Children's Book Festival 2014

Jackie French is an award-winning writer. She was the Australian Children's Laureate for 2014-2015 and the 2015 Senior Australian of the Year. In 2016 Jackie became a  Member of the Order of Australia for her  contribution to children's literature and her advocacy for youth literacy. She is regarded as one of Australia's most popular children's authors, and writes across all genres - from picture books, history, fantasy, ecology and sci-fi to her much-loved historical fiction. 

Kylie Dunstan is an award winning author and illustrator of children’s picture books. Her first book, Collecting Colour, won CBCA Picture Book of the Year in 2009. She has since written and illustrated four more books and is working on her sixth.

Kylie now lives in Melbourne with her partner and two girls.

Sarah is a multi-award winning, powerhouse chanteuse and performer.

Creator of the formidable Yana Alana and Tha Paranas, the act has received ten Green Room Awards including three for Best Cabaret Artiste and most recently a Helpmann Award nomination. Sarah has performed with La Soiree at The Sydney Opera House in 2014 as well as the Darwin Festival and Brisbane Festival in 2013. She was disco diva in Finucane and Smiths Glory Box during their Melbourne season, Adelaide Fringe Festival season and in Buenos Aires.

Early in 2013, Sarah toured with Arena Theatre Company performing a new cabaret work, Cautionary Tales For Children, which was nominated for a Helpmann award. Sarah toured for two years with Circus Oz nationally and internationally as their Ring mistress, writing original material and songs for her role.

In 2010 she was commissioned by the Melbourne Workers Theatre to create the music for the new work Every Angel Is Terrible. She was also part of a creative development for a new music theatre show, Revival, by David Chisholm. Both works appeared as part of Carnegie 18 at the Melbourne Arts Centre 2011.

For two years running Sarah was co-musical director for the Women’s Circus for shows A Plane Without Wings Is A Rocket (2006) and Antechamber (2007). Sarah was also a one half of the celebrated hip-hop cabaret act Sista She, touring from 2003 to 2008.

The Mighty bUZZniks are widely reputed as a vibrant and exciting live musical group, entertaining young people and their parents. They are in constant demand at arts festivals and family events all over Australia.

Their debut album released in 2008 through ABC Kids has been hailed as a refreshing departure from the norm of what we perceive as ‘kids music’, bringing a sophisticated musical style to children’s music. Their new album Bug Out will be released on ABC Music in September 2014.

Lead vocalists Razz and Jamie take a step off the big stage and perform these songs in more intimate settings in an interactive acoustic duo show. Here they can showcase the Mighty bUZZniks’ songs and connect with kids on a more personal level. These shows are great for libraries, schools, partys and smaller venues and functions.

The music of the Mighty bUZZniks is aimed primarily at 3-9 year olds. This is a very broad demographic but the music creates themes that relate to young ears and the humour in the lyrics makes it a lot of fun whilst being informative and educational. It is a show where kids and parents can share in a fun musical experience together.

‘Uptown’ Brown is a man who has worn many hats in his colourful life – inventor, musician, aviator and adventurer, to name but a few.

Without a doubt, his crowning glory is the patented “Goodtimes Gyratorscope”, a musical machine which permits an athletic fellow to play multiple instruments at once. . Using leftover parts from a disused biplane (which he himself had crashed), Brown's One Man Band is now (mostly) safe and ready to hit the streets of Paris, Marrakesh or Wagga Wagga.

Favouring a repertoire drawn largely from the 1920-50s, Uptown Brown makes regular appearances at christenings, funerals, ‘exotic’ dances, weddings (both regular and ‘shotgun’), medical procedures and any other occasion that may require the services of a singing gentleman-adventurer.

Bernard Caleo is a comic book teacher, maker, and communicator. He was the editor and publisher of the romance comics anthology Tango, made the feature film Graphic Novels Melbourne with filmmaker Daniel Hayward and is part of the graphic novel publishing enterprise Twelve Panels Press. In 2021 he started a PhD at the University of Melbourne's Creative Writing program, the outcome of which will be a comic book set in Melbourne in 1888, and a written thesis examining how Australian comic books create Australian places.

Andy Griffiths started having adventures the moment he was born, and has been having them (and writing about them) ever since. You can find out more at www.andygriffiths.com.au

Libby Gleeson AM is a popular, highly acclaimed writer who has published over 30 books for children and teenagers, including Eleanor, Elizabeth, I Am Susannah, and the Hannah series. She has been shortlisted for the CBCA Awards thirteen times, and won it three times.

The Great Bear (with Armin Greder) was the first Australian book to win the prestigious Bologna Ragazzi Award, in 2000. Her novel Mahtab’s Story was published by Allen & Unwin in 2008, and her picture book I Am Thomas (with Armin Greder) in 2011.

Libby has been a teacher and lecturer and is a regular contributor to national conferences. She chaired the Australian Society of Authors 1999-2001, and in 2007 was awarded membership to the Order of Australia. She is the winner of the 2011 Dromkeen Medal, awarded for contributions to children’s literature. Her recent book, Red, won the Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Children’s Fiction in 2013.

