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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

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
2017 nominated The Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award

Awards for Works

y separately published work icon Sing Me the Summer South Melbourne : Affirm Press , 2020 19843943 2020 single work picture book children's

'Splash into summer with this glorious love letter to the seasons.

'Combining Jane Godwin's sparkling text and Alison Lester's whimsical watercolours, Sing Me the Summer celebrates those precious everyday moments that stay with us forever.' (Publication summary)

2021 shortlisted Speech Pathology Australia Book of the Year Awards Three to 5 Years
2021 shortlisted Booksellers Choice Award Children's Book of the Year
2021 CBCA Book of the Year Awards Notable Book Picture Books
2021 shortlisted Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA) Children's Picture Book of the Year
2021 shortlisted Indie Awards Children's
y separately published work icon The Painted Ponies Crows Nest : Allen and Unwin , 2019 17061418 2019 single work picture book children's

'Matilda loves staying at her grandma's, riding the pony in the front paddock and playing with the painted ponies kept in a wooden box carved like a wagon. The gold palomino, the chestnut, the bay, the pinto, the brown and the dapply grey. One day, Lucky tells Matilda about when she was a little girl and the real ponies were her friends.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

2020 shortlisted Speech Pathology Australia Book of the Year Awards Five to 8 Years
2020 longlisted Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA) Children's Picture Book of the Year
2020 longlisted Indie Awards Children's
y separately published work icon The Painted Ponies Crows Nest : Allen and Unwin , 2019 17061418 2019 single work picture book children's

'Matilda loves staying at her grandma's, riding the pony in the front paddock and playing with the painted ponies kept in a wooden box carved like a wagon. The gold palomino, the chestnut, the bay, the pinto, the brown and the dapply grey. One day, Lucky tells Matilda about when she was a little girl and the real ponies were her friends.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

2020 shortlisted Speech Pathology Australia Book of the Year Awards Five to 8 Years
2020 longlisted Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA) Children's Picture Book of the Year
2020 longlisted Indie Awards Children's
Last amended 25 Feb 2020 11:25:09
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