Sebastian Stands Out + Book Week Bear Launch with Rory H. Mather

About Book Week Bear

Claire’s costume was amazing—she had hair and teeth and claws. Plus, there was the smell of fish coming from her jaws! Claire’s bear costume has a lot of flair ... almost enough to give everyone a scare! But is it enough to win first prize in the Book Week parade?

About Sebastian Stands Out

Sebastian chameleon is always being squished, squashed and stepped on because he blends in. After the gazillionth time, he has had enough! Can Sebastian change his chameleon ways and finally stand out?

Rory H. Mather is a picture book and rhyme enthusiast. He loves potatoes, dogs and sticky date pudding, and he adores his wife Georgia and daughter Ada. When Rory was a kid, he lived on a sailboat with his family. They sailed around the world, and while Rory never saw mermaids or pirates, he can confirm that whales have bad breath. Rory now lives in South East-Queensland with his family and an ever-growing collection of picture books. Sebastian Stands Out and Book Week Bear are his 7th and 8th books respectively, his others include popular titles Get Back In Your Books, Monster School Rules and Vlad's Bad Breath.

Ruth-Mary Smith is an Australian illustrator with a special love of the gentle emotions portrayed in picture books. Her style has been described as sweet, warm and whimsical. Her favourite traditional mediums are pastel, watercolour and pencil but she also produces digital illustrations. She has been published in the USA, been the recipient of a mentorship award from the Australian Society of Authors and was thrilled to win an award in the CYA festival during 2020 and 2021. She is currently shortlisted for the 2023 CYA Published Illustration award. Her published books include: Little Mister Gets a Sister, written by Samaria Lemke and published by Larrikin House; PD McPem’s Agency for Mysterious Mysteries Case 1 and 2 written by Anna Battese, published by Yellow Brick Books. Currently she is finishing illustrating a picture book for Wombat books due for publication in 2023 and two more Junior Fiction books from the PD McPem series.

Ashleigh Barton is a bestselling children's author from Sydney, Australia. After completing a law degree, Ashleigh decided she preferred books and spent the next six years working in publishing where she ran marketing and publicity campaigns for internationally renowned authors and illustrators. Now she writes books of her own, in between looking after her three small children and freelance copywriting. Her picture book What Do You Call Your Grandma? was been shortlisted in the 2022 CBCA Book of the Year Awards.