I met Australian artist Laura Stitzel at Berkelouw Books on Norton Street in Leichhardt, Sydney in early 2018. Laura was a special guest at our weekly storytime session, and at the time she was reading her book 'Mr Mo Starts to Grow' to the kids. After the story, Laura met the children and signed copies of her book. We followed her on Instagram that day and have been fans ever since we met her. And yes, Mr Mo is still on high rotation in our home. Laura now has a new book out, Moonlight Mums, and has done lots of interesting work since we have seen her. The pandemic brought a "take what you can get" work ethic which kept Laura's head down and working in a time where the stress of being locked down in Melbourne, Victoria meant that there was little to no socialising to be done, anyway. I had a delightful chat with Laura, discussing her beginnings in the animation industry from university to moving to Canada to work on children's TV shows and back to Australia again. Laura also created the illustrations for comedian Sammy J (@sammyjcomedian) and his Spot parody book entitled "Wheres my Surplus?" I hope you enjoy this episode. Go follow Laura @laurastitzel or lauradraws.com JB X
