Mark Carthew
Mark Carthew is an award winning editor, author & primary teacher. Best known for his books and series exploring wordplay,  music, movement and drama, he has always loved the joy of wordplay and music, having written numerous songs and school musicals including the popular Bushfire Press musical melodrama, The Dragon Returns, co-written with singer songwriter Rob Fairbairn. In 1998, he teamed up with acclaimed Tasmanian illustrator Peter Gouldthorpe to create The Blends Books Series for Pearson Education and his passion for creating quality books for children has continued ever since.
Mark has worked as a performing arts consultant for the Victorian Education Department, a sessional lecturer in Language Education with Deakin University and in 2002, he worked full-time as a Development Editor for Pearson Education Australia as part of the Victorian Government's Teacher Release to Industry Program (TRIP). As a commissioning editor and writer for two of Australia's most highly regarded education series, he has worked with many leading Australian and international authors and illustrators including: Michael Rosen, Pamela Allen, Graeme Base, Margaret Wild, Allan Baillie, Richard Tulluch, Janeen Brian, Morris Lurie, Ian Bone, Terry Denton,
Ann James, Sheree Fitch, Margaret Mahy and a host others.
His writing credits include numerous books and poetry compilations published by Pearson Education in the recently internationally released Chatterbox series (Shortlisted for the 2004 & 2006 Literacy Series APA Excellence Awards and Winner – APA's Best Designed Primary Books Award 2004), The Blends Books (Shortlisted for the APA's Best Educational Series Award) and the award winning, internationally acclaimed illustrated play script series VoiceWorks, for which he is Series Editor and contributing author. This series has sold over ½ million copies worldwide, with editions in Canada, UK, Singapore, Taiwan and the USA.
Mark's latest release in the children's trade book market, the wonderfully wacky joke, rhyme and riddle book, Wicked Wizards and Leaping Lizards (Random House) is his second collaboration with UK illustrator by Mike Spoor with whom he worked with on Newts, Lutes and Bandicoots (Scholastic Australia).
In 2005 Mark was Highly Commended in the National Dromkeen Librarian's Award which read, 'Mark Carthew - whose success in bringing literary experiences to the school community through Music, Drama and Writing is inspirational'.
With a huge variety of internationally published early years big books, action rhyme & wordplay books, verse and poetry anthologies, joke and riddle books, picture story books and award winning illustrated play scripts for all primary levels; Mark has something to engage children at all levels in primary school and also lower secondary schools wishing to motivate their students with reading, writing and wordplay.
With the stunningly beautiful picture book Five Little Owls illustrated by award winning illustrator Mini Goss due for release in April '07 (New Frontier) and others scheduled for 2008, Mark is one of Australia's most energetic and talented children's book creators.
If you want an interactive, FUN, inspirational speaker that hooks kids into books...
Mark is your man,
Catch him while you can!
Mark received media attention for his recent innovative program Blokes, Boys and Books! and Go Girls! Arts/Literacy events and he is available to assist schools and teachers conduct similar programs.
Mark has presented at Professional Development events across
Australia and is available for teacher and university PD sessions
exploring the importance of wordplay, music, movement and
drama in language acquisition and student engagement; a subject that
he is currently researching for his PhD in Writing.
Watch the Show and Tell website as Mark will be touring Australia's Interstate & Regional areas during 2007.
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