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Title : Event: Midnight Madcaps, The National Centre for Australian Children's Literature
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Event: Midnight Madcaps, The National Centre for Australian Children's Literature

On Wednesday, I had the great joy of attending Midnight Madcaps - an evening with author Margaret Wild and illustrator Ann James - both legendary creators in the Australian kidlit scene. This event, hosted by the National Centre for Australian Children's Literature (NCACL), celebrated the centre's acquisition and exhibition of original artworks and documents relating to celebrated picture book, The Midnight Gang (Omnibus, 1996).

Above - Belle Alderman, Stephanie Owen Reeder, Margaret Wild, Ann James

In conversation with author Stephanie Owen Reeder, Margaret and Ann took us on a fascinating journey behind the scenes (always the funnest place!) of this divine early childhood picture book - from the origins of the story itself (inspired by a real-life toddler escapee story) through how Margaret and Ann worked to bring this book to life.

I particularly loved hearing about Margaret's character development - how she named the red-haired lead escapee 'Brenda' after a feisty school friend. And Ann's artistic processes were fascinating. The illustrations in the book were crafted with pastels on black paper.

The exhibition holds an impressive array of artworks and ephemera, including Margaret's notebook page with the first inklings of the story, several leporellos Ann produced during the production of the book, and letters, notes, illustration drafts and more.

This collection is a priceless way to peek behind the scenes and enjoy the elusive creative process of book creation. Picture books may be 'small' but they are mighty when it comes to complexity and the amount of thought and hard work that goes into them.

It was such a joy to see Ann again and to officially meet Margaret after all these years. A beautiful evening of food and drink and kidlit nattering - kudos to Belle Alderman and her team at NCACL for this superb event and exhibition. Do drop by and see it before it closes!

Tania McCartney
Founder, Kids' Book Review

Above: author Cate Whittle, me, Margaret Wild, Stephanie Owen Reeder

The Midnight Gang Exhibition runs from 9 – 26 February 2026 at the Mura Gadi Gallery, The University of Canberra.

The National Centre for Australian Children's Literature (NCACL) is a comprehensive collection of resources about Australian authors, illustrators, publishers and their creative works. The collection has books, artwork, ephemera, authors’ papers and manuscripts and author and illustrator research files.

The collection includes over 60,000 books. Some 6,000 of these books are in overseas translations in 75 languages including 106 translations of books with an additional 42 unique Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages. It holds a unique part of Australia’s cultural and literary heritage.

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