Authors

Alison Lester is a much-loved and best-selling writer and illustrator of children's books, who has won many awards, including the Children's Book Council of Australia Picture Book Award for Thing by Robin Klein (OUP), and Honour Book for The Journey Home (OUP). Over the last thirty years she has produced such classics as the Clive Eats Alligators series, Magic Beach, Imagine and My Farm, and recently she has also written novels, including The Quicksand Pony and the Bonnie and Sam series with Roland Harvey. Her picture book, Are We There Yet?, won the CBCA Picture Book of the Year Award in 2005, and Running with the Horses was an Honour Book in the 2010 CBCA Book of the Year Awards and 2010 Prime Minister's Literary Awards. Her picture books mix imaginary worlds with everyday life, encouraging children to believe in themselves and celebrate the differences that make them special. Alison is involved in many community art projects and spends part of every year travelling to remote Indigenous communities, using her books to help children and adults write and draw about their own lives. In 2011, Alison Lester was selected as inaugural Australian Children's Laureate, a title she shares with Boori Monty Pryor. Alison was also an ambassador for the National Year of Reading 2012, and was shortlisted for the prestigious Melbourne Prize for Literature 2012.