Publisher's synopsis
Sometimes you don’t always get what you want. Instead of the rocket backpack, you might end up with a terrible suitcase for the very first day of school. And this makes you mad! But sometimes what you think is terrible, might not be so terrible after all, especially when there are rocket ships and new friends involved. The Terrible Suitcase is a lovely story about acceptance, making friends and new experiences.
Illustrator
Click here to read more about Freya Blackwood.
Emma Allen was a trained speech pathologist, specialising in early childhood, before she returned to university to pursue a lifelong love of literature. The Terrible Suitcase won the 2013 CBCA Book of the Year: Early Childhood award. She writes from her Canberra home where she lives with her husband Richard and three young children Harriet, Rupert and Hazel.
Freya Blackwood was born in Edinburgh and grew up in Orange in NSW, Australia where she now lives with her daughter Ivy. After graduating from UTS in Visual Communications, Freya worked in the film industry as a production assistant, runner and effects technician. She began illustrating picture books in 2002 and has since been shortlisted for, and won many prestigious awards, including the Kate Greenaway Medal in 2010. Award-winning titles include Two Summers with John Heffernan (2004 CBCA Chrichton Award winner) and Amy & Louis with Libby Gleeson (2007 CBCA Picture Book of the Year for Younger Readers) with Scholastic Press; Little Hare titles Maudie and Bear with the late Jan Ormerod (2011 CBCA Early Childhood Book of the Year); Look, A Book! with Libby Gleeson (2012 CBCA Picture Book of the Year); Go To Sleep Jessie with Libby Gleeson (2015 CBCA Early Childhood Book of the Year) and My Two Blankets with Irena Kobald (2015 CBCA Picture Book of the Year); and from Allen & Unwin The Cleo Stories: The Necklace and The Present with Libby Gleeson (CBCA Winner Book of the Year: Younger Readers). Freya works and creates in her backyard studio.
Bio: Hardie Grant Publishing
Photo: HarperCollins Publishers Australia