Aaron Blabey

Aaron Blabey (born 1974), an Australian author of children's books and artist who until the mid-2000s was also an actor. His award winning picture books include Pearl Barley and Charlie Parsley, The Ghost of Miss Annabel Spoon and the best-selling Pig the Pug.^[2] In the field of acting, he is probably best known for his lead roles in two television dramedies, 1994's The Damnation of Harvey McHugh, for which he won an Australian Film Institute Award, and 2003's CrashBurn, before retiring from performance in 2005.

In 2012, he was the National Literacy Ambassador^[3] and in May 2015 his book The Brother’s Quibble will be read by an estimated 500,000 children during the National Simultaneous Storytime.^[4]

He is an ambassador for The Alannah and Madeline Foundation, a national Australian charity protecting children from violence.

His book The Ghost of Miss Annabel Spoon won the Patricia Wrightson Award in 2013 New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, the 2013 Children's Peace Literature Award and was recorded by Nick Cave for the Story Box Library.

Personal

Blabey is from Bendigo, Australia.

He is married to the actress Kirstie Hutton, and the couple have two sons.^[5]

Career

Acting

Blabey appeared in various television and film roles throughout the 1990s and 2000s and took part in several theatrical productions.^[6]

Besides his 1994 award for acting in a lead role, the Australian Film Institute also nominated him in 2000 for his guest-starring role in the series Stingers.

Art

From the mid-2000s, Blabey turned his attention away from acting towards painting and created six separate solo exhibitions across Australia between 2004 and 2006.^[7]

Children's books

Then in 2006, Blabey turned his focus entirely to the creation of children's picture books. The first of these, Pearl Barley and Charlie Parsley, was published in July 2007. In 2008, the book received a Children's Book Council of Australia Award in the council's Early Childhood category.^[8] The book was also shortlisted for the CBCA's Crichton Award (given to new illustrators), The NSW Premier's Literature Awards – The Patricia Wrightson Award, and the Children's Peace Literature Prize. In 2008, the book was also included on the Notable Book list from the Smithsonian Institution.^[9]

His second book, Sunday Chutney, was published in 2008 and shortlisted for the CBCA Picture Book of the Year 2009^[10] and the Australian Book Industry Awards 2009.

His third book, Stanley Paste, was a CBCA Notable Book in the Picture Book category in 2010^[11] as was The Ghost of Miss Annabel Spoon in 2012, which was also selected as a prestigious White Raven of 2012 by the International Youth Library in Munich, Germany. The Ghost of Miss Annabel Spoon also won the Patricia Wrightson Award in 2013 New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards and the 2013 Children's Peace Literature Award. In early 2014, Nick Cave selected The Ghost of Miss Annabel Spoon to record for the Story Box Library website.

His fifth book, The Dreadful Fluff won the Best Designed Children's Cover of the Year by the Australian Publishers Association in 2013,^[12] which also saw the release of his critically acclaimed sixth title, Noah Dreary.

Blabey's seventh book, The Brothers Quibble, which deals with sibling rivalry, has been chosen as the National Simultaneous Storytime Book of 2015, and will be read by an estimated 500,000 children on the 27th of May 2015. And after signing an initial three-book-deal with Scholastic Australia in 2014 - beginning with the best-selling Pig the Pug (and to be followed by Thelma the Unicorn and Piranhas Don't Eat Bananas in 2015) - Blabey has signed on to create a number of other titles including two series. The first of these is the continuing adventures of Pig - beginning with Pig the Fibber - and the second is an illustrated Junior Fiction Series entitled The Bad Guys. Both series are also due for release in mid-2015.

Books for adults

2014 will also see the release of Blabey's first picture book for adults entitled Babies Don't Suck. It is a book for men who are facing the prospect of becoming a father for the first time and will be published by Pan Macmillan in August 2014. The concept stemmed from the fact that it's impossible to get a man to read a "baby book" unless it's really short, a bit sweary and full of pictures.

Art direction

Blabey has also worked as a staff writer at a major advertising agency and spent two years as a lecturer at a prominent Sydney design college. Since 2009, he has also contributed monthly comic strips to the School Magazine, most recently the third season of Carpet & Loaf which he writes, illustrates and designs.

Honors and awards

• 1994, Australian Film Institute Award, Best Actor in a Leading Role in a Television Drama, The Damnation of Harvey McHugh, episode: "Spay Misty For Me."
• 2008, Children's Book of the Year Award: Early Childhood, Pearl Barley and Charlie Parsley.
• 2012, White Ravens Award by the International Youth Library, The Ghost of Miss Annabel Spoon.
• 2012, National Literacy Ambassador.
• 2012, Ambassador for The Alannah and Madeline Foundation.
• 2013, New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, Patricia Wrightson Prize for Children's Literature, The Ghost of Miss Annabel Spoon.
• 2013, Best Designed Children's Cover of the Year by the Australian Publishers Association, The Dreadful Fluff.
• 2013, The Children's Peace Literature Award from the Australian Psychological Society – Psychologists For Peace, The Ghost of Miss Annabel Spoon.

List of works

Author and Illustrator

• Pearl Barley and Charlie Parsley, Penguin Books, Australia, 2007.
• Sunday Chutney, Penguin Books, Australia, 2008.
• Stanley Paste, Penguin Books, Australia, 2009.
• The Ghost of Miss Annabel Spoon, Penguin Books, Australia, 2011.
• The Dreadful Fluff, Penguin Books, Australia, 2012.
• Noah Dreary, Penguin Books, Australia, 2013.
• The Brothers Quibble, Penguin Books, Australia, 2014.
• Pig The Pug, Scholastic Australia, July 2014.
• Babies Don't Suck, Pan Macmillan Australia, August 2014.
• Thelma the Unicorn, Scholastic Australia, release date – February 2015.
• Pig the Fibber, Scholastic Australia, release date - June 2015
• The Bad Guys (Episode 1), release date - July 2015
• Piranhas Don't Eat Bananas, Scholastic Australia, release date – October 2015.

Filmography

^[14]

References

External links

• Official website