Cirrus@Austlit

'For the past eight years Susannah McFarlane and Louise Park have co-written fantasy action books aimed at getting the most reluctant of readers, often boys, hooked into reading. Under the name Mac Park, Susannah and Louise have created the much loved Boy vs Beast (Scholastic) and, in July, the new series D-Bot Squad is launched by Allen & Unwin. Susannah and Lousie, who live in different cities, talk about their rather unique writing partnership.' (Introduction)

'Susanne Gervay was in Adelaide recently, a recipient of a Creative Time Residential Fellowship from the May Gibbs Children's Literature Trust. We met a Cibo's coffee shop in Hutt St to shear some thoughts about writing and her work. Before we met I naturally googles and found much of the same sort of information that you can easily find out about authors, but there were several things that intrigued me.' (Introduction)

'The stuffed toy koalas seen in tourist shops have only a sanitised resemblance to Saxby's and Vivas's real life koala ; Nor do their animals live and idyllic life in an arcadian landscape. Their koala lives in the real world and needs to survive the vicissitudes of life in the Australian bush.' (Introduction)

'In the midst of the riches of picture books, novels, graphic novels and illustrated books published around the world., let's look at what is unique about Australian books for young people. Our land and country is unique. We are an island, so are geographically quite isolated. Our vast space inspires the settings of our literature, as does our climate(which is often warm and sunny but can be quite variable) and our bright light is reflected in our writing and illustrative styles- vibrant, innovative, and sometimes bold and audacious.' (Introduction)

'Small, independent imprints have made a valuable contribution to the publishing of books for children in Australia. Such publishers have often been likened to mushrooms, springing up on the forest floor when conditions are right, making good use of the nutritious spaces left by the  -often non-native -giant trees.' (Introduction)