It's True!

Meet our It's True! authors & illustrators in person!

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	STEPHEN AXELSEN illustrator of It's True! Bushrangers Lost Their Heads Stephen says that if he'd been a bushranger, he would have been the 'gentlemanly kind', tipping his hat and giving a bit of loot back to polite victims. He'd never ever spit. He'd have a horse named Philip. And he'd be too lazy to rob banks BUT ... he'd definitely have drawn his own "Wanted" poster!
	JOHN BARWICK author of It's True! Bushrangers Lost Their Heads John Barwick was born in the small NSW South Coast town of Moruya. After going to university, he tried being a storeman, office worker and vocational guidance counsellor before finally becoming a teacher. He's written primary text books and kids' books. John is currently the school Principal at a school on the Central Coast, NSW. During his spare time, you'll find him writing and reading about history (because he thinks it's very important!).
	DEBORAH BURNSIDE author of It's True! This Book is a Load of Rubbish Deborah Burnside had dreams of being a ballerina or an astronaut when she was a kid, but never ever a garbo. Her house seems like a junkyard most of the time, thanks to three sons, one husband and a large dog. Deborah's other books and stories were written in a little cottage by the sea, but this particular one, was written in a nice clean Earth office so she could be sure to stick to trash facts.
	SUE BURSZTYNSKI author of It's True! Your Cat could be a Spy Sue Bursztynski grew up in Melbourne's beachside suburbs and still lives there. She discovered writing and storytelling early, when her teachers put her up in front of the class to tell stories while they got their marking done. For fun, she likes doing handcrafts, belly-dancing and going to science fiction conventions.She grew up in the 1960s, when the Americans and Russians were using all sorts of gadgets to spy on each other.
	HEATHER CATCHPOLE co-author of It's True! There ARE Bugs in Your Bed , It's True! Space Turns You Into Spaghetti and It's True! Pirates ate Rats Heather Catchpole is an artist and a poet, but her favourite occupation is writing about science because it involves learning about the amazing way the world works. She is a science journalist for the ABC and has several years experience at the helm of a popular children’s science magazine produced by the CSIRO. Heather's favourite bugs are beetles because there are so many different kinds and they come in an amazing range of shiny colours.
	MEREDITH COSTAIN author of It's True! Hauntings Happen and Ghosts get Grumpy Meredith Costain grew up on a dairy farm on the Koo Wee Rup Swamp in West Gippsland, Victoria. She preferred reading books and writing stories and poems to milking cows. She now lives in inner-city Melbourne with her partner, three chooks, a cat, and two dogs - a kelpie and a red heeler (who like to chase the cat and herd the chooks). Her interests include keeping Molly the red heeler away from the cat, eating chocolate, cooking and playing blues piano. You can read more about Meredith at www.meredithcostain.com
	TERRY DENTON author and illustrator of It's True! Pigs Do Fly Terry Denton's books are playful, noisy, humorous and dramatic. His mind is wild and chaotic as a result of being trapped in a big house with four brothers for the first eighteen years of his life. He eventually escaped and now lives by the beach in a life he shares with his wife and three kids. His books include the Storymaze series, published by Allen & Unwin, and the Gasp! series, published by Penguin. Read more about Terry
	DAMIAN FARROW co-author of It's True! Sport Stinks Damian Farrow has been involved in sport all his life. He played footy and competitive tennis throughout his childhood years and now works for the Australian Institute of Sport where he teaches coaches and athletes how to train and play better (so if your favourite sports team loses a game, it may be his fault!). He also started a sports radio show with fellow It's True! author Justin Kemp called 'Run Like You Stole Something'.
	DAVID GREAGG author of It's True! Burke and Wills Forgot the Frying Pan and It's True! The Vikings Got Lost David lives in Melbourne and co-manages the Footscray Found Cats’ Home, where a lot of orphan cats lounge about the house all day devoting themselves to a life of pleasure. The rest of the time he works as a teacher. His interests include cricket, football, chess, mountain-climbing and dressing up in a suit of armour and hitting other dressed-up people with wooden swords. He is an accredited wizard. Have a look at his website: www.geocities.com/wizard_foots
	SUSAN GREEN author of It's True! Fashion Can Be Fatal Sue Green has been a teacher, radio producer, youth worker, cook, shop assistant, writer and part-time fashion victim. It’s True! Fashion Can Be Fatal is her ninth book for children and young people. Susan lives in country Victoria with her husband, son, mum, a dog, a cat, six fish and four pythons. She's mainly to be found in jeans and work boots, but the crinoline comes out on special occasions.
