Meet Jodie

Jodie Barton is an award-winning children’s author, primary school teacher and engaging presenter with a lifelong passion for words, stories and communication. Based in sunny Perth, Western Australia, Jodie shares her home with her son, Hamish, George the lovable Labrador and Maggie the cat.

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Jodie has spent the past eight years working as a primary school teacher, specialising in Early Childhood Education. She currently teaches Year 1 and 2 EAL/D students in an Intensive English Centre, supporting children who are newly learning English. It is a role she considers both a privilege and one of the great joys of her career.

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With a Graduate Diploma of Education and a Bachelor of Arts in Communications (Media Analysis and Production), including studies in television, photographic and radio journalism, Jodie’s fascination with words, stories and the way we connect with an audience began long before she started writing children’s books.

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Before moving into education, Jodie built a diverse career across executive management, learning and development, academic recruitment, sales, coaching and consulting. Her work involved presenting, facilitating, training and communicating with audiences across a range of professional settings. Combined with an early background in debating and public speaking, these experiences shaped Jodie into a confident and natural presenter who understands how to read a room, connect with an audience and bring ideas to life.

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Today, she brings that experience into classrooms, schools and community settings, combining the skills of an educator with the energy of a storyteller and presenter. Whether she is speaking to a room full of five-year-olds, working with older primary students or presenting to adults, Jodie believes the best presentations are interactive, authentic and, wherever possible, filled with plenty of laughter.

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At the heart of both her teaching and writing is a belief that every child deserves the opportunity to find their voice. Jodie is particularly passionate about building children’s confidence through literacy, imagination and storytelling, and loves nothing more than watching a child discover that their ideas are worth sharing.

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As an author, Jodie writes warm, humorous and engaging stories that explore the everyday experiences, relationships and wonderfully messy moments of childhood. Her picture book Grandma’s Sandals has received national and international recognition, including winning an International Impact Book Award and being shortlisted for the 2026 Speech Pathology Australia Book of the Year Awards.

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When she isn’t teaching, writing or talking enthusiastically to a room full of children, Jodie can usually be found cheering from the sidelines of one of Hamish’s sporting events, curled up with a good streaming series, or “procrasta-baking” enormous quantities of cookies, muffins, slices and cakes while accomplishing very little of whatever she was actually supposed to be doing.

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She wouldn’t have it any other way!