Author Interviews

BRILLIANTLY DIVERSE: Zana Fraillon

This award-winning Australian children’s author discusses her new picture book, The Curiosities, and why she considers it so important to have diverse representation in fiction.

You’re known for your incredibly inspiring and heart-warming stories. Where does your inspiration come from?

Young people! As a teacher and integration aide, as well as a parent, I have always been surrounded by young people. Adults so often dismiss or underestimate young people, but their world views are often incredibly wise, original, and wonderfully imaginative—exactly what humankind needs to survive.

In the afterword to The Curiosities, you discuss your personal experience raising a child who has Tourette syndrome. Have they read the book, and what was their reaction to it?