Born in Sydney, Rod Clement spent several years of his childhood in Papua New Guinea, an experience which led to his love of nature. This enabled him to portray images of animals with a precision and flair that appealed to his young readers. Humour prevails in his work and he has received several awards for his richly illustrated picture books, which include Edward the Emu (1988), a verse story, and Edwina the Emu (1996), both written by Sheena Knowles.
Publications written and illustrated by Clement include Counting on Frank (1990), Grandad's Teeth (1997), which was shortlisted for the Children's Book Council 1998 Awards, Frank in Time (1998) and Olga the Brolga (2002). Grandad's Teeth is a detective story about a search for the lost set of teeth.
Clement is an author, illustrator and cartoonist and he has worked as an illustrator for the Sydney Morning Herald and the Australian Geographic and draws cartoons for the Australian Financial Review.