Aura Parker

Bio
Workshops and Talks

Aura Parker is a best-selling Australian children’s book author and illustrator with a distinctive voice in words and pictures. Her work is expressive, detailed, inspired by nature and filled with pattern and colour. Her upcoming picture book, Wolf Baby, due for release in November 2027 is a story of love overcoming fear, woven with fairy tale references. Aura is the creator of the Bowerbird Blues series including Bowerbird Brood, Bowerbird Bloom and Bowerbird Brave. Bowerbird Blues, a story of longing, searching and love was chosen for ALIA National Simultaneous Storytime in 2024 and read by 2.3 million people at the same time, inspiring a wave of blue children’s art and craft. Aura is passionate about children’s literacy, the environment and encouraging children to be creative and brave. She works from her studio in Sydney and illustrates her picture books in watercolour, pen and coloured pencil using traditional and digital mediums.

Aura Parker Bowerbird Blues

Aura shares her enthusiasm for drawing, writing and reading in visual literacy presentations, illustration sessions and story times with children at schools, festivals and libraries. Aura and has been part of discussion panels at events such as the Kids & YA Festival at NSW Writers' Centre and has conducted workshops and story times at Sydney Writers' Festival, the State Library of NSW, Art Gallery of NSW as well as the artist in residence drawing on stage at the Koala Awards. Aura is a great fit for preschool, K-2 and works with upper primary, high school students, adults, librarians and teachers too.

SCHOOL VISITS

EXAMPLE SESSION, Preschool and K-2 (50 mins, session content may vary)
- Story time with Aura Parker's picture books; Wolf Baby, Bowerbird Blues,
Bowerbird Brood, Bowerbird Bloom, Bowerbird Brave, Twig, Cocoon, Meerkat
Christmas or Goodnight Glow Worms.
- Introduction to the process of writing and coming up with ideas, showing rough
sketches and storyboards
to illustrate the evolution of a project.
- Guided illustration demonstrating how to draw one of Aura's picture book
characters (a bowerbird chick or
Heidi from Twig), step by step to build drawing confidence. Students participate by
doing an illustration in pencil on their clipboards, or work with charcoal. Older
groups
can move on to more expressive poses, with added emotion, encouraged to make
their own individual characters.
- Questions.
- Quiz or activity depending on age.

OUTCOMES:

Sharing enthusiasm for reading, writing and drawing.
Knowledge of character design, gesture, pose, body language and how this contributes to the story.
The publication process from roughs to finished art (depending on the age of the students).

EQUIPMENT LIST:

-Screen and laptop to display a Powerpoint presentation, which Aura will bring on
USB with her own clicker.
-Microphone.
-Clipboards and lead pencils for the students (or charcoal is great to work with too).

-Whiteboard to use as an easel (Aura brings her drawing materials plus large sheets
of paper and you can keep the drawing afterwards).