Units

All of the units at Gilmore Primary are named after famous Australian Authors.

ALISON LESTER - Home to Kindergarten & Year 1

Alison Lester, born 11 November 1952, is an Australian author and illustrator. She has published over 25 children's picture books and 2 young adult novels; The Quicksand Pony and The Snow Pony. In 2005 Alison won the CBCA Picture Book of the Year for her children's book, Are We There Yet, A Journey around Australia. Her books have been published world-wide. Alison grew up in the country and has always loved horse riding and reading.

Alison (born Alison Jean Hume) was educated at a boarding school in Berwick, Victoria. She achieved a higher diploma in teaching at The Melbourne Teacher's College, where she trained as a secondary arts and crafts teacher. Alison taught for a while before starting a family and writing. Her first book was published in 1986.

Alison now spends her time living in the country where she writes. She sometimes visits primary schools as a guest speaker.

Alison wrote a series of picture books about 7 children and their favourite things. This series of books is very popular among young children. The books have been published in many different languages around the world. Some of the titles include: When Frank Was Four, Tessa Snaps Snakes, Rosies Sips Spiders, Clive Eats Alligators and Celeste Sails to Spain. Some of her other well known books include; Imagine, Ernie Dances To The Didgeridoo, The Journey Home and Magic Beach.

Alison's books have received many honours in the past. Her picture book, Clive Eats Alligators was awarded CBCA picture book of the year in 1986, Ernie Dances to the Didgeridoo was short-listed in 2000 for the same award and her experienced-based picture book, The Journey Home, was honoured by the judges in 1990. Her novel, The Quicksand Pony, was named a CBCA Notable Book in 1997.

MAY GIBBS – Home to Year 1 & Year 2

(born 17 January 1877, died on 27 November 1969)
Artist and author, the daughter of H. W. Gibbs of Perth, WA, and Surrey, England. She was about four when she arrived in Western Australia with her parents in 1879. She was educated at the Church of England Grammar School, Perth, and later studied at art and technical schools in England.

The Gumnut Babies, her first book about Australian bush fairies, was published in 1916 in Sydney. Apart from the famous Snugglepot and Cuddlepie (1918), her publications include Flower Babies, Wattleblossom Babies, and other Gumnut fairytale books. Her "Bib and Bub" comic strip series ran for years in Sydney newspapers.

Her deep love and understanding of the Australian bush was portrayed by her animated images in conflict with fellow bush creatures and the environment. A retiring personality who shunned publicity, May Gibbs, through her books, aimed to engender in children her own love of nature. She was appointed MBE for her services to Australian literature, and the Commonwealth Literary Fund awarded her a pension. She married B. J. Ossoli Kelly. Childless, she willed her house and contents to be auctioned for the benefit of UNICEF.

JEANNIE BAKER – Home to Year 3 & Year 4

(b 2 November 1950, Croydon England) Jeannie Baker is the author-artist of a number of distinguished picture books. Window, the companion book to Home, was a School Library Journal Best Book, a Notable Trade Book in the Field of Social Studies, a Children's Book Council of Australia Picture Book of the Year, a Young Australian Best Book, and was short-listed for the Kate Greenaway Medal. Her other books include Home in the Sky, an ALA Notable Book, and Where the Forest Meets the Sea, a Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor Book and the recipient of an IBBY Honor Award and a Friends of the Earth Award in Great Britain. Jeannie Baker makes her home in Sydney, Australia.

ROBIN KLEIN – Home to Year 5 & 6

(b. 28 February 1936, Kempsey, New South Wales) is a well-known Australian author of over 40 children's books for both older and younger readers. Several of her books have been short-listed for the Australian Children's Book of the Year Award, including Hating Alison Ashley (also a film starring Delta Goodrem) and Halfway Across the Galaxy and Turn Left (filmed as a television series for the Seven Network in 1992).
Klein's novel Came Back to Show You I Could Fly won a Human Rights Award for Literature in 1989 and also won the 1990 Australian Children's Book of the Year Award for Older Readers. It was filmed as Say a Little Prayer in 1993. She wrote her first short story at the age of 16.

Several of her other books have received awards in Australia, including the South Australian Festival Award for Literature, which she won in 1998 with The Listmaker. Many have also won or been shortlisted for awards selected by children.

Klein suffered an aneurysm rupture, and, while she survived, as of 2005 she lives in a nursing home and is no longer able to write or do significant publicity work for her books.

JACKIE FRENCH – Home to the Band & Music room

Jackie French (born 1953) is an award-winning Australian author of children's fiction, and books on gardening.

Jackie French was born in Sydney and grew up in Brisbane, but moved to the bush in her early twenties. She is a keen gardener and appeared on the TV series Burke's Backyard. She has written well over a hundred books. Jackie lives in New South Wales, near the small town of Braidwood at Araluen. She began writing when she was 30, in a desperate attempt to get enough money together to register her car. At the time, she was living in a tin shed with a black snake named Gladys and a wombat named Smudge. A hundred and thirty plus books later, she is still writing. She can rightly be called Australia's most popular children's writer. Jackie also appears regularly on radio and television.

PAUL JENNINGS – Storage

Paul Jennings AM (born 30 April 1943) is a best-selling Australian children's book writer. His books mainly feature short stories that lead the reader through an unusual series of things that ends with a twist.

Paul Jennings was raised in Heston, London, and at the age of six emigrated to Australia with his family. He attended Kangaroo West Primary School and Caulfield Grammar School. After graduating from school, he went to Frankston Teachers College (now part of Monash University) and became a teacher. He taught students at Frankston State School, Kangaroo Flat State School, the Turana Youth Training Centre, and the Royal Children's Hospital State School in Mount Eliza. He later went on to study at the Lincoln Institute of Health Science (now part of LaTrobe University and became a speech pathologist, then worked as a Lecturer in Special Education at Burwood State College (now part of Deakin University). In 1979 he became Senior Lecturer in Language and Literature at Warrnambool Institute of Advanced Education (now part of Deakin University).

In 1985, Jennings' first book of short stories, Unreal! was published, during which he worked as a lecturer and wrote part-time; in 1989, he made the decision to devote his full time to writing. Many of his short stories, published between 1985 and 1991, were also adapted into the first and second series of the popular Australian television show Round the Twist.

ALLAN BAILLIE – Storage

Allan Baillie (born 29 January 1943) is an Australian writer. He was born in Scotland, but moved with his family to Australia when he was seven. He began work as a journalist working on papers such as the Melbourne Sun, Telegraph and the Australian Women's Weekly having studied journalism at Melbourne University. Turning to literature his books include Adrift, Little Brother and The China Coin. Writing predominantly children's literature he has recently authored his first adult novel. He lives in Sydney, Australia with his wife and two children.