Jacqueline Harvey
Jacqueline Harvey is one of Australia’s most popular authors for children, having sold well over a million copies of her Alice-Miranda series’ in Australia alone. Her spy series, Kensy and Max is thrilling young readers with drama, action and loads of fun and Clementine Rose has been a favourite with young readers for a long time. Her books make regular appearances on both the Dymocks Top 51 Children’s Books and the Better Reading Kids’ Top 50 Children’s Books, often in the top 10.
Jacqueline has received numerous short-listings and awards including in the 2020 Children’s Choice awards (YABBA, KOALA and WAY RBA) while her picture book, The Sound of the Sea was a CBCA Honour Book in 2006. Kensy and Max is shortlisted in the 2021 Red Dot Book Awards in Singapore. A highly experienced teacher and presenter, she has delivered thousands of talks and workshops for children and adults at schools and festivals around the world. Her books have been translated into many languages and are available in over 80 countries. Kensy and Max was published in the United States in July 2020.
Jacqueline was a National Ambassador for Australia Reads and The Reading Hour in 2020 and is also a proud Ambassador for Dymocks Children’s Charities and Room to Read.
Alice-Miranda Friends Forever, the animated movie by SLR Productions in partnership with Screen Australia, ZDF Enterprises and Channel Nine premiered in Australia in November 2019 and is currently airing on STAN, Nine Now and iTunes. A second film, Alice-Miranda A Royal Christmas Ball will screen in 2021.
Jacqueline is currently working on several exciting new projects including a junior fiction series for release in 2022, two picture books and more books in the Alice-Miranda and Kensy and Max series. She has a lot of fun narrating audiobooks as well.
Alice-Miranda | Clementine-Rose |
Jacqueline has developed some flexible workshop programmes as outlined below. In addition to the workshops she also does general talks about writing and her processes that are very interactive and motivational for students and teachers.
Writing Workshops - Years 2-6, Secondary on request
Jacqueline Harvey’s writing workshops give students opportunities to discuss their ideas, do lots of writing and share their work with others. Focusing on a range of activities, designed to assist young writers to develop their skills and gain an understanding of the writing process, Jacqueline can tailor a program to meet specific curriculum outcomes as required.
PD Programs for teachers - Teaching Writing - Audience K-12
Are you daunted by the prospect of writing a narrative? Do you find it impossible to come up with ideas and the thought of writing for an audience fills you with dread? Then you probably know how a good many of your students feel when they have to produce a story.
As a highly experienced teacher, Jacqueline has spent many years sharing her expertise with teachers on strategies to get their students writing, understanding what good writing is and how you can help your students unleash their creativity. She can tailor PD to suit staff needs and meet curriculum requirements.
Topics and Timing
For these workshops topics covered may include:
- Finding and developing ideas
- Creating believable characters
- Developing plausible plots
- Using dialogue effectively
- Understanding the concept of ‘Show, Don’t Tell’
- Literary devices
- Super starts and excellent endings
- Creating a picture book
- Editing
Ideally workshops will be a minimum of 60 minutes however timeframes can be tailored to suit the program requirements and full day workshops are available
Writing for Children - Adults who want to write for kids - 3 - 6 hours – 6 is optimal
Writing for children is big business. Despite the oft forecast demise of reading, demand for quality children’s books is strong and there has been significant growth in this market over the past few years. If you’re keen to write stories that will keep children reading under the covers after lights out, if you’re interested to know more about the puzzling business of publishing, or if you harbour dreams of being the next JK Rowling or Andy Griffiths, then this course is for you.
Jacqueline Harvey will guide participants through a practical look at writing for children; from goal setting and understanding what you want to achieve, to finding your voice and knowing how to grow your story.
The course will cover everything you need to get started including:
- Understanding your potential audience
- Finding and developing ideas
- Creating believable characters
- Developing plausible plots
- Using dialogue effectively
- Literary devices
- The importance of editing
- Advice on getting published
- The business of being a writer
Testimonials
Teachers:
Jacqueline was such a wonderful presenter and has an amazing talent to entertain. Through her witty and humorous tales, she inspires children about the wonders of reading and writing and has left an impact on all children who were lucky enough to hear her.
Jacqueline is an inspiring and humorous author who brought entertainment to us all via Zoom during lockdown. The teachers and students loved listening to all her stories! Thank you so much for making our Book Week event so enjoyable!
Jacqueline Harvey provided our students with a well constructed and engaging presentation. The students loved being able to share their knowledge and ask questions.
Year 1 Student:
I was inspired and excited by the new cat book.
North Kellyville Public School - September 2021-Loved the presentation. Great speaker. Loved the explanations of where ideas for characters come from. Jacqueline kept the students entertained and wanting to hear more.
-I enjoyed it a lot because her jokes and the back stories of the books were amazing! I think she is the best author ever! I just can't describe how amazing her books are. My favourite books are the Alice-Miranda series.
-We all thoroughly enjoyed our author visit by Jacqueline. The students and staff laughed at the stories of some funny characters in her life and loved hearing about her books, including all the forthcoming ones! We all can't wait to read them and look forward to Jacqueline visiting our school again in the future. She is a very lovely lady and extremely talented author and speaker who had the students fully engaged and talking about the visit for weeks.
Northpine Christian College - August 2021Jacqueline both entertained and educated the students. Her group presentation was engaging and enthralling. Students were captivated by her tales and following her presentation there have been many requests for her books. The writing workshop she conducted was fantastic. Every student was given precise feedback as well as many new skills to use in their writing efforts. Jacqueline also participated in a special morning tea which was a highlight for the students. I would recommend Jacqueline for every school where reading and writing are priorities as she provides very beneficial material for students and teachers.
Virginia State School - July, 2021Jacqueline Harvey visited our school (Claremont College) to give up us an inspiring talk about her most humorous memories and to introduce us to her latest book series Kensy and Max. We really enjoyed listening to her talk and are so excited to get our hands on a Kensy and Max book. Jacqueline is also the author of the books Alice Miranda and Clementine Rose. We hope she comes to our school again soon.
Claremont College - 2019Our visiting students, teachers and library staff greatly enjoyed Jacqueline’s presentations during the Festival. Her adaptability, great sense of humour and professionalism shone through the various workshops that she delivered and were lively and student-centred. We have had terrific feedback from students and families who joined the library service as a result of her passion for writing and libraries.
Rockhampton Regional Libraries Off the Shelf Festival - 2019
Kensy and Max
Clementine Rose
Alice-Miranda at Camp
Alice-Miranda on Holiday
Alice-Miranda at School