Gibbs, May (1877-1969), ranks among the most loved of Australian children’s writers and illustrators. Gibbs’s stories and book illustrations show her love for the Australian bush and its animals, a love she tried to stimulate in her young readers. Her best-known children’s books feature the “gumnut babies,” developed as Australian equivalents to European fairies and pixies. Gibbs introduced the gumnut baby characters in Gumnut Babies (1916). The book was followed by several more gumnut stories, notably Snugglepot and Cuddlepie (1918), about the adventures of two gumnut brothers in the bush (remote countryside). Her “Bib and Bob” comic strip, also about the gumnut babies, was published from 1924 to 1967 in Sydney newspapers. She issued a number of Bib and Bob stories in book form.
Cecilia May Gibbs was born in Kent, England, on Jan. 17, 1877. She moved with her family to Australia in 1881. The family finally settled in Perth when she was 10. Both her parents were artists, and she studied art in Perth. Gibbs also attended art and technical schools in England before moving to Sydney in 1913. Gibbs died on Nov. 27, 1969, and her home in north Sydney has been preserved as a museum.
