The Magic Wand

Ursula Dubosarsky is widely regarded as one of the most talented and original writers in Australia today. She is the author of many outstanding books, both for young adults and for children. Ursula has won several awards for excellence, including the 1994 Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards and the 1994 New South Wales State Literary Awards for The White Guinea Pig. The First Book of Samuel won the New South Wales Premier’s Ethnic Affairs Commission Award and was named an Honour Book in the 1996 Australian Children’s Book of the Year Awards. Ursula lives in Sydney with her family.Ursula’s most recent book The Game of the Goose has been shortlisted for the 2001 CBC Book of the Year for Younger Readers Award. Profile was last updated on 16 June 2005.

Mitch Vane is a RMIT Graphic Arts graduate and has been working as a freelance illustrator for fifteen years – five of them based in London. She lives in Melbourne with her partner who is a writer, and two children. Mitch’s work touches all areas of visual communication; cartoons for magazines, book covers, children’s book illustrations, work for promotions and packaging in advertising, editorial illustrations and posters. Her cartoons appear regularly in the Age. She also illustrated two Aussie Nibbles by Ursula Dubosarsky, The Two Gorillas and Fairy Bread.