Libby Gleeson, Freya Blackwood a hit with Children’s Book Council

The dynamic duo of early literature put children first in their celebrated works.

Freya Blackwood, left, and Libby Gleeson in Melbourne yesterday for the Children’s Book Council of Australia Awards. Picture: Aaron Francis

Libby Gleeson and Freya Blackwood’s picture book Go to Sleep, Jessie! can be seen as a sweet — and G-rated — version of the American bestseller Go The F. k To Sleep. The parents of a baby girl make desultory efforts to get her to sleep, but it’s her little big sister who ends up finding a solution.

“That other book was written from the parents’ point of view,’’ Gleeson said after her book won in the early childhood category at yesterday’s Children’s Book Council of Australia Awards.

“My attitude is, bugger the parents, what is the poor child going through? I always try to put myself in the position of the child.’’

Gleeson and Blackwood, who first worked together on the award-winning 2007 children’s book Amy and Louis, were the big winners at the awards in Melbourne. Another collaboration, The Cleo Stories: The Necklace and the Present, was named book of the year for younger readers.

Blackwood, who came to illustration after a career in movie special effects, including on the Lord of the Rings trilogy, also took home the picture book prize for My Two Blankets, written by Irena Kobald. NSW writer Clare Zorn won the older readers category for her second young adult novel, The Protected, and Melbourne author Simon Barnard, who grew up in Launceston, took out the information book award for A-Z of Convicts in Van Diemen’s Land. Each category is worth $10,000.

“I’ve always looked up to Libby and it was a coup to be offered that first book with her,’’ said Orange-based Blackwood, who has a nine-year-old daughter.

“I love the characters she writes — they feel like my own family — and I like that the endings of her stories can be a bit ­ambiguous. It means I have to work out what the ending should be as drawing, which gives me a little bit of authorship.’’

Sydney-based Gleeson, who has three adult children, agreed. “I know some people think the writers tell the illustrators what to do, but that’s not the case. Freya ­understands what I am doing with these stories.’’

Gleeson said she had a writing mantra pinned above her work desk: celebrate the ordinary. “I try to find rich stories in ordinary life, ones that ring with authenticity.’’

Blackwood had her share of the extraordinary when she worked on Peter Jackson’s films, where her speciality was Hobbits’ feet. “It’s funny, I don’t even draw feet very well,’’ she said.