Terry Denton illustrates and writes children's books. His work is well known to kids through books such as his Storymaze comic novel series, the Gasp! series, and the Treehouse and Just! series with Andy Griffiths. He has also worked with Paul Jennings and Ted Greenwood, Mem Fox, Gillian Rubinstein, Andrew Daddo, Archie Fusillo and many other wonderful Australian authors. He has won more than twenty children's choice awards throughout Australia and been short-listed many times in the Children's Book Council of Australia awards. His book Felix and Alexander won Picture Book of the Year in 1986.
WHO IS HE?
Terry Denton was born in Melbourne in 1950, the second youngest of five boys… He originally studied Architecture… but became unhappy with that course… left Uni and set about discovering what kind of artist he really wanted to be... the fool!!!… Over the next seven years he tried animation, painting, theatre, etching, sculpture, cartooning, horse whispering, iceberg building, pterodactyl counselling…and also worked part-time with his thirteenth best friend running a music shop… or was that fourteenth?
THEN CAME 1984… he wrote and illustrated Felix and Alexander… that’s the name of a book you fool!!!… It was published in 1985 and won the CBC Picture Book of the Year in 1986… Since then he has written and illustrated, or written, or illustrated more than 40 books…Terry Denton is a busy boy… you have to make an appointment to see him… even his kids don’t get to see him… but that’s because they don’t want to… his best work can be found in books such as… the Gasp! series, the Just! series and the Storymaze series, a comic novel series and lots more too numerous to mention… but you can see more about them in the BOOKLIST list section list… list section list… list section list… list… He has won more than fifteen children’s choice awards throughout Australia… and been shortlisted many times in the CBCA awards…
In 1991-2 Terry worked for the Australian Children’s Television Foundation on Lift-Off, acknowledged as one of the most innovative children’s TV shows produced in Australia. He spent two years helping to devise the program and design the puppets and the look of the program.
He lives by the beach with his wife… not that anyone really cares… they have lots of kids and grandkids and dogs too… but then who doesn’t… and a few chooks… mechanical chooks… who lay mechanical eggs… who bust their way out of the fridge when no one is looking and go away on holidays to Magnetic Island and sent back post cards written is mechanical egg language that no one can understand… His hobbies include… well, actually he doesn’t have any hobbies… unless you define sitting around in a darkened room drawing till his fingers bleed a hobby…. But he tells people he goes bushwalking… and plays ball sports… and water-sports… and goes painting and strangling cats and visiting sick people in hospital… but that’s rubbish… and so is the stuff in your bin…