Once you’ve ‘met’ Jackie below, be sure to read her wonderful wrap up of this year’s National Literacy and Numeracy Week.
“I read in the bath, in traffic jams, waiting on the phone, in bed and on the loo. I’ve books piled in every room, and one in my handbag and glove box, books for comfort and books for joy. Every book you read puts you in the author’s head. We need books to teach us empathy, to teach us, well, everything. Learning to read isn’t easy for some kids (I’m dyslexic and know the pain). Kids need to know that learning to read is like working to take the packaging off a box of chocolates - once you’ve got through the boring stuff it’s yum!”
Jackie French's writing career spans over 20 years, 48 wombats, 140 books, translations into 28 languages, and over 60 awards in Australia and overseas.
Jackie wrote her first children's book 'Rainstones' in a desperate attempt to earn $106.40 to register her car, while living in a shed with a wallaby called Fred, a black snake called Gladys and a wombat called Smudge. It was described by the editor at HarperCollinsPublishers as the messiest, worst spelt manuscript they'd ever received.
It was messy because of Smudge the wombat who left his droppings on the typewriter every night; the bad spelling was due to the fact she is dyslexic. Jackie knows the pain and shame of being unable to understand a teacher's instructions, or read 'run Spot run.' Despite the spelling, Rainstones was accepted and shortlisted for the 1992 NSW Premier's Award and CBC Younger Reader's Book of the Year.
Jackie is one of the few writers to win both literary and kid's choice awards. As well as being this year's National Literacy Ambassador Jackie is ACT (Australian Capital Territory) Children's Ambassador and patron of the NSW South Coast YESS group, a group of volunteers to help kids learn to read. She is one of the patrons of Monkey Baa Theatre for Young People, who will present her play 'Hitler's daughter' on Broadway in their 2012/13 season. She is also the matron of At Home with Books, a program to encourage reading with foster children. Jackie is director of The Wombat Foundation, which raises funds for research into the preservation of the endangered northern hairy nosed wombat.
To find out more about Jackie, you can visit Jackies' website.