Meet our Editorial Team

Trish Buckley

I work full time in a school library and spend much of it encouraging young people to read for pleasure. My work here at Reading Time allows me to find books I don’t have time to read. I think the CBCA provides a very useful and necessary service and I hope you all find it valuable too.

Current Reviewers

Deborah Abela

Deborah trained as a teacher and completed a BA (Comm) to combine her passions of teaching and writing. She became writer/producer of a children’s TV show at Network TEN before leaving to write 28 books for children, including the Max Remy Superspy series and her cranky climate change trilogy, Grimsdon, New City & Final Storm. The Stupendously Spectacular Spelling Bee and The Most Marvellous Spelling Bee Mystery, have been published to great acclaim here and in the US. Deb has won awards for her books, but mostly hopes to be as brave as her characters. http://www.deborahabela.com 

Adilah Ahmed

Adilah is a primary school teacher and content creator. She has worked with children and young adults since graduating high school and completed her Bachelors in Primary Education at the University of Sydney. She now works as a Lead primary teacher, working closely with other teachers to create fun, engaging and creative content for students with the aim to foster a lifelong love of learning. Working with children each day means her collection of picture books and young adult fiction is constantly and exponentially growing alongside her own personal library (not library yet, we’re halfway there). In her spare time she also runs a women of colour book club in Sydney.

Caroline Arnoul

Caroline has worn many different hats during her career, but one thing that has been consistent throughout her life is a love of reading. Her reading addiction began as a child when she would devour any book she could get her hands on. As an adult she still loves reading middle grade and YA fiction.

Caroline runs a media and communications agency called Purple Frog and she’s about to finish the RMIT course in Professional Writing and Editing. She is currently working on the manuscript for a YA thriller and has a middle grade manuscript in a drawer which might make it out one day.

Lynne Babbage

Lynne first qualified as a biochemist and microbiologist before changing careers to become a teacher librarian. She has worked in the primary, secondary and tertiary education sectors and has taught in both boys’ and girls’ schools in Sydney and Canberra.  Lynne has been writing and reviewing in the field of children’s literature for over thirty years, in journals such as Reading Time, Magpies and Good Reading Magazine. She has a particular interest in non-fiction and co-authored Good Science Books for Children on the Academy of Science website. She has been actively involved in The Children’s Book Council of Australia since the 1980s, including four terms on the judging panel for the Book of the Year Awards and as treasurer and vice-president of the ACT branch. She has also acted as a judge for the ACT Literature Awards and the Eurobodalla Shire Mayor’s Writing Challenge.

Cherie Bell

In a former life, Cherie Bell taught English to international university students and had plenty of spare time. Now she has 4 kids aged 4-11 years old and teaches bike-riding, turn-taking, Lego-building, roller-skating, chalk-drawing and friend-making, as well as answering the daily question “What’s for dinner?”. She is always on the lookout for the next great book or series to feed her growing bookworms and blogs about it all on her blog.

India Boon-Scown

India Boon-Scown is a recent high school graduate who has been passionate about books from an early age. She is currently studying at the University of Queensland full time but will not let this get in the way of her reading (even if that means sacrificing a little sleep). India is looking forward to sharing her views on the books she has read through Reading Time as well as improve her writing skills.

Kevin Brophy

Kevin Brophy is a poet, essayist and fiction writer. He is emeritus professor of creative writing at the University of Melbourne, and in 2021 he was awarded an Order of Australia honour (AM) for his services to literature. He has been reading children’s and YA fiction since discovering Alice (Liddell?), Wendy Darling, Billy Bunter, Huckleberry Finn and Holden Caulfield in the 1950s.

Angela Brown

Angela is a librarian who wandered off into a career of web development. She is a Learning Designer at Flinders University. She volunteers in a public library as an after-school Code Club volunteer. She has two lovely book-obsessed children. Angela’s heart trembles for the imagined worlds of middle and young adult fantasy and sci-fi. As a reviewer, she hopes to share how these genres can spawn deep questions about our humanity.

Verushka Byrow

Verushka Byrow is a book blogger and editor, with a Bachelor of Media and Communications from Macquarie University. She has worked in publishing for over a decade, and now can be found reviewing books here on Reading Time, or on her book blog.

