Sillyduffer2000

Early life and career

Robin Moncrieff Morrow was born in 1942. She was educated at Meriden School and at Sydney University. She spent some years teaching English, French and ESL, and travelling in the UK, Europe and Asia. Then in 1971 she and her mother, Beryl Moncrieff Matthews, opened The Children's Bookshop, Beecroft, the first specialist children's bookshop in New South Wales. For the next 25 years Robin managed the shop and her work included addressing hundreds of parents' and librarians' groups on the importance of reading, offering practical advice and recommendations on selecting from the latest titles. This lecturing work included trips throughout Australia and overseas.

Late career

In the 1990s Robin moved into publishing, for a time acting as children’s publisher at Scholastic, and continues to undertake freelance consultancy work.

She has taught in children's literature courses at Macquarie University, ACU(Australian Catholic University) and UTS (University of Technology, Sydney). Robin has reviewed children's books for The Weekend Australian and continues to write for review journals.

Her work on judging panels includes as NSW judge for CBCA awards 2001–2002; for NSW Premier's Awards; and the Dorothea Mackellar National Poetry Competition for Schools.

Postgraduate qualifications

• Diploma of Children's Literature, Macquarie University (1984)

• Master of Arts (Literacy and Children’s Literature) UTS (1990)

• Doctor of Philosophy UTS (2004) thesis entitled ‘It was good to be home’: Nostalgia in Australian Picture Books 1970–1997

Publications

Book reviews and commentary articles in The Weekend Australian; Sydney’s Child; Classroom magazine; Bookseller and Publisher; Magpies and other journals

Academic articles, such as:

• 'Surreal Picturebooks: Binette Schroeder and Anthony Browne' in Bookbird 2007 No 3

• Mapping Australia's past in picture books' in Bookbird 2009 No 2

• 'A reality check: the challenges of publishing and selling books for children' in Scates, B (ed) A Future for the Past: The State of Children's History History Council of NSW 2004

Books

• More of a Club Than a Bookshop—The Children's Bookshop, Beecroft: The First 25 Years (1999)

• Beetle Soup (Scholastic 1997) an anthology of Australian poems and stories illustrated by Stephen Michael King, shortlisted for CBCA Book of the Year Award, Younger Readers, reissued in paperback as And the Roo Jumped Over the Moon

Awards

• Pixie O'Harris Award 1996 for Dedicated and Distinguished Service to the Development and Reputation of Australian Children's Literature (Book Publishers' Association).

• John Hirst Award 1998 for outstanding service to teacher librarianship and school libraries in New South Wales (School Library Association, NSW).

• Lady Cutler Award 2004 for Distinguished Service to Children’s Literature in NSW (Children's Book Council of Australia, NSW)

References

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