Adventures of The Midnight Gang

For those of us too far afield to partake of the amazing events offered at the National Centre for Australian Children’s Literature Inc. (NCACL) Belle Alderman AM has penned a wonderful post to report on the recent exhibition of the stunning artwork from the Midnight Gang, illustrated by Ann James AM. 

 

Mid-last year, I received an email from the Literature Centre in Fremantle, WA. They would be moving to the WA State Library in December. There wouldn’t be room for their entire collection of artworks based on Australian children’s books. Would we like to have some of these artworks? This came at a time when our Centre was experiencing space constraints. Nevertheless, temptation prevailed. Looking down their list of highly appealing offerings, three creators’ works jumped out: Ann James, Anne Spudvillas, and Peter Gouldthorpe. 

 

The stunning standout for NCACL became Ann James’ preliminary and final artworks for The Midnight Gang (1996). This picture book won a swag of children’s choice awards plus a CBCA Honour Award. Our Centre already holds the papers and manuscripts by Margaret Wild, including her multiple drafts for The Midnight Gang plus correspondence between Margaret and her trio of publisher, editor and book designer. Here was the perfect combination to share the creative process. ‘Yes, please, send these items straight away,’ I replied. When The Midnight Gang artwork arrived, we immediately decided on an exhibition and booked the University of Canberra’s Mura Gadi Gallery for 9 -27 February 2026. 

 

What about inviting Ann James and Margaret Wild to come to Canberra during the exhibition to talk with children and adults? And so it came to pass. Volunteer Ann Martin documented The Midnight Gang artwork now available from the NCACL website. 

 

Our Visitors’ Book for this exhibition heaped high praise from those attending our opening night on the 18^th of February. Ann James AM & Margaret Wild, creators of The Midnight Gang, appeared in conversation with Dr Stephanie Owen Reeder, OAM facilitator. Just imagine the insights coming from these three creators talking! Between them they have published over 200 books for children. It was truly a ‘night to remember.’ 

Young children also visited the exhibition and talked with Margaret and Ann. There were 25 year 2 children from Radford College followed by 20 children aged three to five years from the University of Canberra’s Wiradjuri Childcare Centre. Ann James created an original watercolour background settings for each child at Wiradjuri. With black pastels in hand, each child then drew what might be happening during this midnight scene. 

 

Our NCACL volunteer Rowan Simpkin designed the layout and installed The Midnight Gang artworks. Volunteer Ruth Nitschke created a display of Margaret Wild’s manuscripts and correspondence relating to The Midnight Gang. Volunteer Emma Janssen created giveaway bookmarks featuring The Midnight Gang as giveaways at the exhibition’s Children’s Corner. Various NCACL volunteers collected used copies of books by Ann James and Margaret Wild for our children’s reading corner for shared reading. There were tables with paper and crayons for children to create their own artworks plus cushions to relax and enjoy stories together. 

 

Margret Wild, Belle Alderman AM & Ann James AM - Midnight Madcaps

Another special volunteer was involved. Celeste Alderson-Fletcher, completing 52 hours of volunteer service for her Gold Duke of Edinburgh Award at the NCACL, created ‘Midnight Snaps’, a gallery of images for NCACL’s website and wrote a blog, ‘Setting the Scene’ about the creation of the Midnight Gang events and volunteers involved.

 

Suzanne Lazarro, publicist for the University of Canberra (UC), commented, ‘For everyone from the littlest members of the UC community to more senior book‑lovers, the Midnight Gang exhibition at UC’s Mura Gadi Gallery proves that there’s no age limit on celebrating imagination, adventure and wild whimsy. The concept of a gang of four babies sneaking out at night – one through a cat flap! – is truly inspired!’ On the opening night, Ann and Margaret headlined a conversation for grown-up fans, with fellow author Dr Stephanie Owen Reeder OAM facilitating the chat. The Midnight Gang will be long remembered. That’s the power of stories for young people.

