Claire Saxby was born in Melbourne and grew up in Newcastle, NSW
where she thought she’d stay until the end of her days. Then, while
she was holidaying in Melbourne, Claire’s parents decided to move
to Bougainville Island in Papua New Guinea. Fortunately, they
waited and took her with them. Since then, she’s lived in more
houses than she can remember. Claire is the author of Ebi’s Boat,
illustrated by Anne Spudvilas, which was a Children’s Book Council
of Australia Notable book in 2007. Her title published with Walker
Books Australia in 2010, There Was an Old Sailor, illustrated by
Cassandra Allen was short-listed for the Speech Pathology Australia
Book of the Year Awards 2010, Young Children Category. In 2014, Big
Red Kangaroo was a CBCA Notable for the Eve Pownall Award for
Information Books and short-listed for the Griffith University
Children's Book Award, part of the Queensland Literary Awards. In
2015, Emu was short-listed for the CBCA Book of the Year: Eve
Pownall Award for Information Books and was a winner of the
Environment Award for Children's Literature, nonfiction
category.
Born in Sydney sometime last century, Graham Byrne did the usual
school and university time, worked as an electrical engineer for
years, then went into building houses and structures. The old back
injury put paid to hard physical work. An interest in art as a
creative adjunct to the practical nature of building led to formal
education, work installing artworks at the Museum of Contemporary
Art in Sydney, and wonderings about other roads to explore. Wanting
his art to have some “practical” useful purpose, to be
illuminating, pointed Graham to illustration and design pathways.
Explorations of drawing, painting, filling sketchbooks, making
books for his grandchildren and illustrating short stories have
combined to prompt his journey as a book illustrator. Big Red
Kangaroo, Graham’s first picture book, was a CBCA Notable for the
Eve Pownall Award for Information Books and short-listed for the
Griffith University Children's Book Award, part of the Queensland
Literary Awards. In 2015 his second book Emu was short-listed for
the CBCA Book of the Year: Eve Pownall Award for Information Books
and was a winner of the Environment Award for Children's
Literature, nonfiction category.
Byrne’s spiky digital illustrations perfectly display the emus’
hairlike feathering and their awkward-looking flightless
movement.
*The Horn Book*
The descriptive language Claire Saxby uses is exciting and superbly
crafted… And Graham Byrne provides gloriously textured,
scratchy/splodgy storytelling illustrations that truly convey the
eucalyptus forest setting of the narrative.
*Red Reading Hub*
Fascinating.
*Creative a Kids Book*
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