Australian-born author and illustrator Jan Ormerod died in Cambridge, England, on January 23 after a long illness. She was 67. Ormerod was immersed in the visual arts since childhood, pulling inspiration from numerous sources, including comic book art. After attending art school, Ormerod became an Associate of the Western Australian Institute of Technology and Design in Education. She also taught in secondary school programs and in a teacher’s college before moving to the U.K. in 1980. Becoming a mother was a deeply formative experience for Ormerod, who hadn’t planned on having children. She relished the interaction between child and parent when reading a book and incorporated this intimacy into her work. Ormerod’s first picture book, Sunshine (1981), won the Mother Goose Award and was voted Australian Picture Book of the Year. She published more than 50 books in her lifetime; other notable titles included Moonlight, Goodbye Mousie, Miss Mouse’s Day, Lizzie Nonsense, Water Witcher, and 101 Things to Do with a Baby!