Jo Goodman

Jo Goodman is an experienced and enthusiastic speaker, teacher and critic. She was a teacher librarian for 25 years, and has also taught senior English and lectured in Children's Literature at tertiary level. She has edited three collections of short stories and one of poetry, is a regular reviewer of children's books, and has published dozens of articles on literature and education.
She has twice been the Victorian judge for the Children's Book Council Book of the Year Awards, and is often employed by publishers to assess manuscripts.

Since she was a child Jo has never stopped reading, and begins each new book in a state of optimistic expectation, at the same time she
is a discerning critic, and a passionate advocate for the best of children's literature from the past. She particularly enjoys speaking to adult groups - parents and grandparents, teachers and librarians: topics might vary from the best of the recent novels to teach at a particular year level, to how to select board books for a new baby. As a practitioner she has had considerable experience with reluctant readers, and is co-author and publisher of RIB-IT, a motivational reading scheme used in over 2000 schools.

Jo enjoys the opportunity to enthuse groups about such topics as:

• Picture books and stories for the whole family
• Building a reading culture in the home
• Reading for fun
• Why books are still important in the digital era
• Young adult fiction is not all doom and gloom
• Whether alphabet and counting books are worth using

She also conducts workshops for English teachers, students, and others who are interested in a specific topic, for example:

• Reviewing and judging children's books
• Choosing books for classroom study
• Picture books for secondary students
• Becoming an author