Mem Capp

Mem Capp is a Melbourne based artist and writer with a particular love of children’s literature and poetry.

Emily Clarke

Emily is an omnivorous reader with many years as a children’s specialist bookseller. She has acted as the consultant and liaison to many schools and libraries, and was proud to be invited to speak at several Professional Development sessions for the Centre for Youth Literature as an expert in children’s fantasy and science fiction.

After taking a number of years to hone her skills on a more specific audience, and having fun introducing her two sons to the big, wide world of literature and stories, she has returned to bookselling as a children’s specialist, and is enjoying being back among the bookshelves immensely.

H I Cosar

H I Cosar is a Turkish Australian teacher, critic and writer based in Sydney. Her first collection of poems, ‘Hijabi in Jeans’ has been published in 2018 by Guillotine Press. Her work has also been published in print journals like ‘Australian Poetry Journal’ and ‘Metaphor’, national and international anthologies such as ‘Borderless’ and ‘Kaleidoscope’ and online on platforms such as ‘Mascara’ and ‘Red Fez’.

Julie Deane

Julie has spent the last four decades working in the primary and junior secondary education sectors and has taught predominantly in coeducational schools on the Gold Coast, Queensland Australia. In the latter part of her career, she developed a keen interest in the emotional and mental health and wellbeing of young adolescents in the middle years. As such, she developed an age-appropriate pastoral program to cater for the needs of her students and was responsible for the planning, development and implementation of #Project rase; a new and innovative approach to the education surrounding respectful relationships and reproductive health. She was identified as a leader of change in her workplace at this time. Having worked in the early years as a younger teacher, she has a particular love of Children’s Picture Books and delights in the combination of simple, yet appealing art, and lively, memorable text. Reading the delicious words and phrases that sublimely flow and mesh themselves into the memories of their young and enthusiastic audiences, begging to be repeated by the young listeners, is ‘poetry in motion’. Julie would also like to fulfil her lifelong dream of writing a Children’s Picture Book in the coming years.

Elizabeth Douglas

Elizabeth Douglas obtained her MA in English at the University of Melbourne. She then worked for Oxford University Press as an editor in Melbourne and London for six years, before returning to set up the local publishing program for Hutchinson Aust. Pty Ltd.  This included a strong list of children’s books with some outstanding writers and illustrators.  After 20 years she moved to the University of Melbourne where she had a second career as an administrator. Now retired, she works as a voluntary guide at the National Gallery of Victoria, the Asylum Seekers Resource Centre, and a local primary school where she is involved with the children’s reading programs.

Heather Gallagher

Heather is an award winning children’s author and journalist. Her books for children include Ferret on the Loose (2013) and Happy Pants – Why is mummy so sad? (2014). The latter was recognised as a recommended title in the Australian Family Therapists literature awards, 2015. Her writing for children has also appeared in Pearson Education’s Explore and Challenge magazines and The Sunday Age. She has worked for many years as a journalist with her work appearing in The Age, The Big Issue and the Victorian Writer.

Stef Gemmill

Story loving Stef Gemmill used to teach at Montessori schools by day and freelance as a music journalist by night before she swapped the mosh-pit for toys and tantrums writing children’s books.  Stef is the International Award winning author of ‘A Home for Luna’ and ‘In My Dreams’ with ‘Toy Mountain’ out in October 2021. She loves to support aspiring writers in realising their writing dreams and holds regular workshops and author talks in schools and local libraries. You can find out more about Stef here www.stefgemmill.com

Susanne Gervay

Awarded the Lifetime Social Justice Literature Award, Order of Australia, nominated for Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, Susanne Gervay writes to inspire story. Her books include anti bullying I Am Jack books; Butterflies (disability), Shadows of Olive Trees (feminism), picture books The Boy in the Big Blue Glasses (vision), Elephants Have Wings (Harmony Day), Heroes of the Secret Underground to empower young people to become heroes of justice. Literacy Ambassador and Regional Advisor of Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators ANZ. You can find out more about Susanne here https://sgervay.com/

Margot Hillel

Margot Hillel is an Emeritus Professor at Australian Catholic University. She has wide involvement in the field of children’s and young adult literature. Her research interests focus on constructions of childhood in children’s literature, and the history of children’s literature. She has judged many literary awards including the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards for Children’s and Young Adult Literature, the Phoenix Award, the New Illustrators’ Award, the CBCA Book of the Year and the Young Australian Writer of the Year Awards.  She reviews widely, has published extensively in her field, and has an OAM for services to children’s literature.