 

That’s not the end of this story! Below are even more stories about The Midnight Gang.

 

Kids’ Book Review 21 Feb 2026 

Article by Tania McCartney ‘Midnight Madcaps, The National Centre for Australian Children's Literature’ about the opening event on 18 Feb  

 

NCACL Social Post on Facebook announcing exhibition and events 1 Feb 2026 

 

NCACL Social Post on X platform 1 Feb 2026 

 

Wiradjuri Preschool and Childcare Centre Social Post on Facebook

 

Radford College Social Post on Facebook Year 2 students visit The Midnight Gang exhibition and post about their visit on 26 Feb 

 

LinkedIn University of Canberra’s Post promoting the exhibition

 

SCBWI ACT 7 Feb 2026

 

Instagram post by Stephanie Owen Reeder 16 Feb 2026

 

Living Arts Canberra newsletter 19 Feb 2026

 

University of Canberra Social Post on Facebook 23 Feb 2026

 

Sandy Bigna children’s author comments 1 Mar 2026

 

 

Dr Belle Alderman AM

Director, National Centre for Australian Children’s Literature Inc

W: National Centre for Australian Children’s Literature

FB: https://www.facebook.com/NCACLAustralia

X: https://x.com/NatCentAusChLit 

Tasmania Reads 2026

Reading connects us all: Be part of the story!

Libraries Tasmania is celebrating Tasmania Reads from Sunday 22 to Saturday 28 March 2026 and we invite you to be part of the story. 

Tasmania Reads is an annual week-long celebration of reading and stories in all forms, now in its fourth year!

The week is filled with fun reading-inspired events and activities for all ages at libraries, schools and organisations across Tasmania. From Storytime for the youngest story fans to hands-on workshops for teens eager to write their own story, there’s something for everyone.

Libraries Tasmania events are free to attend. Children and young people (and their families) are encouraged to attend events to connect with reading by:

     # Attending a StoryWalk led by Tasmanian Aboriginal writers and storytellers.

     # Creating a comic in a Tony Flowers workshop.

     # Visiting a library to read to a Story Dog.

     # Making a zine to tell your story, your way, by joining a zine-making session at  the library or downloading the template from our website and crafting your mini  story at home.

     # Attending the State Library and Archives of Tasmania Zine Fair to explore the world of zines.

We also encourage participation in one of our many partner events.

How will you be part of the story this
Tasmanian Reads Week?

Share how you’re connecting this Tasmania Reads week by tagging @librariestasmania on Facebook or Instagram.

Making Science Fun for Kids

Tasmanian author, Ann Morgan, shares her love of writing, verse, Tasmania and having fun as she introduces science and scientific concepts to young children through her fascinating and gloriously illustrated picture books.

My writing career began by writing poetry for adults and fiction for children in the late 1990s. By the early 2000s, publishers were encouraging me to write funny stories for reluctant readers. My Captain Clawbeak series of illustrated junior novels (Penguin Random House, illustrator, Wayne Harris), is the most successful of these comic adventures for early readers.

Years later, I remembered how, in late primary and early secondary school, my favourite Christmas or birthday presents were, thanks to my science-loving mum, a toy microscope and a chemistry set. So during the covid pandemic, I tried writing science-based picture books for kids. 

The Way of the Weedy Seadragon, illustrated by Lois Bury, CSIRO Publishing, (2021)

My first picture book with CSIRO Publishing was inspired by a poem I had written, which had won a Fellowship of Tasmanian Writers award for nature poetry. I wrote Weedy Seadancers while working for the National Oceans Office, after taking my children snorkeling at the underwater discovery trail at Tinderbox. I am a genre-hopping writer after all!

Informed by her background in nursing, talented Tasmanian illustrator, Lois Bury, researched the biology of these weird and wonderful relatives of seahorses, and added gentle touches of quirkiness to the illlustrations, in a way that enhanced the book’s appeal to children and adults. Well done, Lois!

