Nan Bodsworth

Nan Bodsworth was born in 1936 at Swan Hill in Victoria, and grew up on a mixed farm on the flood plain of the Murray River. She was educated at Beverford Primary School and Swan Hill High School. She did her art training at Caulfield Technical School and Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, and her teacher training at Melbourne Teachers' College.

She taught art and craft at Camperdown High School in 1956 and 1957 before marrying an engineer and moving to Yallourn, where she taught art and a variety of other subjects at Yallourn High School. In 1961 she was seconded to the Art Department at Prahran Technical School, teaching craft, drawing and painting to art teachers in training.

In 1963, after the birth of their first child, the Bodsworths moved to Port Moresby, where Nan worked part-time at home as Medical Artist for the Papua New Guinea Department of Public Health, and later started her own business as a fashion designer and manufacturer.

In 1969 the family returned to Australia when her husband Brian was appointed as a lecturer in Engineering at the Gordon Institute of Technology in Geelong.

After working for twenty years teaching design half-time, Nan retired so that she could spend more time working on her children's books. She is passionately interested in children's reading, and works closely with local primary schools as she refines her stories, often using real children as models for the children in her books.

She is very keen on reading, thinking, snorkelling and fishing, and spends a lot of time day-dreaming. She likes looking at the natural world, gardening, and making things with her hands (especially puppets, which she uses in schools).

Nan and Brian live at Curlewis on the shores of Corio Bay on the Bellarine Peninsula near Geelong in Victoria. They have three adult children and two grandchildren.

Nan Bodsworth has written and illustrated four children's picture books, all published by Penguin and in print as Picture Puffin paperbacks: Mike's Birthday Bulldozer (1981), Mike's Bulldozer and the Big Flood (1994), Hello Kangaroo! (1986), and A Nice Walk in the Jungle (1989). A Nice Walk in the Jungle was short listed in 1990 for the Children's Book Council's Picture Book of the Year Award, as well as being listed for several children's choice book awards, including one in Nevada, USA.

The ideas for the published books have come mainly from family incidents, but Nan tries to work her stories around universal themes. The books are meant to work at several levels; at their simplest, at an entertaining level that will encourage early readers, but with under-layers that are more serious.

In 1997 Nan illustrated Princess Euphorbia by Vashti Farrer for the Longman Supa Dooper series, and in early 1998 illustrated Bill the Inventor by Garth Nix for the Koala Books Tadpoles series.

In 1999 she wrote and illustrated Peg Leg Meg, a short novel for 8-12 year olds, for the Penguin Aussie Bites series

Reviews of Nan Bodsworth's Children's Books

Mike's Birthday Bulldozer

• 'brilliantly portrays a typical childhood fantasy' The Guardian
• 'brilliantly illustrated picture storybook' Adelaide Advertiser

Hello Kangaroo!
published as Monkey Business (USA) and Don't Touch that Kangaroo! (UK)

• 'Young children will be enchanted by the beautiful illustrations and clever storyline' Herald-Sun, Aust.
• 'Unpretentious but imaginative, it is as near perfect a picture book as I can imagine.' Philadelphia Inquirer, USA
• 'Totally joyous pic bk with magnificent colour spreads.' Book Promotions, UK

A Nice Walk in the Jungle

• 'The words of this cautionary tale are beautifully judged.' Junior Bookshelf, UK
• 'Young readers will enjoy the silly situation and delight in spying all the animals - hidden in the colorful illustrations - that of course Miss Jellaby fails to see. Amusing fare from Australia.'
• 'Nan Bodsworth's colorful step into wry humor and intrigue ... Dazzling double-page-spread paintings offer a feast of clever details to pore over.' The Horn Book Magazine,USA
• 'Nan Bodsworth's are no ordinary tales, and A Nice Walk in the Jungle is no exception.' Magpies, Australia

Mike's Bulldozer and the Big Flood

• 'her text is ... warm yet informative, with a gentle underlying humor which appeals so much to children. But her illustrations are so realistic that bulldozers and bobcats almost leap from the pages.' Geelong Advertiser
• 'Mike's Birthday Bulldozer has been loved and remembered by small machinery buffs ever since it was first published. They will be overjoyed to discover this accomplished sequel.' Margaret Dunkle, The New Librarian

Peg Leg Meg

• 'Young readers will love the tongue-twister words and the exciting adventure.' Margaret Clark, Geelong Advertiser
• 'Peg Leg Meg ... is remarkable for the author's use of language and the way in which she changes traditional conventions within her story. It is also a rollicking adventure story.' The Literature Base