Terry Denton
, b. 1950
Born the youngest of five boys in Melbourne, Australia, Terry Denton loved art from a young age and drew constantly in his spare time. He studied architecture at Melbourne University, was a comedic theatre actor and regularly created cartoons for the University newspapers. After University he spent time on his art working in animation, painting, etching, sculpture, cartooning and shop window design. In 1984 he wrote and illustrated Felix and Alexander which was published in 1985 and won the Australian Children’s Book Council Picture Book of the Year in 1986. Since then he has written and/or illustrated more than 100 books, including the Gasp! books and TV series, the Wombat and Fox books, and the Bumper Books (1, 2 and 3). He began collaborating with Australian writer Andy Griffiths in 1997 and they developed the Just! series, followed by The Cat on the Mat is Flat, The Bad Books and more recently the hugely successful children’s comedy series The Treehouse books-13, 26, 39, 52, 65 and 78. He has won more than fifteen children’s choice awards throughout Australia and another 40 more with Andy Griffiths. These include the Australian awards – The Multicultural Book of the Year, Best Designed Picture Book, Speech Pathology Australia Book of the Year Award 2014 and The Australia Book Industry Association Book of the Year for older readers in both 2012, 2013 and 2015.
In 1991 he worked for the Australian Children’s Television Foundation on the TV show Lift-Off, spending two years planning the program and designing the puppets. Terry does many school visits throughout the year holding both writing and artistic workshops. He is also a fine artist and has held several exhibitions in Melbourne.
Sources:
Official website (accessed: July 3, 2018).
Morriss, Maureen, "Highlights of the 1995 Children's Book of the Year shortlist [Book Review]" [online], The Australian Journal of Language and Literacy 18.3 (1995): 219–227.
Winner of the 2015 ABIA book of the year [online], Incite 36.6/7 (2015): 12–13.
Profile at the thelitcentre.org.au (accessed: March 3, 2018).
Bio prepared by Lynnette Lounsbury, Avondale College of Higher Education and The University of New England, lynnette.lounsbury@avondale.edu.au
Records in database:
