Alison Lester was born on November 17, 1952, in Foster, Victoria, Australia. She received a higher diploma in teaching at The Melbourne Teacher's College, where she trained as a secondary arts and crafts teacher. Before she began writing and illustrating her own books, she worked as an art teacher and an illustrator. She is the author and illustrator over 25 picture books. Her first novel, The Quicksand Pony, won an Australian Young Readers Book Award and a Children's Book Council of America (CBCA) Book of the Year Award. Her picture books Clive Eats Alligators and the Journey Home each won a CBCA Picture Book of the Year Award. She was Australia's Inaugural Children's Laureate from 2011-2012. In 2016, she was awarded the Children's Language and Literature Award from the Speech Pathology Australia Book of the Year Awards and inducted into the Speech Pathology Australia's Book of the Year Hall of Fame. She was awarded the 2016 Dromkeen Medal for her body of work and its contribution to the development of children's literature in Australia.
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