Janeen Brian – April 2015

Janeen has been a junior primary, primary and drama teacher as well as a teacher-librarian. She had a four-year career with a professional children’s theatre company, both acting and writing. Janeen has written over 80 books both in trade and educational, and in genres ranging from picture books to poetry, short fiction, non-fiction and novels. She also writes for national and overseas children’s magazines and has over 200 poems, plays, stories or articles published.

Silly Galah! – Illustrated by Cheryll Johns
Scholastic Australia/Omnibus Books, 2001; ISBN 9781862914421
2 – 9 year olds
Hooray! Hoorah! The pink galah is an acrobatic circus star! Above the ground, upside down, a whirling, twirling crazy clown. He sets off such a brouhaha, cheeky, beaky silly galah!

Janeen Brian’s witty verses are combined with a short factual text and quirky illustrations. A fun and informative collection of rhyming poems about Australia’s unique birds and animals.

Our Village in the Sky – Illustrated by Anne Spudvilas
Allen & Unwin, 2014; ISBN 9781743318140
6-10 year olds
From two outstanding creators comes a lyrical, poetic text and beautiful artwork celebrating the lives of children in a remote Himalayan village as they make their work into play. ‘Our village sits above the great river, nestled in the Himalayan mountains. This is what we do on summer days when school is closed for holiday time, in our village in the sky.’ Janeen Brian’s evocative poems, beautifully illustrated by Anne Spudvilas, reveal how the vital work of children in a remote village can be transformed through imagination into joyful play.