Jeannette is the ABC s best-selling Australian author and illustrator. She has sold well over 1.5 million books worlwide, into 19 countries and over 14 different languages. For more than fifteen years Jeannette has been working from her Melbourne based studio by the sea. She began her highly successful career with her award-winning book “Scallywag”. During this time, Jeannette has enjoyed working with many other wonderful authors such as Paul Jennings,Donna Rawlins, Duncan Ball and now, Louise Park. When Jeannette s daughter was born in 1995, her work changed from her previously more complicated watercolour and pencil drawings, to her new bright and bold drawing style. Wanting to create books for her new baby, Jeannette developed this vibrant new drawing style to accommodate her daughter s love of bright colours, animals and surprises. This winning formula resulted in over 50 very successful “Whose”, “YoYo” and “My” books being published with ABC Books. Jeannette s work as a writer has grown from a strong educational base. Originally she worked as an art teacher and curriculum writer encompassing all levels of primary education. Children find her books full of warm characters and fun learning opportunities. Counting, naming objects and learning about colours, size and shapes, are just some of the integrated concepts Jeannette weaves into her brightly coloured books. Her most recent book series, SmartyCat , has been published by Hardie Grant Egmont Australia. The first six new books, will delight parents and older preschoolers by helping to answer those endless tricky questions all young children love to ask, in a simple fun way. In each book, SmartyCat asks a question and one of his many friends helps him find the answer. Each book ends with a little joke and a theme related activity, that adults can try out with their child. The next six books in the series will be released in early 2009, with more to follow.