Violet Mackerel’s Brilliant Plot

Sarah Davis grew up in New Zealand, wearing gumboots and falling in rivers. She worked as a secondary school teacher before moving to Sydney. Sarah is a very busy, award-winning artist who has collaborated with Sue Whiting on Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy (New Frontier) and Jennifer Poulter Mending Lucille (Lothian), for which Sarah won the 2009 Children s Book Council of Australia s Crichton Award for Best New Illustrator. Most recently, Sarah's title Fearless, written by Colin Thompson, was short-listed for the 2010 Children's Book Council of Australia Awards. Violet Mackerel's Brilliant Plot was also Honour book in the Children s Book Council of Australia, Book of the Year Awards, Younger Readers Notable Books for 2011.

Anna Branford was born in the Isle of Man and spent her early childhood in Sudan and Papua New Guinea before moving to Australia. Creative writing was her favourite subject at school and she wrote stories in all these different countries. Anna is a doll maker and a sociology lecturer at Victoria University. Violet Mackerel's Brilliant Plot was her first published work for Walker Books Australia and was Honour Book in the 2011 Children's Book Council of Australia (CBCA) Book of the Year Awards, Younger Readers category. In 2013,Violet Mackerel's Personal Space won the Young Readers/Picture Book Award category of the Australian Family Therapists' Award and was short-listed for the 2013 Children's Peace Literature Awards. Violet Mackerel's Possible Friend was short-listed for the 2014 CBCA Book of the Year Awards, Younger Readers category.