonaroo Bay, The Hunt, Baby Bilby, where do you sleep?, The Very Blue Thingamajig, Dancing the Boom-cha-cha Boogie and Home. Narelle's latest picture book, Home, was commissioned by the Brisbane City Council Library Services Division and features the peregrine falcons which inhabit inner- city Brisbane. This book forms the basis of the design of the new children's library in Brisbane Square – opening January 2007. Narelle was born in 1960 and grew up in Toowoomba, Queensland in a family who spent every spare moment pursuing interests in visual and performing arts – especially photography, drawing and painting. A highlight of her childhood was regular trips into unusual countryside gathering ideas and material for various artworks. While studying for a Bachelor of Education degree, Narelle majored in design and printmaking and discovered the world of contemporary children's picture books. Then followed several years teaching at the Queensland School for the Deaf, living and breathing picture books and sign language. Narelle also tutored in Language and Children's Literature courses offered by the Faculty of Education at the University of Southern Queensland before beginning her first picture book, Leaf Tail, published in 1989. Many of Narelle's books have been inspired by natural environments she has explored and a continuing interest in natural history and history. The linocut print medium which she often combines with other media is a special feature of her illustrations. The original illustrations from Narelle's picture books have been exhibited in group and solo exhibitions throughout Australia, including Fremantle Children's Literature Centre, WA; Dromkeen Children's Literature Centre, Victoria; Books Illustrated, Victoria; and the State Library of Queensland. Narelle works in a home-based studio in inner-city Brisbane, surrounded by family, pets, and an array of wildlife which visit their overgrown rainforest backyard - a pair of azure kingfishers diving into the swimming pool, a scrub turkey and its chick making their mound in the compost heap, and from time-to-time spangled drongos, boobook owls mobbed by noisy minas, tawny frogmouths, lorikeets and rosellas.