OUR CLIENTS
Terry Denton
Children’s Author and Illustrator
Terry Denton is among Australia’s busiest literary creative forces and his work, either as a writer, illustrator or both can be found in popular children’s titles such as Gasp!, Spooner Or Later, Felix and Alexander, Jake and Pete and the Stray Dogs and Duck for Cover. Passing On, written by Mike Dumbleton and illustrated by Terry, was short listed for the 2002 “Children’s Book Of The Year Awards” in the Early Childhood category.
Born in Melbourne in 1950, the second youngest of 5 boys, Terry originally studied architecture when he left school. He later withdrew as he didn’t want a degree that he felt he wouldn’t use. Terry knew he wanted to be an artist but he wasn’t sure what kind. Over the next seven years he tried animation, theatre, sculpture, etching, painting, cartooning, and worked part time, managing a retail business in Mornington.
Terry has illustrated over twenty books, six of which he wrote. Penguin Books published Flying Man in 1984. Felix and Alexander was published in 1985 and won CBC Picture Book of the Year in 1986. In 1987, his third book, At the Café Splendid, won the American Family Choice Award. Night Noises, written by Mem Fox and illustrated by Terry, won a Reed Book award in the USA. In 1992, Gillian Rubenstein and Terry produced Mr Plunkett’s Pool, which won the 1993 Australian Multicultural Book of the Year. In 1994, The Paw won an Honour Award in the Picture Book Category of the CBC Awards.
Terry has illustrated several Paul Jennings Books: Freeze a Crowd, Duck for Cover, which was shortlisted for the CBC Junior Book 1995 and won KOALA and YABBA Awards, and Spooner or Later which won A.B.P.A Best Designed Book of the Year and a YABBA Award. Books which Terry wrote and illustrated, Gasp! (which won the KOALA Award in 1996) and Zapt!, together with two books in The Paw series and Freeze a Crowd are shortlisted for YABBA Awards in 1998. Terry has also illustrated the Just...! series of books written by Andy Griffiths and published by Macmillan. These include Just Tricking!, Just Annoying!, Just Stupid! and Just Crazy! Terry’s wacky doodles enhance Andy’s stupid, funny stories. Great for 10 to 13 year olds. This series is the basis for the animated television series What’s With Andy, which has been produced by Canada’s Cine Group and has been broadcast on television in Australia, North America and Europe on Fox Kids.
Over recent years, Terry has been working on his Storymaze series published by Allen & Unwin. Storymaze 5: The Minotaur’s Maze and Storymaze 6: The Obelisk of Eeeno were recently released. Storymaze 1: The Ultimate Wave, Storymaze 2: The Eye of Ulam, Storymaze 3: The Wooden Cow and Storymaze 4: The Golden Udder are also available in good book shops.
In 1991-2 Terry worked for the Australian Children’s Television Foundation on Lift Off, acknowledged as one of the most creative children’s television shows in Australia. He spent a year helping to devise the program and another year designing the puppets and the visual concepts for this award winning program.
Terry describes his illustrations as either very simple or very detailed or slightly detailed with simple funny parts or fairly simple with slightly detailed funny parts!
He visits hundreds of schools throughout the year where he enjoys meeting students, working with them to develop their own writing and sometimes assisting them to design and paint murals.
Terry is married and lives by the beach with his wife, Kirsten, three children, five chooks, two goldfish and a huge burial mound of previous pets. He lists his hobbies as bush walking, volleyball, strangling cats and visiting sick people in hospital.
GOLVAN ARTS MANAGEMENT • PO Box 766, Kew, Victoria 3101 Australia • golvan@ozemail.com.au