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Julie Vivas Julie Vivas i(A51374 works by)
Born: Established: 1947 Adelaide, South Australia, ;
Gender: Female
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BiographyHistory

Vivas trained at the National Art School in Sydney, first undertaking a course in interior design before switching to film animation. In 1969 she went to live in Spain returning to Australia in 1973 to exhibit her Spanish drawings in Sydney and Melbourne.

Vivas undertook work as a freelance illustrator for magazines as well as for children's book publishers. Her style has brought her national and international recognition with her use of muted watercolours, simple rounded shapes and minimal backgrounds. The first children's picture book she illustrated was The Tram to Bondi Beach with Libby Hathorn in 1981.

Vivas has had many successful partnerships with award winning authors such as Margaret Wild with The Very Best of Friends and Let the Celebrations Begin ! (1991) and Mem Fox with Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge (1984) and the internationally successful Possum Magic (1982). She also created her own book Nativity (1986). This title received international recognition as runner up in the Boston Globe Horn Book Awards in 1989.

Vivas has been recognised several times by the American Library Association. The book Let's Eat about a close knit Spanish family was an honour book in the 1997 CBC Awards. It was created in collaboration with her daughter Ana Zamorano.

Most Referenced Works

Awards for Works

y separately published work icon Koala Glebe : Walker Books Australia , 2017 11615885 2017 single work picture book children's

'It is time for Little Koala to leave the protection of his mother. But many challenges and dangers lie ahead for him as he searches for his own home eucalypt and learns to be independent. During his search he encounters other territorial koalas, wanders through a bushfire-ravaged landscape and endures a night of storms.' (Synopsis)

shortlisted Educational Picture or Chapter Book
2018 honour book CBCA Book of the Year Awards Eve Pownall Award for Information Books
2018 CBCA Book of the Year Awards Notable Book Eva Pownall Award for Information Books
y separately published work icon Davy and the Duckling Camberwell : Penguin Books , 2013 6190123 2013 single work picture book children's

'When the baby duck hatched, the first thing it saw was Davy. It fluffed its feathers – and started following Davy everywhere. Around the farmyard, under the apple trees and all the way home.

'From picture-book masters Margaret Wild and Julie Vivas comes this gentle and moving story about the love between a little boy and the duckling that stays with him all of its life.' (Publication summary)

2014 Picture Book CBCA Book of the Year Awards Notable Book
2014 CBCA Book of the Year Awards Notable Book Early Childhood
y separately published work icon Puffling Malvern : Omnibus Books , 2008 Z1452670 2008 single work picture book children's

'Puffling begins as all puffins do, as an egg, hatching in summer. His doting parents, Long Black Feather and Big Stripy Beak, welcome him to the world and take turns to leave the burrow and go out hunting to bring him back food to eat. They warn him to stay inside the burrow at all times, as the ‘scary gulls’ are outside, watching for just such as morsel as a baby puffin. Puffling begins to grow, and to become impatient to grow up and go out into the big wild world outside, but his parents say that he should wait until his is ‘strong enough and tall enough and brave enough’, and then he will be able to make the trip all by himself along the cliff, jump off into the water and paddle away. Puffling is impatient, asking from time to time if he is ready for this moment. Only when he is strong enough (which he shows by paddling his feet and tall enough (by measuring himself against Big Stripy Beak) and brave enough (his parents listen to his heart) do his parents fly away and leave him. Puffling summons all his courage and makes the journey along the cliff, past the waiting gulls, which swoop! But they miss Puffling, and he leaps into the swell and finds friends in the ocean who will keep him company until it is time to come home.' (Publication summary)

2010 shortlisted YABBA Picture Storybook
2010 shortlisted KOALA Awards Picture Book
2009 shortlisted CBCA Book of the Year Awards Book of the Year: Early Childhood
Last amended 16 Mar 2012 11:06:45
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