I have very little patience with children.

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

My Mother was a very wild Australian woman. When we were in Africa she could kill a snake with one blow from a crow bar, which she kept at the back door.

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

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.

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.

I think sometimes we rush through countries, ticking off the attractions, but that's missing the point.