Ann and Lois at Kingston Market.

Tardigrades, Nature’s Toughest Survivors, illustrated by Jennifer Falkner, CSIRO Publishing (2024)

After reading about the astonishing survival talents of micro-organisms with the cute nicknames of ‘water bears’ and ‘moss piglets’, I decided to write about these tough little critters for five to nine year olds. Thanks to my partner for his subscription to New Scientist! 

The more I researched the tiny tardigrades, the more awed I became of their talents. There are about 1300 known species of this creature, and each species has a ,set of survival mechanisms. Many species can be found in moss. Some in the gutters of our roofs. Others on plants in our gardens – don’t worry, they won’t hurt you if you accidentally swallow them! Tardigrades can also be found in hot springs. They have even been discovered living in damp spots under rocks in scorching deserts! Some have been found near the summit of a Himalayan mountain; others at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, the deepest part of the world’s oceans. They have even been found in a lake in Antarctica. 

Tardigrades Book Week costume

Tardigrades have survived for ten days, exposed to the extreme radiation of space - this would tear a human body apart in minutes, unless that person was wearing a space suit!

Tardigrades have an uncanny knack of placing themselves in a kind of suspended animation, and when conditions become favourable again, they can bring themselves back from the brink of death and get on with their lives. Scientists from many different fields are researching them, hoping to discover how they can withstand critical threats to survival such as extreme high or low pressures, heat, cold and dehydration; chemical and radiation poisoning; and lack of oxygen.

Vibrantly illustrated by WA’s Jennifer Falkner, Tardigrades, nature’s toughest survivors could be the perfect book to fire up the curiosity of young children, but teachers, parents and grandparents should also prepare to be amazed!

 

The Bird Lovers’ Ball, illustrated by Lois Bury,
Forty-South, (2025)

This quirky celebration of Tasmanian birds is a unique blend of scientific facts and light comic fantasy. It is also, without doubt, my most genre-bending children’s book.

A few years ago I was studying some greeting cards by Lois Bury, where people are shown dressed as birds. I knew there was a picture book in those images, but for a year or more, the ideal way of weaving those images into a story eluded me. 

Then I had one of those moments when cartoon tweety birds start chirping in your head. Why not have Tasmanian children dressing as their favourite endemic birds (species that only live in Tasmania) and heading off to a Bird Lovers Ball? One page could show a child dressed as an endemic bird character, and another page could contain images and facts about the bird that is being represented.

It was Lois who suggested I write the book in rhyme. My first reaction was a groan – not because I don’t like rhyming text. I do. I love the music of language; the way rhythm and rhyme can introduce unexpected and often comic elements into a text while helping readers develop their literacy skills by predicting what comes next. But I have studied versification at an advanced level, and know how difficult it is to make a rhythmic, rhyming text flow easily. It was nonetheless an inspired suggestion from Lois! After months of grinding my teeth while trying to be playful with rhythmic and rhyming language, the text was complete at last.

I didn’t like our chances of selling this story to a mainland traditional publisher because the topic was so local. Tasmania has just 3% of the Australian population, and royalty-paying publishers need to turn a profit or they go out of business. So I pitched the concept to Lucinda Sharp at Tasmania’s biggest publishing company, Forty South. She loved it! In no time at all, a very talented team was working on the Bird Lovers’ Ball. Thanks, team!

Lois added her own quirky, surreal touches in the illustrations, and the Bird Lovers Ball was  launched at Wild Island Tasmania by Mayor Anna Reynolds late in October 2025.

Birds have been singing in my head ever since!

 

Anne Morgan
Tasmanian children’s book author
Visit Anne’s website

 

Dipping into the 2026 Notable list

Did you wait with baited breath to see if some of your favourite reads from the past year made it to “the lists”? I did and was thrilled to see some terrific books included. Read on for a quick dip into just a few of Jennie’s favourites across each category. As she hasn’t read all the books this is just a selection that resonated. Lots left out and lots more to read!