	NICKI GREENBERG author and illustrator of It's True! Squids Suck Like the octopus, Nicki is good at camouflage. She often disguises as a lawyer but on her days off she writes and illustrates comics. She likes to draw with her door closed so her two Bad Cats can't poke their whiskers into the ink-and also so nobody can see the weird faces she makes while working. Writing about squids and octopuses hasn't put Nicki off her favourite dish: crispy salt-and-pepper squid!
	ROLAND HARVEY illustrator of It's True! Burke and Wills Forgot the Frying Pan Roland Harvey started drawing when he was two years old. At school he learned that 2 + 2 is green-ish blue and the human body is funny. His parents wanted him to be a doctor, but instead he did a book on the history of medicine called Sick As. Roland loves the bush and the beach, and has the sunburn to prove it.
	BINNY HOBBS illustrator of It's True! Vikings Got Lost Binny Hobbs grew up on a farm surrounded by happy animals. She would often glance down at her notepad during meetings to find freshly drawn critters and a guilty pencil in hand - she was always dreaming of another world where animals ruled, and dogs could talk. She now makes a living from drawing animal characters. She was horrified to discover Vikings did not have horns on their helmets! She has her own website at: www.binny.com.au
Photo credit: Peter Gray	LEIGH HOBBS illustrator of It's True! Your Hair Grows 15 Kilometres a Year Leigh Hobbs is best known for his children's picture book characters, the subversive but lovable Old Tom and Horrible Harriet. His love of drawing began in primary school and he hasn't stopped creating art in one form or another since then. Leigh is a painter, sculptor, cartoonist and author. Read more about Leigh
	SHARON HOLT author of It's True! You Can Make Your Own Jokes Sharon Holt grew up in Auckland and went to car rallies with her dad as a child. She could fly a plane before she learnt how to drive a car! She was a teacher, a reporter, a publicity officer for World Vision, a second-hand bookshop owner and an assistant editor before becoming a writer. Her stories are usually based around things that have really happened to her. She enjoys cooking, gardening, reading, going to the beach and avoids housework until it shouts at her.
	ELISE HURST illustrator of It's True! Women Were Warriors Elise Hurst lives in an inner suburb of Melbourne where she can hear the whooping of amused monkeys at the Melbourne Zoo. As many people in her family were artists, no-one was shocked to find that she loved drawing and painting. She has now illustrated over 40 books and written several of her own. Elise works from her home in a bright room, surrounded by books and paintings, with a cat as company and a good vantage of her little garden.
	CAROL JONES author of It's True! Women Were Warriors Carol Jones was born in Brisbane Queensland and grew up barefoot (she liked the feeling of the earth/mud/sand beneath her feet). She has been a teacher and magazine editor before taking up writing full-time. She has two children, a husband and a dog named Billy. Her favourite activities are holidays on tropical islands, going out to dinner, watching her children play basketball and reading trashy magazines.
	THALIA KALKIPSAKIS author of It's True! Sleep Makes You Smarter Thalia grew up on a carrot farm on the outskirts of Melbourne. It had a bush area down the back that was perfect for escaping and exploring. She does her best writing in her head, while out for a run or a walk, and is also a great believer in sleeping through an idea. She discovered a lot about what happened when we sleep while learning to understand a dream she had about mini-cows! She lives with her husband and two children in North-East Victoria.
	GEOFF KELLY illustrator of It's True! Your Bones are Stronger than Concrete Geoff has been drawing funny pictures for a very long time. Until this book he'd concentrated on drawing the outside of people, never realising that the inside could be so much fun! He on occasions paints for his own pleasure and has also been known to waste extraordinarily lengthy amounts of otherwise productive time building sculptures of strange cartoon-like creatures. Read more about Geoff
	JUSTIN KEMP co-author of It's True! Sport Stinks Justin grew up in Melbourne where he focused solely on baseball and Aussie Rules. He hosts a sports radio show (with fellow It's True! author Damian Farrow), is a writer for newspaper and magazine columns and likes to play with contracting muscles as part of his PhD studies. Justin is the "impact player" (which means he's too unfit to play a whole 90 mins) for his soccer team, which he co-founded in 2000 called "The Frogmen".
	ROSS KINNAIRD illustrator of It's True! You Can Make Your Own Jokes Ross Kinnaird loves jokes. This got him into trouble at school. Now his ability in maths is truly funny. He lives in Auckland and when he is not busy drawing funny pictures, he is usually found crossing the road to get to the other side. He loves feeding little bits of bait to fish in the sea for hours and hours until they are all stuffed full and go home.
