User:Tallowwood2/Queensland children's book illustrators

Queensland Children's Book Illustration
Queensland often featured as a location in Children's literature of the 19th and early 20th century, but there was minimal children’s book publishing in the state until the later decades of the 20th century.

The first children's book illustrated by a Queenslander was possibly Marsupial Bill published in Brisbane in 1879 and illustrated by J.A. Clarke, the first art instructor at the Brisbane Technical College. Hastily and carelessly produced and printed, the cover is the only really attractive illustration.

Before University of Queensland Press and Jacaranda Press were established in Brisbane in 1948 and 1954 respectively, Queensland book illustrators had few opportunities for work in their home state. Margaret Paice's Mirram, which won a commendation in the Children's Book Council of Australia Picture Book of the Year Awards in 1955, was published in Sydney. Walter Stackpool also worked in Sydney as an illustrator for Angus and Robertson and Rosemary Fielding was in London when she illustrated Adventures on Parrot Island in 1964. The 1970s, which saw a flowering of children's book publishing in Australia, also saw the emergence of Queensland illustrators such as Quentin Hole, the North Queensland indigenous artist Dick Roughsey, Sandra Laroche (whose first book Stephen's Tree was published in 1979) and Frank Moffatt.

Illustrators whose work started to appear in the 1980s include Kerry Argent (whose picture book One Woolly Wombat, first published in 1982, is now considered a modern classic) and Susy Boyer, who illustrated Lights Out for Jacaranda Press in 1988

Two of the most prolific Queensland children's book illustrators are Gregory Rogers and David Cox. In 1994 Gregory Rogers was the first Australian to win the Kate Greenaway Medal, for The Way Home.