Sunday Skating

Andrea Rowe is a best-selling award-winning picture book author, freelance writer and nationally awarded writer of short stories, and late night book reader. Her debut picture book Jetty Jumping, illustrated by Hannah Sommerville, was awarded the 2022 CBCA Picture Book of the Year – Early Childhood. A past radio announcer, and media and PR manager, Andrea’s also a freelance magazine writer and a copywriter for Australian not-for-profit organisations and kids clubs communications for organizations like the Royal Flying Doctors, Conservation Volunteers and Junior Rangers. Andrea writes books for children, young adults and grown-ups too. She combines her nostalgic celebration of culture, family diversity, and the environment in our everyday lives with the questions and conversations that draw us together. Andrea believes in the power of stories, of reading out loud and in secret spots surrounded by cushions and stacks of books. She lives on Bunurong Country, in the sand dunes of the Mornington Peninsula, where her writing days are fuelled by a secret stash of Cherry Ripes.

Hannah Sommerville is a best-selling picture book illustrator who creates enchanting watercolour, gouache and digital illustrations in her studio on the South Coast of New South Wales. Hannah earned a Bachelor of Creative Arts (Visual Arts and Graphic Design) at the University of Wollongong in 2006, and began illustrating in 2010 after the arrival of her young children. Hannah is a storyteller who enjoys creating picture books that capture the imagination, tenderness and playfulness that surround children and family life. Her picture book Jetty Jumping, written by Andrea Rowe, won Early Childhood Book of the Year at the 2022 Children’s Book Council of Australia awards.