Jacaranda Magic
About Megan Forward
Megan Forward is a twice CBCA (Children’s Book Council of Australia) – shortlisted illustrator and author. After achieving a BA in visual art at QCA Griffith University, a post graduate teaching degree in Art and English, and seven years in sales with Penguin Books Australia, Megan decided to pursue her life-long passion for children’s picture book writing and illustrating.
Megan enjoys both the writing and illustrating of her books as well as travelling to speak and facilitate hands-on interactive STEAM (Science, Technology, English, Art and Maths) workshops for young children using her picture books as stimulus. She is passionate about teaching sustainability to young children, engendering a love of nature through literature, and helping them make real world connections across curriculum subjects. Megan has extensive experience speaking to children and educators, touring to libraries, schools, kindergartens, environmental education organisations and community gardens.
As a leading school in the STEAM area, I highly recommend Megan if you are looking for a person to engage the students with the type of thinking that is integral to a STEAM agenda within a school. She has the ability to bring alive many different areas of learning for today’s students. We are a school that values the connections in curriculum areas and Megan has an intuitive ability to identify these connections and then to plan learning that supports and extends the curriculum. She is delightful to work with and exhibits an appreciation of the dynamics of a school environment and the flexibility that this demands.
Megan has worked with us to support our Book Week celebrations, to support stages of the design thinking and inquiry cycle within our STEAM work and to partner with us to design activities that engage both our teachers and students. This has included mapping with an artistic element, garden design, ideating and brainstorming activities, frog pond building, cooking with home-grown products and scientific drawing and sketching.
I would like to highlight the work Megan does with sustainability elements within the curriculum. As a cross-curricular priority within the Australian Curriculum, there is so much potential within this area for for Megan’s support and insights. – Nicola Flanagan Head of Innovation Oakleigh State School Brisbane, QLD
Distinguished Educator – Design Minds Regional Ambassador
Publications:
A Patch from Scratch (Penguin Random House 2016) Shortlisted for the Childrens’ Book Council Crichton Award 2017 and Speech Pathology Awards 2017 A Patch from Scratch is the story of a family who live in the suburbs, but would like to live a more sustainable lifestyle. They set about raising chickens, designing and building garden beds, and planting their own fruit and vegies. They recycle their garden and kitchen waste into compost and chook food, save seeds, research organic garden methods, and involve their local community. The story culminates in a neighbourhood feast from the harvest in their garden. The back pages include a simple diagram showing the sustainable cycle in their garden, recipes for children based on the feast page, and links to how to build your own patch from scratch.
All I Want for Christmas is Rain (New Frontier 2016) Shortlisted for the Childrens’ Book Council Younger Reader Award 2017. All I Want for Christmas is Rain with Cori Brooke (New Frontier Publishing) is the story of a young girl living on a cattle property in the country, who is yearning for rain to fall on her family’s property to relieve the drought. Finding out that Santa is coming to visit a township nearby, she sets out on a train journey. Will He be able to bring the help her family desperately needs?
Emily Green’s Garden (New Frontier later in 2018) with Penny Harrison tells the story of Emily Green’s yearning for creative play fulfilled when she discovers the magic of gardening.
Jacaranda Magic (Ford Street Publishing later in 2018) with Dannika Patterson is the story of five young friends bored on a hot summer’s day, with no toys or gadgets to entertain them, who discover the magic of imagination and outdoor nature play.
