Jean Chapman wrote scripts for ABC schools' radio broadcasts and television programs including
Playschool and
Kindergarten of the Air. She wrote for the New South Wales
School Magazine and for reading schemes, and also wrote many non-fiction books for children. Her books - from picture books and novels, to collections of stories and poems - have been enjoyed by generations of children from the 1960s onwards.
Chapman also wrote a work on
May Gibbs (q.v.) and a biography of Hans Christian Andersen
Capturing the Golden Bird: The Young Hans Christian Andersen (Hodder and Stoughton, 1987).
She was an executive member of the Children's Book Council of New South Wales, and of the May Gibbs Nutcote Trust.