Allen, Pamela (1934-…), is a popular children’s author and illustrator. Allen has won prizes for her picture books both in New Zealand, where she was born, and in Australia, where she lived for many years.
Allen has been praised for her skill at combining text and illustrations into entertaining works accessible to very young children. Allen creates a musical language that is meant to be read aloud. In 2004, Allen received the Margaret Mahy Medal, given annually in New Zealand by the Storylines Children’s Literature Foundation to a person who has made an especially distinguished and significant contribution to children’s literature, publishing, or literacy.
Allen’s award-winning books include Who Sank the Boat? (1982), The Potato People (2002), Grandpa and Thomas (2003), Shhh! Little Mouse (2007), and Our Daft Dog Danny (2009). She has written a series of stories about an eccentric man known only as Mr. McGee, all written in rhyme, beginning with Mr. McGee (1987). She wrote about science in such works as Mr. Archimedes’ Bath (1980), her first book, and The Pear in the Pear Tree (1999).
Pamela Kay Ewart was born in Devonport, New Zealand, on April 3, 1934. She married artist and educator William Robert Allen in 1964. She received a diploma in fine art in 1954 from the Elam School of Art (now Auckland University). Allen settled in Australia in 1979 and later moved back to New Zealand. In 2024, she was made a Member of the Order of Australia. The Order of Australia is Australia’s highest award for service to the country or to humanity.