	DIANA LAWRENSON author of It's True! Your Hair Grows 15 Kilometres a Year and It's True! Your Bones are Stronger than Concrete Diana Lawrenson had practically no hair until she was two years old. Now she has plenty, and has written several award winning non-fiction books for kids. She trained as a nurse and a midwife and lived for a while in the Solomon Islands where she had adventures with cyclones, earthquakes and crocodiles. She is the author of Inside the Australian Ballet and Guidedogs : From Puppies to Partners. Read more about Diana
	JOHN LONG author of It's True! Dinosaurs Never Died John Long began collecting fossils at the age of seven. He has collected fossils in Australia, Thailand, Vietnam and South Africa, and has been on two expeditions to Antarctica. John says his home computer is covered in small plastic dinosaurs. "When I get bored, the T- rex always starts attacking the hadrosaur! That's how I started writing about the greatest ever dinosaur battles." John's hobbies include writing, reading, drawing, motorcycles and martial arts. He works at the Western Australian Museum in Perth.
	MIC LOOBY illustrator of It's True! Frogs Are Cannibals , It's True! Animals are Electrifying and It's True! Pirates ate Rats Mic Looby is a writer, editor, illustrator and cartoonist. He doodled his way through school, accidentally earned a degree in journalism at RMIT and has worked for newspapers in Australia and Hong Kong and for Lonely Planet, the travel publisher. He lists his hobbies as chewing pens and humming softly.
	BEVERLEY MACDONALD author of It's True! Crime Doesn’t Pay Beverley MacDonald firmly believes that truth can be stranger than fiction. She likes to listen to other peoples' conversations because real people's lives are the most interesting stories of all. When she is not writing innovative non-fiction books for kids, Beverley spends most of her time trying to keep order in a chaotic and noisy household. Read more about Beverley
	PETER MACINNIS author of It's True! You Eat Poison Every Day Peter Macinnis was born in Queensland during World War II, but grew up on Sydney's northern beaches, where he still lives, and where he is a somewhat obsessive bushwalker. He became fascinated with science at a young age. He bought his first poison at the age of 12, much to the suspicion of the pharmacist who sold it to him (the pharmacist gave in when he learned that it was for water-proofing canvas).
	TRACEY MCGUIRE author of It's True! A Bushfire Burned My Dunny Down Tracey McGuire has always been intrigued by true-life adventures. She devised death-defying initiation tests for friends…until she nearly lost her sister in a bottomless, muddy bog. She was run over by a car, tried to fly off a chookhouse and came close enough to the Ash Wednesday fires for her hair to catch alight. These days, Tracey thinks it's safer to have creative adventures- writing, acting and painting- about real people in extraordinary situations. She is completing a PhD in Literature and Creative Writing at Melbourne University.
	HEATH MCKENZIE illustrator of It's True! Space turns You into Spaghetti and It's True! Sport Stinks Heath McKenzie lives in Melbourne and has illustrated more books and magazines than he can count on two hands - he blames toys, cartoons and old movie posters for the way his drawings look. He is generally inspired by too much television, too many movies and lots of music. He is specifically inspired by 50s & 60s commercial art, Japanese signs, cartoons (anything animated, really!) and toys. Oh, and he's a big fan of robots and spaceships...and monkeys (preferably combined)!
	KEN MCNAMARA author of It's True! We Came From Slime Ken McNamara has been collecting fossils for so long he almost feels like one at times. He is very happy to work as a palaeontologist at the Western Australia Museum in Perth, where they pay him to spend time on his hobby. As well as collecting fossils, studying them, writing scientific papers and books about them, he and his colleagues have put a great display of them on at the museum called, 'Diamonds to Dinosaurs'.
	ANDREW PLANT illustrator of It's True! We Came From Slime , It's True! Everest Kills and It's True! Sleep Makes You Smarter Andrew Plant has been drawing fossils, and the creatures that left them behind, almost since he first picked up a crayon. In fact, he’ll draw just about anything, and has also written a few books to put the pictures in, as well as illustrating heaps of other people’s books. He also teaches schoolkids about dinosaurs at the Monash University Science Centre in Melbourne.
