Peter Carnavas grew up in Brisbane and on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia, with lovely parents, two brothers, one sister and, from the age of 13, a big white dog called Floyd.
Peter was a quiet kid who did things slowly most of the time. He spent a lot of time drawing little pictures and writing stories. Things haven't really changed.
As a primary school teacher, Peter probably spent too much time reading books to his class instead of teaching them fractions and other things. The thing is, he didn't really feel too guilty about this as you can never read too many books to children. The books Peter loved reading most of all were things like The Dot by Peter H Reynolds, Spirit of Hope by Bob Graham, and Amy and Louis by Libby Gleeson and Freya Blackwood.
The more picture books Peter read, the more he wanted to make them himself. So he worked part-time as a music teacher and spent the rest of his week burying himself in picture books and scribbling his own words and pictures. It was a wonderful time and, in 2008, the most wonderful thing of all happened his first picture book, Jessica's Box, was published.
Since then, Peter has written and/or illustrated many more books. He spends a lot of time visiting schools to show children how to write stories and draw pictures and, best of all, to read books with them.
These days, Peter lives just around the corner from a beautiful rainforest and waterfall on the Sunshine Coast with his family.