 

Eve Pownall Award

The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Fast and Slow Animals. Written and illustrated by Sami Bayly. Published by Lothian Children's Books.

What I love about Baylys’ work is not just the amazing realism of her meticulous art work but the original and creative perspectives she explores to present the familiar and extraordinary animals across the globe and from all animal families. Her coverage of fast and slow goes well beyond the animals we know so well – such as the cheetah! Wonderful for all inquiring minds the coverage is sure to broaden your knowledge. Careful design is evident with carefully laid double page spreads that compare and differentiate between different groups. Language is engaging and entertaining with some humorous commentary intertwined within the factual coverage.

 

This bird. Noticing our Urban Birds. Written and illustrated by Astred Hicks ; with Holly Parsons. Published by CSIRO.

Hicks, with scientific support from Parsons, presents a colourful and vibrant array of familiar Australian birdlife. An original approach to organising each entry works effectively to focus on 'noticing' differences in birds by highlighting unique features that make each bird stand out from the rest. Double page spreads start with "This bird…" followed by an additional clause “... has a red butt; “…is a hoverer; ‘”…loves cities; etc. Information is accessible, interesting, informative and identifies special attributes to help young bird watchers with identification and location.

 

Picture Book of the Year

(I have only read one of the books on this list! But it is wonderful!)

Once I was a Giant. Written and illustrated by Zeno Sworder. Published by Thames & Hudson.

This is an enigmatic and challenging tale of the life of a tree told by one of its end products - a pencil. Dark, muted pastels convey the majesty of the giant tree and its surrounding forest and the joy of the visitations from the wanderer, (perhaps a wood sprite?), who relates the passing of time. The bleak devastation of the cleared land is beautifully contrasted with the quiet work of the wanderer to reseed the forest. Sworder's masterful visual storytelling is both thoughtful and thought provoking, exploring nature and the life cycles that support regeneration and reforestation.

 

Book of the Year: Early Childhood

The Emperor’s Egg. Written and illustrated by Rae Tan. Published by Lothian Children’s Books.

Tan has reworked an ancient Chinese folk tale about integrity, courage and patience that celebrates ancient Chinese traditions. The old and childless Emperor is seeking an heir and puts a call out for children over the age of five to each care for a beautiful coloured egg. Ren nurtures his egg with patience and care as he watches the other children play with their glorious dragon like hatchlings. On the thirtieth day the Emperor makes his decision based on the evidence. The design, layout, and illustrations are exquisite - richly coloured with artful use of white space and glorious movement and facial expressions in the children.

 

Look, See, Find Me. Written and illustrated by Sandra Severgnini. Published by CSIRO.

A cleverly designed introduction to camouflage that presents a range of animals in different environments. With a single descriptive sentence on each double page young readers are encouraged to discover different animals blending into their environment. This is supported with the names - common and scientific - to indicate how many creatures need to found. The artwork accurately portrays both elements with each spread being fully coloured and richly texture to the eye. A glossary at the end includes information about each creature and an image similar to how they look on their respective pages. Perfect for this younger age group, the book is more literary nonfiction rather than story.

 

Where the River Runs Free. Written by Vikki Conley, illustrated by Tasmanian illustrator Jedda Robaard. Published by Windy Hollow Books.

Portraying a delightful and cheerful walk along the river, young readers will make many connections with Mum, two girls and the baby as the set off for an adventure. Familiar landscapes and activities to stimulate discussion, the story is simple and familiar. Splashing in the river, hearing the birds, sharing snacks and chasing butterflies are all part of the fun. Robaard’s Illustrations enrich and expand the story with soft watercolours providing different perspectives, shifting the focus of the eye with broad double page spreads interspersed with cameo images that use white space effectively to highlight the action. The placement of the simple storyline adds to the flow of the story. Text is enriched with wonderful alliteration, onomatopoeia and descriptive language, all perfectly placed on each page. The conclusion is very satisfying – they get to see a ….! Can you guess what they were looking for on the river?

