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?'

Anna Fienberg has written more than forty well-loved books for children and young adults. Her career began when she worked as an editor for School Magazine, a NSW literary journal for children, which published her first story.

She went on to win many awards for her novels and picture books, including the Children's Book Council of Australia award for The Magnificent Nose and Other Marvels, the Victorian Premier's Prize for Ariel, Zed and the Secret of Life, and the CBCA Honour Book for Horrendo's Curse and Borrowed Light, the latter also chosen as an American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults.

Anna writes for all ages, and has been published all over the world. Her ever-popular Tashi books, illustrated by Kim Gamble, have inspired an animated series for television. The latest is Tashi and the Stolen Forest.

Kim Gamble has done splendid illustrations for many of Anna's books, including the picture books There Once was a Boy Called Tashi and Once Tashi Met a Dragon.