Barbara Fienberg loved making up stories when she was a child. And the stories continued for another thirty years after she became a teacher librarian. Anna Fienberg says, 'My mother, Barbara, taught at my primary school and I remember sitting spellbound in the library with the rest of the class as she read to us, my mind flying off to wherever she was going. For that hour she was no longer my mother; she was the genie, the snow queen, the terrible tiger and the gentle giant.

'No small wonder that Tashi sprang from the tall-tale country of her childhood. It's been great fun exploring this world together, cooking up characters, wondering with each new problem, what would Tashi do?'

Kim Gamble was one of Australia's leading illustrators for children, and is particularly remembered as the illustrator of Anna and Barbara Fienberg's Tashi stories.