Experts in literacy and child development have discovered that if children know eight nursery rhymes by heart by the time they’re four years old, they’re usually among the best readers by the time they’re eight.

If every parent understood the huge educational benefits and intense happiness brought about by reading aloud to their children, and if every parent- and every adult caring for a child-read aloud a minimum of three stories a day to the children in our lives, we could probably wipe out illiteracy within one generation.

I don't know why some people have children at all if they know that they can only take a few weeks off work.

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.

I have very little patience with children.

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

The fire of literacy is created by the emotional sparks between a child, a book, and the person reading.