‘I also like that the dad cries’: children on their favourite Australian picture book of all time

From Jetty Jumping to green sheep, children tell us why they love the books they ask for night after night

Inside the idyllic studio of Alison Lester: ‘Everything I do looks a bit like a stuffed toy’

The doyenne of Australian picture books talks about her creative process, the ‘wild and woolly’ place that inspired Magic Beach – and how a favourite idea was sketched on an aeroplane sick bag

‘People were starving for it’: Mem Fox on the incredible, surprising success of Possum Magic

After being rejected by nine publishers, the author’s first book went on to sell 5m copies, with readers immediately connecting to its depiction of Australian foods, animals and place names

‘Her name was Mothball and she changed my life’: the true story behind Diary of a Wombat

Jackie French was used to the quirks of wild animal behaviour – and then she met a carrot-mad wombat with an appetite for destruction. A bestseller was born

What we’re reading: George Saunders, Erin Somers and Guardian readers on the books they enjoyed in January

Writers and Guardian readers discuss the titles they have read over the last month. Join the conversation in the comments

‘I was so, so stupid’: how Animalia and The Eleventh Hour made Graeme Base an unlikely bestseller

Base had no idea what he was doing when he published his wonderfully weird and fiendishly difficult picture books. They became global hits anyway

I’ve read this picture book so many times – but only 25 years later do I really understand it

Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge was a favourite when my son was small. Now my father’s in a nursing home – and Mem Fox’s book has new significance

With The Rainbow Serpent, Dick Roughsey shared the spirit of our country. His work is a gift to us all

Miles Franklin-winner Alexis Wright pays tribute to the first book that visualised this powerful ancestral being from an Indigenous imagination

Australia’s best picture book: voting now open in Guardian Australia poll

It’s time to get voting for your favourite Australian picture book. Here’s how the Guardian’s poll works

Parents, please don’t stop reading to your children – a great picture book could change their life

Picture books help children develop their imaginations, find empathy for others and take pride in what makes them unique – all of which make for good adults

Children and teens roundup – the best new picture books and novels

Caring canines; daring donuts; a golden monkey; a boy from another planet; a dark take on Little Women and more

‘It’s about making reading as natural as breathing’: Malorie Blackman backs the National Year of Reading

The Noughts & Crosses author is among the starry ambassadors for the campaign – one of the initiatives aimed at addressing the reading crisis

Charlie Mackesy’s Always Remember is Christmas No 1 in the UK’s bestsellers chart

The writer and illustrator’s follow-up to The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse sold roughly one copy every 14 seconds last week

‘This extraordinary story never goes out of fashion’: 30 authors on the books they give to everyone

Colm Tóibín, Robert Macfarlane, Elif Shafak, Michael Rosen and more share the novels, poetry and memoirs that make the perfect gift

How to buy a book for a child who is a non-reader? The trick is to meet them where they are

If you want kids to open the pages, not just the present, choose a book that feels like a treat – and show young Australians that reading matters