Pamela Allen, born in April 1934, in Devonport, New Zealand

Devonport, New Zealand

Devonport is a harbourside suburb of Auckland, New Zealand. It is located on the North Shore, at the southern end of a peninsula that runs southeast from near Lake Pupuke in Takapuna, forming the northern side of the Waitemata Harbour...

 is a children's writer and illustrator. She has published over 30 picture books since 1980, when she moved to Australia. Eight of her books have been adapted for the stage by The Patch Theatre Company and performed at the Sydney Opera House

Sydney Opera House

The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue performing arts centre in the Australian city of Sydney. It was conceived and largely built by Danish architect Jørn Utzon, finally opening in 1973 after a long gestation starting with his competition-winning design in 1957...

. Pamela currently lives in Auckland

Auckland

The Auckland metropolitan area , in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest and most populous urban area in the country with residents, percent of the country's population. Auckland also has the largest Polynesian population of any city in the world...

.

Awards

Pamela Allen has won a number of Awards for her children's books, both in Australia and around the world.

She is the only person to win the CBCA Children's Picture Book of The Year

Children's Book of the Year Award: Picture Book

The Children's Book of the Year Award: Picture Book has been presented annually since 1955 by the Children's Book Council of Australia .The Award "will be made to outstanding books of the Picture Book genre in which the author and illustrator achieve artistic and literary unity, or, in wordless...

 in two consecutive years. In 2001 her picture book, Who Sank The Boat?, won the Gaelyn Gordon Award for a Much-Loved Book. She has also won The New South Wales

New South Wales

New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...

 Premier's Award For The Best Children's Book twice and an International Board on Books for Young People

International Board on Books for Young People

The International Board on Books for Young People is a non-profit organization based in Switzerland committed to bringing books and children together.-History:...

 Honour Diploma For Illustration.

In 2004 she won The Margaret Mahy

Margaret Mahy

Margaret Mahy ONZ is a well-known New Zealand author of children's and young adult books. While the plots of many of her books have strong supernatural elements, her writing concentrates on the themes of human relationships and growing up.Her books The Haunting and The Changeover: A Supernatural...

 Medal, New Zealands most prestigious award for children's literature.

Personal life

Allen currently lives in Auckland, New Zealand with her husband Jim Allen, a conceptual art

Conceptual art

Conceptual art is art in which the concept or idea involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic and material concerns. Many of the works, sometimes called installations, of the artist Sol LeWitt may be constructed by anyone simply by following a set of written instructions...

ist. She has two children, Ben and Ruth (glass artist), and two grandsons.

External links

• http://www.bookcouncil.org.nz/writers/allenpamela.html
• http://www.det.wa.edu.au/education/cmis/eval/fiction/authors/at1.htm#pallen
• http://www.penguin.com.au/puffin/Authors/author-profile.cfm?AuthorId=0000000024