Marc Martin is an illustrator, artist and book maker based in Melbourne, Australia. His illustrations have been commissioned by clients such as Monocle, Wired, the Financial Review, Capital, the Australian Centre for the Moving Image and various festivals. 

He is also the author and illustrator of four books, A Forest (Penguin Books, 2012), Silent Observer (Erm Books, 2011), The Curious Explorer's Illustrated Guide to Exotic Animals A-Z (Penguin Books, 2013) and Max (Penguin Books, 2014). 

Marc's books are published internationally, and A Forest won the 2013 Crichton Award for Children's Book Illustration.

Bec is a percussionist, drummer, performer, composer, teacher, musical director and noise maker. She is a graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts where she studied orchestral percussion. Bec has been touring with Circus Oz since 2010.

Swinging in the air from Arnhem Land to New York she is known as the drummer who hits every mark and marks every hit. Bec has a long history working with children both as a teacher and performer. She has toured with Musica Viva percussion ensemble WOOF! at schools across Victoria and has performed George Dreyfus’s live soundtracks to the 1960s children’s TV show Sebastian the Fox.

John Marsden has written more than 40 books, mostly for teenagers and children, including Tomorrow When the War Began, So Much to Tell You, and Letters from the Inside. He has sold over five million books worldwide, and has won every major award in Australia for young people's fiction. South of Darkness, written for adults, won the Christina Stead Award for Best Novel of 2015. John's passionate interest in education led him to start two schools, Candlebark, on a vast forested estate near Romsey Victoria, and Alice Miller, at Macedon, a Year 7-12 school with a particular emphasis on the creative arts. The two schools enrol 380 students in 2019.

Valanga Khoza left South Africa in 1976, exiled along with many other young people because of their struggle against apartheid or racism. The music and stories he has since created reflects the places he has been and the people he has touched throughout his journey across the world as a refugee, finally settling in Australia.

Valanga has performed and warmed audiences of adults and children at selected world music events and in many schools across Australia and the Pacific. As well as recording six albums of original music, he is also the author of well known Gezani and the Tricky Baboon republished by Ford Street Publishing in 2014.

Valanga charms his audiences with humour and wit, telling stories that are embellished by beautiful music form many traditional instruments such as the kalimba, marimba and shijoro (jaw harp) aswell as irresistable rhythms from the guitar, percussion and Valanga’s velvety voice. 

Tohby Riddle is the creator of numerous well-loved picture books such as Nobody Owns the Moon and My Uncle’s Donkey; two cartoon collections and a novel, The Lucky Ones. He is also the illustrator of the multi-award-winning Word Spy books.

His latest book is an ambitious 128-page picture book titled Unforgotten, which has now been published in five languages. Tohby has won awards for literature and design and held residencies at the Edinburgh International Book Festival; Arthur Boyd’s estate, Bundanon; and The University of Melbourne.

His picture book The Great Escape from City Zoo is featured in 1001 Children’s Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up. For nearly ten years he was also the cartoonist for Good Weekend magazine (the Saturday magazine of the Sydney Morning Herald and the Age).

Nicki Greenberg is a writer and illustrator based in Melbourne, Australia. Her first books, The Digits series, were published when she was fifteen years old. They sold more than 380,000 copies in Australia and New Zealand.

In 2008 Nicki’s innovative graphic adaptation of The Great Gatsby was selected as a White Raven at the Bologna Book Fair. She then went on to tackle Hamlet in a lavish 425-page “staging on the page”. Hamlet was joint winner of the 2011 Children’s Book Council of Australia Picture Book of the Year award.

Nicki’s recent picture books for young children include The Naughtiest Reindeer, Monkey Red, Monkey Blue and BOM! Went the Bear. She has also written and illustrated non-fiction for children.

Nicki is currently working on several picture books for children, including a sequel to The Naughtiest Reindeer.

Sally Rippin is the Australian Children’s Laureate for 2024 – 2025 and has written over 100 books for children and young adults, many of them award-winning, including Come Over to My House, the Billie B Brown, and the ...

Multi-award winner Kutcha Edwards uses his mesmeric music to create connections across cultures, generations, and spaces. His charismatic stage presentations deepen our understanding of Australia’s first people ...

Ron Murray is a Wamba Wamba man (Swan Hill area) living at Yapeen, near Castlemaine, in central Victoria on Jaara country. He is a cultural educator, storyteller, musician, didgeridoo maker and wood sculptor.

He has made beautiful art pieces for Muhammad Ali, Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens), Sir Bob Geldof, American composer Philip Glass, and Harlem Dance Company, to name a few.

Ron has an international reputation as a didgeridoo soloist, having performed widely in Australia, and also in New York, Jordon, Canada and New Zealand. He also performs as part of the Celtic-Indigenous fusion duo, Kinja, with fiddler/vocalist Sarah James.

He has recently received his MA (Education) from RMIT University. His thesis looked at how Indigenous knowledges can combat racist attitudes in the wider community. He has been employed by Victoria Police, Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service and is currently Indigenous trainer for Diversity@Work.