Jacqueline Harvey knew she wanted to be an author at a young age. She couldn’t say exactly when, but winning a minor writing competition as a teenager inspired her to think that maybe, sometime in the future, she might be able to write books. It wasn’t until November 2012, that Jacqueline took the giant step away from a 20 year career in schools as a teacher, Deputy Head of Junior School and most recently, Director of Development, to become a full time writer. She is now one of Australia’s most popular authors, having sold well over a million copies of her Alice-Miranda, Clementine Rose and Kensy and Max series in Australia and New Zealand. Jacqueline Harvey’s bestselling Alice-Miranda series began as an idea for a picture book but it soon became apparent that this perpetually positive seven-and-a-quarter-year-old had a lot more to say. The series has been sold to the United States, United Kingdom, Indonesia, Turkey, Brazil, Hungary, Germany, Portugal and Russia and has been shortlisted for numerous children’s book awards in Australia including both industry and children’s choice. Alice-Miranda at School won the YABBA for Younger Readers in 2012 and Jacqueline has had an Alice-Miranda title on the REAL awards shortlist (YABBA, KOALA and KROC children’s choice awards) every from 2012-2017 and again in 2019 and now in 2021. She has recorded the first five titles and number 19, Alice-Miranda in the Outback as audio books for Audible and the first animated feature film in partnership with SLR Productions, ZDF Enterprises, STAN and the Nine Network (Australia) was released in November 2019 with a second, Alice-Miranda: A Royal Christmas Ball coming late 2021. 2020 saw the release of a special hardback 10 year anniversary edition of the first book, Alice-Miranda at School. The Clementine Rose series for younger readers has followed closely in the footsteps of Alice-Miranda’s success and has been sold to the United Kingdom, Brazil and Sri Lanka and is now also available in the US. Clementine Rose and the Seaside Escape was shortlisted for an Australian Book Industry Award (ABIA) in 2015 in the Younger Readers Category – the same year Alice-Miranda in Japan was also shortlisted in the Older Readers Category. Jacqueline’s first and only picture book, The Sound of the Sea was an Honour Book in the 2006 Children’s Book Council Awards. The first book in Jacqueline’s latest series, Kensy and Max: Breaking News was released in March 2018 to great excitement and has been a constant on the bestseller charts. The second, Kensy and Max: Disappearing Act followed in September 2018 and the third, Kensy and Max: Undercover in March 2019. Since then she has released Kensy and Max: Out of Sight in September 2019 and Kensy and Max: Freefall in March 2020. Kensy and Max: Full Speed came out in October 2020, followed by Kensy and Max: Take Down in March 2021. and there are still more to come! The first four books in the Kensy and Max series have been sold to the United States and were published mid 2020. Jacqueline has recorded all of the books in the series as audio titles. Kensy and Max: Breaking News is currently on the shortlist for the Singapore Red Dot Book Awards 2021 and was on the West Australian Young Readers Book Awards 2020 and the Yabba, KOALA and KROC awards (Victorian, NSW and NT children’s choice awards) for 2020 and again in 2021. Jacqueline was selected as an ambassador for the Australia Reads program in 2020 with the main event being The Reading Hour to be held in November. She wrote a special short Kensy and Max book especially for the campaign. Kensy and Max: Spy Games is available in all good books stores! She relishes any opportunity to get back into school and work with the children who inspire her writing. She is a highly experienced presenter, having delivered hundreds of talks and workshops at schools and festivals around the world. Jacqueline is an ambassador for Dymocks Children’s Charities and Room to Read and is passionate about improving literacy outcomes for all children. She lives in Sydney with her husband Ian and Balthazar also known as Bally Puss who used to be their Visitor Cat but became a permanent fixture a while ago. Jacqueline is currently working on more Alice-Miranda and Kensy and Max adventures and has some exciting new projects brewing too. In her spare time, Jacqueline likes to play golf in exotic locations.