Having loved so many of the stories she grew up with, stories such as The Wind in the Willows, Phillipa Carmody has begun a series of fantasy books for children. The personalities are universal and not the traditional stereotypes of creatures such as dragons, fairies, centaurs, cyclopes and unicorns. Adventure, co-operation, action, humour and the intricacies of human-like behaviour fill her entertaining tales. Her novels are designed to encourage reading with wide spacing, which does not overwhelm a young reader and high-quality paper to enhance the enjoyment of a physical book.Phillipa believes that the ordinary details of people's lives and their interactions are ultimately more captivating than the spectacles of dramatic actions and fantastic scenes, though her tales certainly do include these. She studied literature, history and philosophy in her B.A. (Hons), worked as a director in local theatre, travelled widely and strived to raise her children and their variety of pets in a rich world of possibilities, all of which she draws on in her imaginative stories.Phillipa is a member of the Children's Book Council of Australia.