Award-winning Australian-based author and illustrator Narelle Oliver feels extremely lucky to have a career that she enjoys so passionately.

The creator of the picture books The Best Beak in Boonaroo Bay and Sand Swimmers, as well as a compilation of mermaid lore titled Mermaids Most Amazing, Oliver first became interested in children's books while she was working as a teacher at the Queensland School for the Deaf.

Utilizing picture books in the classroom, and often creating them with her students, Oliver thoroughly enjoyed the process so much that she decided to write and illustrate her own.