 

Book of the Year: Younger Readers

Run. Written by Sarah Armstrong. Published by Hardie Grant Children’s.

A fast-paced adventure survival story follows Cas (Casper) who avoids facing his long estranged father by escaping into the bush. He quickly realises that he does not have the necessary survival skills and lost, hungry and thirsty, he despairs, but is unable to find his way out. Discovered by two sisters and their dog he soon realises he has stumbled into a mystery as the girls and their Dad are living off grid and have a secret to hide. 

Armstrong explores both physical and emotional survival in this tight, edge-of-the-seat adventure that explores neglect, forgiveness, family, friendship and moral challenges. A great read for older primary and early secondary with a cast of interesting robust characters including a teenager thirsting for civilization.

 

Song of a Thousand Seas. Written by Zana Fraillon, illustrated by Aviva Reed. University of Queensland Press.

Similar in style to her engaging and emotive verse novel Way of Dog, Fraillon uses a first person narrative to tell the story of Houdini the octopus, trapped in a tank, who longs with all of her nine brains, three hearts, and 3,154 suckers to be back home in the sea. Houdini narrates her own and three other points of view - Paul the keeper, Juno the keeper’s daughter and Joe the aquarium cleaner - to present multiple perspectives that show how each is pulled in a particular direction. Fraillon artfully immerses the reader into Houdini's caged world to understand and sympathise with her craving for the ocean and freedom. Black and white illustrations are placed throughout, at times twisting between the short verses each starting with a short and evocative heading to highlight the voice and the perspective being related. The illustrations add depth and mood to the narration as well as enhancing the visual appeal and accessibility of the book. A story for primary aged readers that is rather different from the usual fare - and certainly one that will encourage them to think and question the ethical issues around keeping captive animals - though this is not discussed at any stage. Such is the power of seeing into the 3 hearts and 9 minds of Houdini.

Book of the Year: Older Readers

Eleanor Jones is Playing with Fire. Written by Amy Doak. Published by Penguin.

Eleanor continues to plunge head first into trouble in this third stand-alone adventure. Her friends and others at school are all suspects in the first disaster – a house fire that sees one man dead – accident or arson? A note warning Eleanor off suggests the latter. Although trying to do the right thing and pass all information onto Holly, the local police officer, she can’t help but wonder. 

Another entertaining thriller with an interesting mixture of teen characters, all with flaws and most with strengths, that will engage teen readers from Year 7 up. Doak handles a number of teen issues and moral responsibilities, including family pressure, toxic behaviour and sexting, boredom, carjacking, thrill seeking behaviours, and that most important first kiss, with dexterity, humour and insight. 

 

We Saw What You Started. Written by Carla Salmon. Published by Pan Macmillan.

Told from different perspectives the main characters include Otto, relocated with his mum from California with a mysterious past that involves a fire destroying a farm and a love of surfing. Twins, Jasper and Milly, the brother lazy and laid back, and apparently destined to become captain of the local surf living team of which their father is the manager. Milly, determined to prove her worth to her father and a dedicated life saver. Otto becomes prime suspect for the fires, he suspects Jasper and Milly is determined to prove both innocent. Other characters support or thwart her endeavours. Salmon has crafted a realistic teen fiction story that features three arson attacks, family relationships, the challenges of being new to the town and country, sibling rivalry, family, friendship and community dynamics, exploitation and manipulation and a budding romance. A good read for teens with some detective work, and a strong focus on life saving, surfing and personal relationships.

All the best with your reading adventure over the next few months as we warm up the orchestra for Book Week. Please share one of your early favourites. Now, what will I read next?

Jennie Bales

Retired teacher librarian and CBCA Tasmania Social Media Coordinator