The Creators Behind The Story
Author: Annabel Bowcher
Dr Annabel Bowcher is an experienced science communicator, author, editor and gopher. She enjoys connecting and building community through various local initiatives. As an author, weed scientist and science communicator, stories have always helped her to introduce and explain concepts to children and adults. When asked what job their mother did, her young children would often say that she was a ‘weird scientist’! This ‘weird scientist’ loves looking up to watch sunrises, sunsets, clouds and the night sky. She is also an aurora chaser and GOPHER because when there is an aurora alert, she is often asked by her aurora chasing friend, Emma, to just ‘go for’ a look in her back yard at the southern night.
Born in Brisbane, Australia, Annabel has always been drawn to books, stories and nature. The second youngest of five children, she and her younger sister, Kate, played and imagined their way through their childhood. They rode horses, holidayed on farms, sky gazed and had a menagerie of ponies, ducks, chooks, geese, galahs, budgies, finches, fish, dogs and a cat. Her early love of stories was encouraged by her mother who read to them every night. Annabel has read countless books with her own children and written stories, plays and poetry for them.
Annabel, her husband and two children live in the regional city of Wagga Wagga, Australia. Their home is shared with a new menagerie of animals which has included ponies, dogs, rabbits, ducks (and ducklings), chooks (and chickens), a chook-that-wanted-to-be-a-duck and a galah that chats away when it isn’t ringing like a telephone!
Under the pen name, A.J. Hill, Annabel wrote the neurodivergent Bacalen Book chapter adventure series in collaboration with her then school aged children. They independently published The Story Snatchers (2016) and The Picture Pinchers (2018). These stories have been enjoyed by young readers across the world. The Story Snatchers was also adapted for the stage in 2018.
‘Welcoming Aurora’ is Annabel’s first picture book collaboration. She is so grateful to have wandered this book creation journey beside her friends, photographer, Emma Kidson, and illustrator, Tara O’Halloran.
“If there’s a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet then you must write it.” – Toni Morrison
You also must find a passionate photographer and talented illustrator so that the exquisite beauty of the aurora australis dancing above Wiradjuri country can be properly captured!
Photographer: Emma Kidson
Emma Kidson is an Australian jeweller, photographer, scuba diver and aurora chaser. Her artistic exploits have taken her to some amazing places across the world. She has exhibited her jewellery in Milan, Italy and her creations are worn by people across the world (including Australia’s Governor General).
Emma grew up in the regional towns of Molong and Orange in New South Wales. She studied a Bachelor of Arts Jewellery at Charles Sturt University in Wagga Wagga and graduated with distinction in 2007. She launched her jewellery business, Kidson Jewellery the following year. Emma currently lives in Wagga Wagga with her husband and delightful dog and co-worker, Polly (who is deaf and was adopted from the local pound as a young dog).
Having learned photography as a minor subject at university, Emma’s passion for capturing the natural world grew rapidly when she learned to scuba dive whilst living in Vietnam in 2014. Completely enamoured with the underwater world, she wanted to share all that she was witnessing with friends and family back home. Her underwater photography portfolio includes an incredible array of aquatic animals, including majestic whales and their calves, inquisitive seals and exquisitely coloured nudibranchs.
Returning to Wagga Wagga in 2018, Emma turned her lens to the sky, sharing regular sunset photography outings with Polly-dog at Lake Albert. When the Gannon storm (an extreme G5-level geomagnetic storm, the largest to hit earth in over 20 years) struck Earth in May 2024, Emma witnessed her first ever aurora and a new obsession was born. Emma started on a steep learning curve to understand incoming space weather data in the hopes of catching another glimpse of the southern lights. After some very cold and unsuccessful late nights and early mornings out in the field, her growing understanding of aurora paid off. During the recent (approx three year) period of solar maximum, Emma managed to capture aurora australis in the night sky on at least sixteen individual occasions.
Including her photographs in a book has been one of Emma’s dreams. She was thrilled to be able to contribute her creative expertise to the ‘Welcoming Aurora’ picture book collaboration with Annabel and Tara. Emma loves sharing her understanding of auroras and photography with others and patiently answering their questions about this extraordinary natural phenomenon. She hopes that this new picture book will assist people of all ages to understand and enjoy the southern aurora on the page and in the sky.
Illustrator: Tara O’Halloran
Tara O’Halloran is from a large, inland country city called Wagga Wagga. She grew up in Sydney, Australia and moved to the Riverina region of New South Wales in her late twenties. A love of drawing has been a constant since childhood. With a teacher for a mother and an architect for a father, reading and creating were always encouraged. She enjoys using a mix of traditional and digital methods in her illustrations. This often involves pencil sketches and concept drawing on paper, which are then coloured digitally. While she likes the feel of painting with watercolours and acrylics, she enjoys learning new ways to create illustrations on her trusty tablet. She is currently enjoying experimenting with combining her own pattern designs into her illustrations. Tara particularly enjoys studying and painting birds and will often be found looking out a window at a funny magpie or noisy cockatoo.
Based in a rural setting, Australian bush animals and plants often feature in her work. She has no formal training, just years of practice, observation, trial and error, perseverance, and sometimes a bit of luck. That being said, she has taken courses to improve her understanding and skills, including natural history illustration and techniques in anthropomorphism. Collaborating on ‘Welcoming Aurora’ added a whole new dimension to her artwork, overlaying her illustrations onto Emma Kidson's photographs. It has been a steep learning curve, but a welcome challenge.
Since her university days when she studied to become a Primary School teacher, she has dreamt of illustrating a children's book. As a mum and a teacher, Tara has always had a love for picture books, in particular the illustrations. Some of her many favourite children's book illustrators are Freya Blackwood, Eric Carle and Julie Vivas. She hopes that ‘Welcoming Aurora’ will be enjoyed by the many children, families and colleagues she has worked with over the years.
‘Welcoming Aurora’ is Tara's first illustrated children's book. She is very grateful to her friends Annabel Bowcher and Emma Kidson for asking and trusting her to do the illustrations. She believes that collaborating on ‘Welcoming Aurora’ is proof that you are never too old to chase your dreams.
Tara lives with her husband, two of her three children, their young dog and their very old, but much loved cat.
