Serge Bloch
Illustrator of The Enemy and I Love Kissing You, Serge Bloch is one of the outstanding illustrators of his generation. His work as an editorial illustrator appears regularly in The Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Chicago Tribune, The New York Times and Los Angeles Times, as well as Time and New York Magazine. He recently received a Gold Medal from the American Society of Illustrators. He lives in Paris with his wife and son. A previous collaboration with Davide Cali, I Can't Wait, won France's prestigious Baobab Prize for the most innovative book of 2005 and was Honour Book in the American Library Association's Batchelder Award.
Davide Cali
Author of Piano Piano, The Enemy, I Love Kissing You and A Dad Who Measures Up, Davide Cali is one of Europe's most innovative and acclaimed writers of illustrated books for both children and adults. He is the author of 12 illustrated books, including I Can't Wait (illustrated by Serge Bloch), which won France's prestigious Baobab Prize for the most innovative book of 2005 and was Honour Book in the American Library Association's Batchelder Award.
His books have now been translated and published in 15 countries. Swiss-born Davide lives in Genoa, Italy, but writes in French. A Dad Who Measures Up was the first of his books to be published in Australia and New Zealand. His second collaboration with Serge Bloch, The Enemy, was published in October 2007. I Love Kissing You, a picture book for grown-ups, was published in February 2008, while another children's picture book, Piano Piano, will appear in August 2008.
Visit Davide's personal website.
Anna-Laura Cantone
'I await each publication from her with impatience.' Citrouille (Pumpkin) magazine, France
A Dad Who Measures Up's illustrator, Anna-Laura Cantone, is an award-winning young Italian illustrator who already has more than 30 books to her name, including many published in English. She has twice been selected for the Bologna Book Fair illustration competition.
Her distinctively playful and innovative style of illustation involves the employment of several techniques, including painting, drawing and collage. Anna-Laura lives in Milan, Italy.
A Dad Who Measures Up is the first of Anna-Laura's books to be published in Australia and New Zealand.
Visit Anna-Laura's personal website.
Janet Frame
Twice shortlisted for the Nobel Prize for Literature, Janet Frame was born in Dunedin in 1924. She was the author of eleven novels, five collections of stories, a volume of poetry and a children's book. She is perhaps best known for the autobiography An Angel at My Table, which chronicles her early years, several of which were spent in and out of mental institutions. Famously, she was only saved from a lobotomy when her surgeon read in a local newspaper that she had won an award for her first novel.
She was a Burns Scholar and a Sargeson Fellow, and won the New Zealand Scholarship in Letters and the Hubert Church Award for Prose. She was made a CBE in 1983 for services to literature, awarded an honorary doctorate of literature from Otago University in 1992. She received New Zealand's highest civil honour when she was made a member of the Order of New Zealand.
Janet Frame died in January 2004. Her award-winning last work, The Goose Bath, is now published posthumously by Wilkins Farago in Australia, while her novels and autobiography were reissued in standard editions in 2007.
Visit the Janet Frame Estate's website.
Eric Heliot
Piano Piano's illustrator, Eric Heliot, is one of France's most celebrated and successful book illustrators, with over 50 titles to his name. He studied at the Beaux-Arts in Rouen and Le Havre, France, before becoming a freelance illustrator of picture books and comic books. He still lives in Rouen, and likes to play the drums (which wins the friendship of his neighbours).
His illustrations for Piano Piano received Special Mention at the 2006 Bologna Ragazzi Awards. The book is the first of his works to be published in Australia and New Zealand.
Lila Prap
Hans Christian Andersen Award nominee Lilijana Praprotnik Zupancic ('Lila Prap') was born 1955 in Slovenia where she studied architecture. She is a freelance artist, making her living in graphic design, interior decorating and writing, as well as illustrating for children.
Her picture books (featuring her signature pastel-on-paper drawings) have been published in Korea, France, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, Norway, India, Greece, the USA, Canada and Japan. Some of her work was included in the 1998 Illustrators Exhibition at the Bologna Childrenšs Books Fair, and she was a guest author at the 2004 Frankfurt Book Fair. She has been nominated for the internationally-renowned 2006 Hans Christian Andersen Award for children's literature.
She lives and works in the town of Celje in Slovenia. Why? is the first of her books to be published in Australia and New Zealand.
John S Cheetham
John Cheetham, B.A. B.Ed Dip.C.H. F.A.A.H.S. F.S.S.E. M.A.C.E. M.A.P.S., is a psychologist, author, broadcaster and founding director of Melbourne's Student Achievement Centre. He is the author of two books: Grow Up! How to raise an adult by being one yourself (Wilkins Farago) and Teach Your Child to Spell (Hyland House), and a major contributor to the spoken word CD Back on Track.
John appears regularly on national and regional radio and television, most notably as a weekly contributor to the Neil Mitchell program on Melbourne's 3AW, and as an occasional expert commentator on Channel Seven's 'Today Tonight' programme.
Tae-Jun Lee
Tae Jun Lee was born in Korea in 1904 and, poignantly, was orphaned as a child. He wrote his most famous stories, including many for children and young adults, during the 1930s. His works are well-loved in Korea for their poetic prose and emotional sensitivity. After Korea's liberation in 1945, Lee settled in North Korea and was a war correspondent during the Korean War (1950 - 1953). Little is known of his activities thereafter, except that he disappeared in 1956, presumed purged by the North Korean Communist Party.
First published in 1938, his celebrated story Waiting for Mummy has received new life almost 50 years after his death.
Dong-Sung Kim
Contemporary Korean artist Dong-Sung Kim was born in 1970 and graduated from Hong-ik University, Seoul, with a major in Oriental Painting. He has illustrated several childrenšs picture books, including Waiting for Mummy, which is painted on han-ji (traditional Korean paper), using traditional muck-sun (Chinese ink line) techniques. Dong-Sung Kim lives in Seoul with his wife and young son.
View Dong-Sung Kim's illustrations on his Korean blog.
