Reading aloud and talking about what we're reading sharpens children's brains. It helps develop their ability to concentrate at length, to solve problems logically, and to express themselves more easily and clearly.

I made a lot of friends at school, and they were all Africans. I could have felt very different. I didn't feel different, I didn't notice the color of their skin, I didn't notice the color of my skin and I have remembered that all my life.

When I say to a parent, "read to a child", I don't want it to sound like medicine. I want it to sound like chocolate.

As everyone knows, nothing is sweeter than tiny baby fingers and chubby baby toes.

I was the most Australian child ever in the world, even though my home was in Africa.

I don't go to church much anymore, but Methodist values still wind me up and send me ticking into my daily life.

I think that my favourite animal is a baby possum, or a joey. The face of a really little joey is so divine - so, so gorgeous.