Laura Holloway

As an education writer, Laura Holloway creates classroom resources and other education content. She has taught EAL/D, Literacy and English in primary and secondary schools. Laura is an aspiring picture book author and avid reader. Reviewing books combines two of Laura’s great passions – reading and having opinions.

Geni Kuckhahn

Geni has been writing stories ever since she learned how to use a pen and has always nurtured a dream of being a published author. With the goal of writing historical fiction for children, Geni is undertaking an Associate Degree in Professional Writing and Editing at RMIT University. Until she manages to finish her own novels-in-progress, she is a professional copywriter and runs a small book subscription box called Pen and Fable – for young readers who love to write.

Geni is raising three amazing children in the beautiful Dandenong Ranges and spends her spare time blogging about writing, history and books.

Maureen Mann

Maureen Mann has been involved in CBCA at various levels for close on thirty years; frequently reviewing for Reading Time. Her greatest literature love are picture books, but she reads widely over all children’s and adult genres. Maureen regularly contributes to the CBCAT as blog and loves sharing her delight in children’s literature. Maureen and her husband usually spend several months a year overseas when she enjoys the exposure to international children’s authors.

Gaby Meares

Gaby believes that books can save lives! Or at least make the tough times a little easier. Books have been a passion all her life. Having worked in a bookshop, public libraries, academic libraries and for the last eight years in a high school library, she knows what a difference a book can make. Gaby is an active member of Friends of Libraries Australia (FOLA), an organisation that promotes and advocates for public libraries and their users. Public libraries are a vital asset to communities, and are often where a child first discovers the magic of books.

The books we read as children help to make us the adults we become. These early books help us to understand how the world works, and help us develop empathy and compassion.

Fiona Miller-Stevens

Fiona Miller-Stevens is a voracious reader, writer, small child wrangler, senior English teacher and Assistant Principal. She writes for her blog A Novel Indulgence and for The Print Posse. She runs a book club for teenagers called the YA Café – a glorious excuse to talk books and eat cake.

Katie Mineeff

Katie Mineeff is a mother of four, primary school teacher and author of young adult fiction. She has two wall-to-ceiling book shelves in her house to support her reading habit, yet still manages to have overflow piles scattered around. She loves children’s literature in all its forms and especially enjoys reading aloud to her students and children. Reviewing for Reading Time has introduced her to new and exciting additions to children’s literature in Australia.

Jennifer Mors

My first adult carnation was in visual art, craft and design; as a practicing artist, tutor and project co-ordinator. Post graduate study in arts management led to rewarding work opportunities promoting the work of Australian artist/designers throughout Australia and overseas. Early retirement bought many changes including further post graduate study, this time writing.

When I don’t have my head in a book, either reading or writing, I am creating a beautiful five-acre garden in Berry NSW. I share my life with a patient, and often surprised, husband—as well as a wombat, two elusive echidnas, three charming chooks, four curious kangaroos, a loving, much-loved family and a wonderful regional community.

Maura Pierlot

Maura writes across art forms for children and adults. Her work typically explores intangible concepts like identity, memory, self and, more recently, mental health. Her latest title, Fragments: Journeys from Isolation to Connection is based on her critically acclaimed play, with a film adaptation underway. Maura’s debut picture book, The Trouble in Tune Town, won the 2018 ACT Writing and Publishing Award and overseas accolades. Her short stories, poetry, microfiction and essays appear in various journals and anthologies. She is a past winner of CBCA NSW’s Aspiring Writers Mentorship Program and Hothouse Theatre’s SOLO Monologue Competition. Prior to writing, Maura was a medical writer/producer, ethicist, editor of Australian Medicine and business owner. She holds a doctorate in philosophy, specialising in ethics, and divides her time between Canberra and Jamberoo, NSW.

