Kids' Day

Graeme Base has been writing and illustrating for children for over thirty years, with worldwide bestsellers Animalia, The Eleventh Hour and The Waterhole known and loved by millions around the world. The recipient of numerous Australian and international publishing awards, and with global sales exceeding six million copies, he has established himself as one of Australia's pre-eminent creators of imaginative works for children.

Maxine Beneba Clarke is a widely published Australian writer of Afro-Caribbean descent. She won the Australian Book Industry Award (ABIA) for Literary Fiction and the Indie Book Award for Debut Fiction for Foreign Soil (2015) and the NSW Premier's Literary Multicultural Awards for her memoir, The Hate Race. Both were shortlisted for the Stella Prize. Her poetry collection Carrying the World (2017) won the Victorian Premier's Literary Award for Poetry. The Patchwork Bike, Maxine's first picture book with Van T. Rudd, was a CBCA Honour Book for 2017.

Julia Donaldson has written some of the world's best-loved children's books, including The Gruffalo and The Gruffalo's Child, which together have sold over 17 million copies worldwide. She was the UK Children’s Laureate 2011-13 and has been honoured with a CBE for Services to Literature.

Mandy Foot is a self-proclaimed animal nut and horse lover and works in a studio in the Adelaide Hills. Mandy's picture books for Lothian include the very popular Captain Kangaroo series and the bestsellers The Wheels on the Bus and Old Macdonald Had a Farm.

Andy Griffiths is one of Australia’s most popular children’s authors. He and illustrator Terry Denton have collaborated on more than 30 bestselling books and sold over 10 million copies, won 80 children’s choice awards and 10 Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA)—including Book of the Year for The 91-Storey Treehouse in 2015. He is also an ambassador for both The Indigenous Literacy Foundation and the Pyjama Foundation.

Andrew Joyner is the illustrator and author of numerous children’s books, including the #1 New York Times Bestseller, Dr. Seuss’s The Horse Museum, The Pink Hat, The Hair Book (with Graham Tether), Duck and Hippo in the Rainstorm (with Jonathan London), and The Terrible Plop: A Picture Book (with Ursula Dubosarsky). He also wrote and illustrated the Boris series about an adventure-seeking warthog. His books are now published in more than twenty-five countries.

Sally Rippin has published over seventy books, many of them award-winning, including the highly acclaimed Polly and Buster trilogy and the popular Billie B Brown and Hey Jack! books. She is Australia’s highest selling female author and her books have sold more than 4.5 million copies in 14 languages.