60 Classic Australian Poems for Children (17 page)

Christopher Cheng
worked as a teacher in city and country schools before moving to Taronga Zoo as an education officer for eight years, establishing Australia's first Zoomobile. He has been National Children's Development Manager at Dymocks and Education Advisor for the BioScope Initiative, a science-based CD-ROM project at Purdue University, USA.

Chris has a Master of Arts in Children's Literature and has been a Literacy Ambassador for the Federal Government's Literacy and Numeracy Week initiative.

He is an accomplished children's author who writes fiction and non-fiction full time, conducts workshops and visits schools. He has also presented to students at schools and universities in the USA. His picture book
One child
, illustrated by Steven Woolman, won the Wilderness Society Environment Award for Picture Books (Australia) and the 2000 Skipping Stones Honour Book (USA). He also wrote
30 Amazing Australian Animals
for Random House Australia and recently completed a libretto for a children's Christmas musical.

Chris lives in Sydney, Australia, near wonderful coffee shops and restaurants in a very old (newly renovated) terrace with his wife.

Find out more about Chris at
www.chrischeng.com

Gregory Rogers
studied fine art at the Queensland College of Art and has illustrated a large number of educational and trade children's picture books, including six books in the Random House
30 Australian
… series. In 1995 he won the Kate Greenaway Medal for his illustrations in
Way Home
. His first wordless picture book,
The Boy, the Bear, the Baron, the Bard
, was selected as one of the
New York Times
' Ten Best Illustrated Picture Books of 2004 and received numerous other awards and nominations. He also illustrated Nette Hilton's
Pyro Watson and the Hidden Treasure
, published by Woolshed Press, an imprint of Random House Australia.

Gregory lives in Brisbane, Australia.