Lorraine Wilson grew up in Northern Victoria and attended one-teacher rural schools as a child. She always loved to read but had no real interest in writing until she was deputy principal of a large inner-city school, Helen St Northcote. The student population included recently arrived migrant children as well as poor Australian-born children. At that time there were no books for young children which showed children of the inner city and the Northcote children could not identify with the characters of the books. Wilson began writing about the Helen St children, which marked the beginning of her writing career.
Wilson has produced successful school readers in several series, some translated into other languages, such as 'City Kids' (1978-81, 1986); 'Country Kids' (1982-83, 1985, 1987); and 'Footy Kids' (1982, 1984). She has also written and published various books on teaching practices and integrating writing into classroom teaching; for example, Write Me a Poem : Reading, Writing and Performing Poetry (1994). She has combined this with education consultancy and speaking, on literacy issues, around Australia and the United States. Her awards include the Australian Literacy Educators' Medal, 1996.
For further information about Wilson's numerous titles, refer to Kerry White Australian Children's Books: A Bibliography, Vols. 2 and 3.
