About the author

Jackie French and her husband Bryan live in the Araluen valley, a deep valley on the edge of the Deua wilderness area, in a stone house they built themselves , with a homemade waterwheel as well as solar panels to power their house (and computers). Their garden rambles over about 4 hectares, with roses dripping from the trees, 800 fruit trees, and about 270 different kinds of fruit (not counting 125 varieties of apple) , so there is never a time when there aren't basketsfull of fruit to pick. Jackie also describes herself as a 'wombat negotiator' and has spent three decades studying the wombats in her valley.

Jackie is ACT (Australian Capital Territory) Children's Ambassador, and patron of Club Cool, an ACT library programme to encourage kids to read, At Home with Books, a programme to encourage reading with foster children, and the local Wildcare, which looks after injured wildlife and returns them to the bush. She is also a director of The Wombat Foundation, that raises funds for research into the preservation of the endangered northern hairy nosed wombat.

Author's web site: www.jackiefrench.com

Teacher’s notes are available at the HarperCollins web site

About the illustrator

Bruce Whatley was born in South Australia, but after ten years his family moved to the United Kingdom where he studied visual communications and later worked in the advertising industry. He returned to Australia with his family in the 1980's, and later spent some years working in the United States of America. Bruce now works in a New South Wales country town as a full time writer and illustrator.

In his school presentations, Bruce is keen to show how text and pictures work together to tell a story. He illustrates his talks with his own drawings, talks about how a picture book is made and shows students how they can use their ideas to compose their own books.

Read an interview with Bruce Whatley.