Bestselling author Sally Rippin has been named Australia's Children's Laureate for 2024-25.
Rippin, best known for her Billie B Brown series, has published more than 100 books, which have sold more than 10 million copies across 18 countries.
Her books are all about connecting with kids and helping them learn to read through exciting tales written in simple, clear language.
But with the appointment announced Wednesday, Rippin said she's realised her industry peers have been paying attention too.
"There's a really lovely feeling to have this acknowledgement from the writing community, and I feel like it's a huge opportunity for me to speak to adults as well as children," she told AAP.
Rippin will use the two-year post to highlight the hurdles for children learning to read, including neurodiversity, disability, mental health, access to books and language barriers.
Some of her earliest series, including Billie B Brown and Hey Jack! were inspired by her own son's struggles with reading.
At the time, Rippin thought her son would eventually learn, but his dyslexia and ADHD went undiagnosed for years, and he was labelled as "difficult" in an education system that wasn't geared to help neurodiverse children.
Part of increasing public awareness about learning difficulties during her time as Laureate will be showing that "problem behaviour" in a classroom might actually be a valuable sign that children are having trouble, Rippin said.
"As soon as we find children that are struggling, then potentially we can look at early intervention and helping them get the best support possible," she said.
Rippin believes teachers have a tough job managing the many different ways children learn to read, and identifying which children are struggling in the classroom.
"We may need to create a little team around these kids to make sure they don't fall through the cracks," she said.
She has also written a book for adults about neurodivergence and learning to read - the book she wishes she'd had as a manual when her son was growing up.
It's part memoir, part research, and contains interviews with neurodivergent adults who struggled to read as children.
"What I'm hoping to do is put a book out there that can support people going through the same things as my son and I," she said.
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