The Hats of Marvello

Lavanya Naidu is a children's book illustrator and animator, born and raised in Kolkata, India.

Over the last decade she has worked on numerous kids' books, animation projects and animation production. She now lives in Melbourne and recently completed her role as the head of design and episode director on the animated kids series The Strange Chores (season 2). In her spare time Lavanya enjoys collecting dinosaur models and tending to her ever-growing collection of plants!

Amanda has enjoyed writing and drawing since she was young. In Year Three she wrote and illustrated her first story. It was about a group of adventurous mice who travelled to the moon. After discovering it was made of green cheese, they ate it.

Later Amanda wrote stories for children while studying to be a primary school teacher. Her first published book, Arthur, was illustrated by Donna Gynell (Era Publications). Watching Donna bring words to life through pictures inspired Amanda to study illustration and create the artwork for some of her own stories.

Amanda lives in the Adelaide Hills, South Australia. When she's not working in her studio, you'll likely find her teaching at a local school, puddling about in the back garden, or rambling somewhere through the bush.