Photo credit: Martina Matussek	GREGORY ROGERS illustrator of It's True! Fashion Can Be Fatal Gregory Rogers still owns the clothes that he wore back in the 1970's. Not that he wears them. He just thinks it's criminal to throw out something that isn’t absolutely threadbare. In those days, his favourite pair of shoes were bubble-toe, platform soled 'Noddy' shoes in red, ochre and green. Looking back, he realises there is a thin line between making a statement and being a fashion tragedy. Gregory Rogers is an award-winning illustrator. He is the first, and to date the only, Australian illustrator ever to have won the prestigious Kate Greenaway medal. Read more about Gregory
	CRAIG SMITH illustrator of It's True! There ARE Bugs in Your Bed and It's True! Hauntings Happen and Ghosts Get Grumpy Craig Smith grew up in South Australia and studied graphic design at the SA School of Art. He was once a rust scraper on the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and wanted to be a political cartoonist. Now he is a prolific, award-winning illustrator. His best known books include Whistle Up the Chimney, Dreadful David, Where's Mum? and Billy the Punk. You can visit Craig's website at www.craigsmithillustration.com
	TRAVIS TISCHLER illustrator of It's True! Dinosaurs Never Died Travis says: "How could I not love dinosaurs, when I grew up in Texas? There are dino bones everywhere there, and I was fascinated by them. As a kid, I always loved drawing and making model dinosaurs. I still do! But now the models are bigger and I get paid for making them."
	PROFESSOR MIKE TYLER author of It's True! Frogs Are Cannibals Professor Mike Tyler has been mad about frogs since he was a boy, which is quite a long time ago. He is known around the world as 'The Frogman', and has found out enough about frogs and toads to write 24 books. Even so, he has admitted that he can't stomach frogs' legs, especially tinned frogs' legs, which he says taste like wet rope. Mike is an Associate Professor at Adelaide University.
	MITCH VANE illustrator of It's True! Your Cat could be a Spy Mitch (Michelle) grew up in an artistic household. She's interested in most forms of visual storytelling but humour always plays a large part in her work. She prefers drawing funny crazy pictures, the crazier the better! All of her work is wonky and messy. She can't draw a straight line, even with a ruler. Her desk is usually covered in paper, paint tubes, water bottles, empty cups, pencil shavings, biscuit crumbs and ink splotches. She draws cartoons which appear every week with her partner, Danny's column in The Age newspaper.
	RICK WILKINSON author of It's True! Animals are Electrifying Rick Wilkinson began writing stories when he was ten, so he could never be found when his parents wanted him to mow the lawn. He liked reading about animals and wanted to be a zoologist. But he became a geologist instead, and learned about amazing fossil animals. Then he changed jobs to become a journalist and write about explorers. He still writes animal stories in his spare time and still tries to get out of doing household chores.
	KIM WILSON author of It's True! Everest Kills Kim Wilson grew up in the outer bush areas near Warrandyte with her active family. Her childhood involved being dragged into the bush to camp under canvas by her Mum, who was the local scout leader. She's qualified to teach outdoor education to year 12 and instruct in various outdoor activities. She taught at Melbourne, did some world travelling and hiking and is now the editor of OK! magazine.
	BILL WOOD illustrator of It's True! A Bushfire Burned My Dunny Down Bill Wood has been illustrating professionally since 1988. His work is varied and always exciting, and ranges from advertising materials, to children’s books, maps, stamps and anything where an illustrative solution is needed. He lives with his wife and partner, Gracia, and their two sons, Samuel and Raphael, who keep him on the ball all the time. You can see more of Bill's work at www.illustration.com.au
	VANESSA WOODS co-author of It's True! There ARE Bugs in Your Bed , It's True! Space Turns You Into Spaghetti and It's True! Pirates ate Rats Originally from Canberra, Vanessa Woods now runs around the jungle in Costa Rica chasing monkeys. Vanessa has written articles for various magazines but this is her first book. When the monkeys let her rest, Vanessa films short segments for the Disney Channel on weird, quirky, and amazing animals all over the world. Her favourite animals are Gandalf, the only monkey she knows who squints, and Baluku, a baby chimp who used to pee on her bed.
	JOHN WRIGHT co-author of It's True! The Romans were the Real Gangsters John Wright is an Australian academic, who works in the U.K. When John left Australia for the U.K., he had to give up surfing and football. So, as well as writing scholarly articles, he has now taken up Kendo lessons with some of the finest samurai in England. According to his brother Joshua, John Wright is an 'ancient history nut'. He wrote It's True! The Romans were the Real Gangsters during a solo archaeological fact-finding expedition in Egypt.
	JOSHUA WRIGHT co-author and illustrator of It's True! The Romans were the Real Gangsters After painting a girl's hair blue in kindergarten, Joshua Wright knew the artistic life beckoned. His drawings and stories are full of mayhem and adventure, just like ancient Rome. He is the creator of the popular graphic novels Plotless Pointless Pathetic and Hapless Hopeless Horrible, which was adapted into a successful stage play by RMIT. Read more about Joshua
	ANDREW WELDON illustrator of It's True! Crime Doesn’t Pay Andrew Weldon is a popular and widely published cartoonist. His work appears in newspapers around Australia, and he has illustrated several books. Andrew has no pets, allergies or prominent birthmarks and his favourite colour is purple.