About the Author

EVA DI CESARE graduated from Victorian College of the Arts in 1989 and is one of the founding members of Monkey Baa Theatre Company. She directed Jackie French and Bruce Whatley's Diary of a Wombat, which won the Glug Award for Outstanding Presentation for Children. Cesare also wrote and directed Where the Streets Had a Name, based on the novel by Randa Abdel-Fattah. She has co-adapted Sydney Theatre Award winning play Li Cunxin's The Peasant Prince, Helpmann award winning plays Jackie French's Hitler's Daughter and Sonya Hartnett's Thursday's Child, Tim Winton's The Bugalugs Bum Thief, Morris Gleitzman's Worry Warts, Gillian Rubinstein's The Fairy's Wings, Stephen Michael King's Milli, Jack and the Dancing Cat, Susanne Gervay's I Am Jack, Elizabeth Fensham's Goodbye Jamie Boyd, Duncan Ball's Emily Eyefinger, and Jackie French and Bruce Whatley's Pete the Sheep and Josephine Wants to Dance. She also co-wrote and directed the 2013 Opera House show Babies Proms Series and Snugglepot and Cuddlepie (with Sandra Eldridge) for CDP Theatre Producers and Simon Tedeschi Pianist and Prankster for Monkey Baa. In 2017 Cesare was awarded a Sydney Theatre Award for 20 years of excellence and extraordinary service to the children and young people of Australia.
RANDA ABDEL-FATTAH is the award-winning author of 11 novels and is published in over 15 countries. She has worked as a lawyer, human rights advocate and community volunteer with different human rights and migrant and refugee resource organisations. She has a PhD in Sociology and is a researcher on Islamophobia, racism and everyday multiculturalism in Australia. Abdel-Fattah is currently working on the feature film adaptation of Does My Head Look Big In This? In 2017 her novel Where the Streets Had A Name was adapted to the stage by Australia's leading children's theatrical company. Abdel-Fattah is a regular guest at schools around Australia addressing students about her books and the social justice issues they raise and is a regular guest at writer's festivals.