Narelle Oliver is the author and illustrator of a number of award-winning children's picture books including, The Best Beak in Boonaroo Bay , The Hunt, Baby Bilby, where do you sleep?, The Very Blue Thingamajig, Dancing the Boom-cha-cha Boogie and Home. Narelle's latest picture book, Home , was commissioned by the Brisbane City Council Library Services Division and features the peregrine falcons which inhabit inner-city Brisbane . This book forms the basis of the design of the new children's library in Brisbane Square – opening January 2007.
Narelle was born in 1960 and grew up in Toowoomba , Queensland , in a family who spent every spare moment pursuing interests in visual and performing arts – especially photography, drawing and painting. A highlight of her childhood was regular trips into unusual countryside gathering ideas and material for various artworks.
While studying for a Bachelor of Education degree, Narelle majored in design and printmaking and discovered the world of contemporary children's picture books. Then followed several years teaching at the Queensland School for the Deaf, living and breathing picture books and sign language.
Narelle also tutored in Language and Children's Literature courses offered by the Faculty of Education at the University of Southern Queensland before beginning her first picture book, Leaf Tail, published in 1989.
any of Narelle's books have been inspired by natural environments she has explored and a continuing interest in natural history and history. The linocut print medium which she often combines with other media is a special feature of her illustrations. The original illustrations from Narelle's picture books have been exhibited in group and solo exhibitions throughout Australia, including Fremantle Children's Literature Centre, WA; Dromkeen Children's Literature Centre, VIC; Books Illustrated, VIC; and the State Library of Queensland.
Narelle works in a home-based studio in inner-city Brisbane, surrounded by family, pets, and an array of wildlife which visit their overgrown rainforest backyard - a pair of azure kingfishers diving into the swimming pool, a scrub turkey and its chick making their mound in the compost heap, and from time-to-time spangled drongos, boobook owls mobbed by noisy minas, tawny frogmouths, lorikeets and rosellas.
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