The Rabbits

John Marsden

John Marsden was born in Victoria, Australia in 1950. He went to many different primary schools, and from an early age enjoyed the journeys into magical worlds that reading could provide. His teachers in Grade 4 and Grade 6 encouraged him to write, and at the age of nine he decided he wanted to become an author.

For seven years he attended The King’s School Parramatta, a strict military school in Sydney, and from there went on to the University of Sydney. However, he soon decided that a career in law looked too boring, so he dropped out and drifted around for nearly 10 years, trying different jobs, and earning just enough money to support himself.

When he was 28, he began a teaching course, which he loved from the start. Embarking on a teaching career, he also became more and more interested in writing, and in 1987 succeeded in getting his first book, So Much to Tell You, published. A string of huge hits followed, highlighted by the Tomorrow series and The Ellie Chronicles. John has now sold more than two and a half million books in Australia alone, but is also an international best-seller, with many major awards to his credit.

John’s interest in education has never waned. In 1998 he bought the Tye Estate, 850 acres of natural bush, on the northern edge of Melbourne, and later added the property next door. For eight years he ran enormously popular writers’ courses and camps at Tye, before starting his own school there, Candlebark, in 2006.

Candlebark is a P-8 school, which has been described by John as “somewhere between Steiner and The Simpsons”. Its friendly, lively and positive atmosphere has resulted in such early success that it has a four-year waiting list.

Visit John Marsden’s official website.

Shaun Tan

Shaun Tan was born in 1974 and grew up in the northern suburbs of Perth, Western Australia. In school he became known as the ‘good drawer’ which partly compensated for always being the shortest kid in every class. He graduated from the University of WA in 1995 with joint honours in Fine Arts and English Literature, and currently works full-time as a freelance artist and author in Melbourne.

Shaun began drawing and painting images for science fiction and horror stories in small-press magazines as a teenager, and has since become best known for illustrated books that deal with social, political and historical subjects through surreal, dream-like imagery. Books such as The Rabbits, The Red Tree, The Lost Thing and the acclaimed wordless novel The Arrival have been widely translated throughout Europe, Asia and South America, and enjoyed by readers of all ages. Shaun has also worked as a theatre designer, and worked as a concept artist for the films Horton Hears a Who and Pixar’s WALL–E. He is currently directing a short film with Passion Pictures Australia; his latest book is Rules of Summer (October 2013).

Shaun is the winner of the 2011 Astrid Lindgren prize, the world’s richest children’s literature award. The award described Shaun as ‘a masterly visually storyteller’. The film adaptation of The Lost Thing won the Oscar for best animated short film in 2011.