NLA image of person
Alison Lester Alison Lester i(A6260 works by) (a.k.a. Alison Jean Hume Lester)
Born: Established: 1952 Foster, Foster - Welshpool area, South Gippsland, Gippsland, Victoria, ;
Gender: Female
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BiographyHistory

Alison Lester was born at Foster, Victoria. Raised on a farm, she was educated at St. Margaret's in Berwick, Victoria, where she was a boarder. She trained as a Secondary Arts and Crafts teacher, with a Higher Diploma in Teaching from Melbourne Teachers' College, and taught for some time.

Lester began illustrating books in the late 1970s, and for much of the early 1980s, she concentrated on illustrating books by other writers such as Robin Klein (especially the Thing series) and June Epstein (especially the Augustus series). In 1985, she published the first work that she had both written and illustrated: Clive Eats Alligators. Since then, she has continued to illustrate the work of other authors, but has increasingly illustrated her own works.

In her works, Alison Lester injects romance, adventure and imagination into the everyday world of pre-school children - their likes/dislikes, meal-times, getting dressed, playing, shopping, sleeping. Her childhood on the family cattle farm is apparent as inspiration in many of her books.

Many of Lester's books have been translated into other languages and taught in universities across Australia. Many have been short-listed and received awards including the Children's Book Council of Australia Book of the Year, Australian Multicultural Children's Literature, and Australian Book Publishers Association Design Awards. She has twice been nominated for the prestigious Astrid Lindgren Memorial Awarial, and has won the Dromkeen Medal.

From 2011 to 2013, Lester was the inaugural Australian Children's Laureate, for the Australian Children's Literature Alliance. In 2015 to 2016, she produced works in association with the Indigenous Literacy Foundation, workshopping stories with children in schools across Australia: the subsequent books included No Way Yirrikipayi! (with Milikapita School) and Kunbarlanja Kunbolk (with Gunbalanya School).

In 2016, Allen & Unwin published Alison Lester’s Wonderful World, a colouring book for children aged five to eighteen.

Exhibitions

Most Referenced Works

Notes

  • For information about this author's works for children not yet included in AustLit, see Australian Children's Books by Marcie Muir and Kerry White (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1992-2003).
  • Voted number 40 in the Booktopia Top 50 Favourite Australian Authors for 2018

  • Alison Lester was chosen for the Australia Post 2019 Australian Legends of Children's Literature stamp issue . 

Personal Awards

2023 nominated The Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award
2019 recipient Order of Australia Member of the Order of Australia (AM) For significant service to literature as a children's author and illustrator, and to Indigenous literacy.
2018 winner Melbourne Prize Melbourne Prize for Literature

Awards for Works

y separately published work icon A Tiny Light St Lucia : University of Queensland Press , 2022 24825123 2022 single work picture book children's

'The perfect bedtime story from Australia's most loved-picture book creator

'When you go to bed tonight,
be sure to leave a tiny light
so Twinkles in the Milky Way
can find you when they come to play ...

'This gentle story offers both wonder and comfort, and feels like a reassuring hug at bedtime.

'Children everywhere will love the magic of the Twinkles!' (Publication summary)

2023 shortlisted Booksellers Choice Award BookPeople Book of the Year Children's Book of the Year
2023 shortlisted Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA) Small Publishers' Children's Book of the Year
y separately published work icon A Tiny Light St Lucia : University of Queensland Press , 2022 24825123 2022 single work picture book children's

'The perfect bedtime story from Australia's most loved-picture book creator

'When you go to bed tonight,
be sure to leave a tiny light
so Twinkles in the Milky Way
can find you when they come to play ...

'This gentle story offers both wonder and comfort, and feels like a reassuring hug at bedtime.

'Children everywhere will love the magic of the Twinkles!' (Publication summary)

2023 shortlisted Booksellers Choice Award BookPeople Book of the Year Children's Book of the Year
2023 shortlisted Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA) Small Publishers' Children's Book of the Year
y separately published work icon Noni the Pony Counts to a Million Crows Nest : Allen and Unwin , 2021 22584311 2021 single work picture book children's

'Noni the Pony has a lot of fun counting everything she sees on a happy summer's day! You may have met Noni already in Noni the Pony, Noni the Pony Goes to the Beach and Noni the Pony Rescues a Joey.

'Noni the Pony stands under one tree, and watches her two friends dance by the sea. She gives three speckled hens a ride up the hill… Come on another adventure with Noni in this delightful rhyming story.

'Alison Lester's books are favourites with children and adults around the world. Magic Beach, Imagine, My Farm and Noni the Pony are Australian classics.' (Publication summary)

2022 shortlisted Speech Pathology Australia Book of the Year Awards Birth to 3 Years
Last amended 25 Feb 2020 11:25:09
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