Olivia Sammut

Olivia has a love for anything to do with reading and writing. At 16 years old, she spends most of her time reading, and if not, she’s either baking or jamming to music, all with her mischievous little bird, Otis, on her shoulder. When at loss for a new compelling novel to get her nose stuck in, she turns to the CBCA for some ideas. Olivia finds that reviewing books for Reading Time is just another excuse to sneak away into her room and get lost in a book.

 

 

Shelley Stephens

Shelley started her working career in the Dennis Wolanski Library of Performing Arts when it resided in, what is now, The Studio at the Sydney Opera House. After fourteen years in the arts and corporate sector editing annual reports and board papers, she currently works in local government. A qualified Librarian and Corporate Information Management professional, Shelley is passionate about information management and curation, promoting the importance of reading and literacy through her book blog and the role libraries will play in the future.

Sarah Stivens

Sarah Stivens is an emerging writer, poet and editor from Melbourne. She has a Graduate Diploma in Counselling, and worked for years as an addiction therapist before deciding to pursue writing. Currently, Sarah is studying her Associate Degree of Professional Writing and Editing (PWE) at RMIT University, and is particularly passionate about writing for young people. Sarah has always been a word nerd — whether it was her visits to the library every Friday with her Oma to grab a new book, or accidentally writing a Grug rip-off (sorry Ted Prior!) at the age of 6. She is currently working on her first picture book and poetry manuscripts.

Barbara Swartz

I have worked as a Teacher Librarian and Children’s Librarian.  In the Teacher Librarian positions I saw how important leisure reading is for consolidating a child’s reading skills and improving their literacy. To select literature for the school library that the kids would enjoy, I needed to get to know popular children’s literature well – an aspect of the job that I thoroughly enjoyed.  I have carried this love of children’s literature into more recent roles as Children’s Librarian in public libraries and I get much satisfaction from introducing kids to a new author or series that they enjoy.  Reviewing books for Reading Time gives me an opportunity to share my enthusiasm for children’s literature and help readers find the perfect book for them.

Anna Tran

Anna is a Brissy girl and currently a full-time university student. On most days, Anna is either watching her lectures on double speed, or serving up coffees as a barista. Despite this, Anna is always up for a good read determined to escape reality. Her favourite genres are romance, comedy and fantasy but she is always ready to explore the unknown across all categories.

Pamela Ueckerman

Pamela Ueckerman (writing as Pamela Jones) is a children’s author, poet, and home educator. Her debut picture book, Ayla’s Christmas Wish, was published by the National Library of Australia in 2023. She is also published in The School Magazine, The Dirigible Balloon, various anthologies and websites. Pamela co-hosted the book review podcast Middle Grade Mavens and volunteers as an editor/proofreader. A lifelong bibliophile, Pamela is passionate about helping children develop a love for reading and has presented at The Australian Homeschool Summit on related topics.

Anne Varnes

I am a 40-something mother of three. My eldest two are precocious and prodigious readers, and just to keep things interesting my youngest is dyslexic. I have just completed a Masters of Arts (Editing and Publishing). In a previous life I was a psychologist working with children and adolescents. Most importantly for this role, I love children’s and young adult’s books, fact or fiction, as long as they are well-crafted with love and imagination.

Past Reviewers

Liz Anelli	Sonia Bestulic	Lian Beveridge
Katie Bingham	Elspeth Cameron	Sue (Susan) Clancy
Amy Cooper	Liz Derout	Beth Dolan
Jessica Dowling	Wendy Fitzgerald	Katy Gerner
Jo Goodman	Penny Harrison	Pam Harvey
Deborah Kelly	Kristyn M. Levis	Carissa Mason
John McKenzie	Julie Murphy	Grace Nolan
John Nolan	Katie Poidomani	Belinda Raposo
Maurice Saxby	Romi Sharp	Sharon Smith
Kevin Steinberger	Marita Thomson	Julie Thorndyke
Stephanie Ward	Tessa Wooldridge	Lana Spasevski