OZ LIT PROFILE #1 - DIANNE BATES

Everyone knows Australians are mad about their sports. They like to 'show the club colours' every weekend, waving their banners and wearing their jerseys. We love our books too. So every weekend I am going to wear 'the red, white and blue' and profile an Aussie author or illustrator.

My first profile is Dianne Bates, author of over 100 books for children and young adults including non-fiction, picture books, chapter books and young adult fiction. She has won critical and Children's Choice awards and is the current recipient of the prestigious Lady Cutler Award for Services to Children's Literature (2008). Di is active in every aspect of children's literature - at the grass roots level she runs a regular kids book club and at the national organisational level she is a branch president of The Children's Book Council of Australia. She runs courses, distributes an on-line magazine for children's writers Buzz Words and is mentor to many aspiring writers. As well as continuing to write...

It gives me great pleasure to have Di as my first profile as she is my writing mentor (and hero!) - she taught me so much I wouldn't know where to begin. But it gives me even greater pleasure to have Di as my friend. So without further ado [grin] here are Di's answers to eight quick questions and tomorrow I will post my review of her latest YA novel Crossing the Line (soon to be released in the US).

1. The last children's/YA book you read (fiction or non-fiction) Something More by Mo Johnson (Allen & Unwin) Actually I am still reading it.


2. If it wasn't an Oz title, then the last Oz title NA
   
3. Name one favourite book from your childhood The Swiss Family Robinson
   
4. Name one picture book that you love for the illustrations I’ll Take You to Mrs Cole by Nigel Gray, illustrated by Michael Foreman
   
5. What is your personal favourite among the books you have authored/illustrated The Belligrumble Bigfoot
   
6. What book do you wish you had written - for love or money Where the Lilies Bloom by Bill and Vera Cleaver
   
7. If you could be a character in a book, who (or what) would you be Dicey Tillerman from Dicey’s Song by Cynthia Voigt
   
8. Do you have a favourite quote - from a book or life in general! Anything. Consider bonsai: there but for restricting bowl would be a giant