John Marsden has received the 2018 Dromkeen medal for his enduring passion for and contribution to Australian children’s literature and children’s education. Find out which books were important to him as a child.
Willy Pogany (born Vilmos Andras Pogany) was a prolific contributor during the Golden Age of children’s book illustration, whose career broadened from children’s book illustration to portraiture and set designs for opera and ballet.
Arts & literature, Our stories:
Kay Nielsen’s delicate illustrations combined the exquisite motifs of the Art Nouveau movement with oriental influences. The elaborate, decorative artworks bring brilliant colour tinged with a hint of eeriness to the pages of children’s fairy tales.
Arts & literature, Our stories:
Pop-up books enthral readers for many reasons: their ingenuity, their beauty, and because they challenge the two-dimensional nature of printed books. Explore the range of paper engineering mechanisms that have been used in books for more than 700 years.
Edmund Dulac published in the first decades of the twentieth century, at a time now recognised as a golden age of children’s book illustration.
Arthur Rackham’s haunting images in children’s fairy tales evoke a sense of mystery, even nightmare. They made him the leading decorative illustrator of the Edwardian era.
The brothers Samuel and William Calvert established a series of children’s books in the 1870s called Calvert’s Australian Picture Books, bringing wood block printing techniques developed by the English master printer Edmund Evans to Australia.
News:
State Library Victoria today awarded the 2017 Dromkeen Medal to esteemed editor and publisher Erica Wagner.
Randolph Caldecott (1846-1886) broke late 19th century conventions of children’s book illustration by interpreting stories rather than decorating them, peopling them with cheeky caricatures involved in chaotic escapades.
Walter Crane (1845-1915) is today best known for his ornately illustrated 19th century children’s books. He designed artwork for the British master printer Edmund Evans in a variety of capacities for ten years, before Randolph Caldecott and Kate Greenaway joined him as Evans’ triumvirate of children’s Toy Book illustrators.
