Children's Book Pitching Competition: "Your Marvellous Mind"

Meet the judges:

Penny Harrison

Penny Harrison is a children’s author, book reviewer and journalist passionate about challenging stereotypes and fostering inclusion. Her internationally published picture books include the CBCA Notables The Little Things and Me and My Boots, along with The Art Garden, The Little Coven and the bestselling Extraordinary. With more than 25 years’ experience in journalism, she has contributed to leading publications and organisations, including The Sydney Morning Herald, Green Magazine, The Weekly Times, Home Magazine, Country Life, Toddler Magazine, Gowrie Australia's Reflections, and Landcare Victoria. Penny shares her love of children's literature through regular presentations at schools, libraries and community hubs, and is a long-time contributor to Kids' Book Review. As a neurodivergent creator, Penny champions emotionally intelligent storytelling and authentic representations of neurodivergence across the arts.

Katrina McKelvey

Katrina McKelvey is a children’s author, former primary school teacher and mother living. She is highly involved in CBCA, SCBWI, community events and festivals, and loves visiting schools. She’s written sixteen picture books and educational readers for children including her latest title, My Heart. A new PB titled In My Arms will be released in 2027. She’s proudly written four Healthy Harold big books for the Life Education Australia Early Years Program with a fifth in production. Katrina’s left-handed, loves tea, scary movies and rollercoasters, and is addicted to mint chocolate. When she was little, a hot air balloon accidentally landed in her backyard.

Elizabeth Misek

Elizabeth Misek is a picture book illustrator and storyteller. She works in traditional watercolour and pencil and enjoys getting lost in a manuscript, building character worlds and adding small visual moments children (and adults) can pore over again and again. With a background in design and visual merchandising, Elizabeth has a natural strength for composition, clarity and guiding the reader’s eye. Winner of the New England Illustration Prize for Children’s Picture Book Publishing (2023), she’s an upbeat, community-minded creative who supports emerging authors and illustrators through critique and encouragement. Autistic and dyslexic, Elizabeth brings a deeply felt, detail-rich approach to storytelling. She’s passionate about inclusive children’s stories and believes every child is unique, with their own strengths and ways of doing things. She loves how books can spark imagination and leave kids believing that anything is possible.

Dimity Powell

Award winning children’s author, Dimity Powell writes and reviews exclusively for children with over 30 published stories and digital narratives and is the former Managing Editor of Kids’ Book Review. She believes picture books are life essentials, like ice cream; to be enjoyed at least once a day. Her own include: The Boy Who Lost His Laugh (2026), This is My Dad (2022), Oswald Messweather (2021), the SCBWI Crystal Kite award-winning At the End of Holyrood Lane (2018) and the critically acclaimed, The Fix-It Man (2017). Her stories are regularly described as powerful and emotive, laced with humour and lilting language to soften the often-sensitive subject matter she tackles, including neurodivergent conditions like OCD. Several of her titles have been published in simplified Chinese, Polish, Spanish and Slovenian. Dimity is a sought-after international presenter and educator of all things Kids’ Lit who believes in the transformative power of the ocean and stories  yet still can’t surf despite living on the Gold Coast, Australia.

Michelle Worthington

Michelle Worthington is an internationally published, award-winning children’s author and neurodivergent advocate dedicated to inclusive, authentic storytelling. A neurodivergent creator herself, she draws on both lived experience and more than fifteen years in publishing to champion representation for children of all abilities. She is a two-time International Book Award winner, a finalist in the USA Best Book Awards, recipient of the Gellett Burgess Award for Children’s Literature, and a Silver Moonbeam Award winner, with multiple titles recognised by the Children’s Book Council of Australia and shortlisted for both the Speech Pathology Australia and NSW Society of Women Writers awards. Michelle presents at schools and literary festivals across Australia and internationally, is accredited to work with children with additional needs, and is passionate about empowering young people, particularly neurodivergent children, to see themselves in stories and share their own with confidence.