Two Heads, One Book: The Joy of Collaboration with Michael Wagner & Tom Jellet

Year Levels Prep - 6

Michael Wagner and Tom Jellett are one of Australian children's literature's great creative partnerships. Their session is joyful, slightly chaotic, and deeply revealing about what it actually looks like when two creative people try to make something together. Students discover that collaboration isn't just compromise, it's a creative force of its own. The session is funny, warm, and practically useful for any student who has ever had to work with someone else on a shared project.

If you or one of your students would like to ask Karen a questions please contact yabba.online@yabba.org.au.

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Building the Vote, Classroom Connection

Hold a class 'cover design competition', pairs collaborate to design a new cover for one YABBA title.
Display covers and let the class vote, a mini-awards ceremony to practise the feeling of choosing a winner.
Students update their reading journals with a 'collaboration note', which shortlisted books feel like the product of a strong creative vision?
Seven weeks to the ceremony, students should be narrowing their vote to two or three titles.

Classroom Activities

Years Foundation–2

Paired picture book: each pair of students creates a two-page spread together, one writes the words, one draws the pictures. Then swap.
Discuss: Was it hard to let someone else change your ideas? How did you decide what to keep?
Act out a story together, one student starts, one continues. No planning allowed.
Class book: each student contributes one page to a shared class story, building on what came before.

Years 3–6

Collaborative writing challenge: pairs write alternate sentences to create a short story. No editing your partner's work.
Reflect: what worked in your collaboration? What was frustrating? Would the story have been better or worse if only one of you had written it?
Research: find two other author-illustrator partnerships in Australian children's literature. How do their different roles shape the finished book?
YABBA connection: Are there any shortlisted books that are collaborative? Does knowing that change how you read them?

Victorian Curriculum Links

Reading and Viewing: Understanding how texts are produced collaboratively (Levels 1–6)
Writing: Collaborative text creation with shared creative purpose (Levels 1–6)
Speaking and Listening: Negotiation, active listening, and joint decision-making (Levels 1–6)

FISO 2.0 Alignment

Positive Climate for Learning: Building collaborative learning cultures through authentic creative tasks
Excellence in Teaching and Learning: Using collaboration as a strategy for creative development