Siobhán Parkinson, whose books have won several national and international awards, is Ireland’s first children’s laureate, Laureate na n-Óg. In this capacity, she advocates on behalf of children’s literature, and she is particularly keen to see the development of properly resourced libraries in Irish schools.  As a former editor of Bookbird, a journal of international children’s literature, and as a translator herself and a publisher of children’s books in translation as well as by Irish authors, she takes a particular interest in broadening children’s reading experience to include books from other countries. In addition to her extensive list of books for children and young people, Siobhán also writes for adult readers. Her most recent novel, Painted Ladies, is set in an artists’ colony in Denmark at the turn of the twentieth century.