The short story...

Katherine is a fan girl of comics, ice cream, mischief, tea and travel. In her spare time she is the president of the Cranky Club and can be found grumbling about bananas, loud music and exclamation marks. She is also the critically acclaimed author and illustrator of eleven picture books and two chapter books, including the popular Cranky Chicken series, Perfect Pigeons, Trouble and the Squish Rabbit series, which have been published around the world. Her books have been reviewed in The New York Times, have received starred Kirkus reviews and have been shortlisted for numerous awards. She is regularly booked to speak in schools, libraries and at festivals and she is a passionate advocate for literacy and the arts.

In another life, Katherine worked as a paediatric occupational therapist, specialising as a children’s counselor. She has also studied graphic design and loves typography, fabric and vintage teacups. Katherine grew up by the beach in Australia and now lives in Canada with her poet, their book obsessed toddler and a loveably ridiculous dog.

The long story...

Katherine didn’t always know she wanted to be a writer and illustrator. She did many other things first, but when she did eventually try it on for size it fitted like a glorious new skin.

She was born in Perth, Australia, where her mum grew up. Being the child of nomadic parents, at 3 days old she had her first passport and was soon on the plane back to Saudi Arabia where her parents were working at the time. After several years they returned to Australia, attracted to the climate of tropical North Queensland. They bought some land by the beach in a small coastal town called Mackay, where her father built a rather spectacular eco-home (which sits in the side of a cliff).

Katherine spent her childhood on the beach; swimming, fishing and creating secret languages to keep the boys out of her palm frond fort. She can still write in this secret language, however seeing as her best friend has forgotten it, Katherine can only write letters to herself.

School wasn't always easy for Katherine; her grade 2 teacher commented in an end of term report that she was 'too much of a daydreamer' to achieve much, but that on the positive side she had an excellent imagination. Katherine took this to mean she was meant to be a storyteller.

Katherine always loved to write and draw, and her mum still has boxes full of books and inventions she made as a child. If she wasn't making something she could be found curled up with a book, devouring most of the school library over the years. She also enjoyed sports, singing and drama, and went through some unfortunate stages of dancing (there is still evidence of her dressed as a liquorice all-sorts – not one of her finer moments).

In her last year of school, just before she was to leave home in search of what she was going to do with her life, her mum gave her a children’s book as a gift (Guess How Much I Love You). It was as if, unconsciously, her mum knew this was the world Katherine was to one day fall in love with.

Always having wanted to work with children, Katherine went on to study Occupational Therapy in Brisbane, Australia, specialising as a paediatric counsellor. She worked for many years in both inpatient and outpatient settings, and it was working with these incredible children and teenagers that lead her back to her writing. She later returned to university to further her illustrative goals, completing a Bachelor of Visual Communication Design at the QLD College of Art.

Her likes include dreams, running, Hayao Miyazaki, Radiohead and rabbits, and dislikes are not limited to road rage, bananas and exclamation marks.

Katherine now lives in Ottawa, Canada, but regularly returns to Australia to attend festivals and visit schools and libraries. She lives with her poet, their book-loving girl and a gentleman dog.