Ron Thomas

Ron has had a 35-year career as a teacher and teacher-librarian in schools around Melbourne, included 7 years in teacher education, training and advising teachers in librarianship.

His first book, Into Books: Literature Activities for the Classroom, was written with Andrew Perry, was published in 1985.

In 1986 he began writing for Macmillan, co-authoring the Macmillan ‘Beginners Series’ — approxrimately 100 titles covering a wide range of non-fiction subjects for junior primary students. Also for Macmillan and with various co-authors including Shirley Sydenham, he wrote dozens of blackline master books for teachers on a range of topics: space, life cycles, giants, zoos and food, as well as many factual books about the military, sports and the Olympic games.

With Shirley Sydenham, Ron has established and co-authored a website for kids www.kidcyber.com.au. At first, the website was to be a resource to which readers of their books about research and study skills could be directed for information. It has since grown to become a successful and highly popular site where young students can write requesting help with school projects.

Spare time interests include cooking, reading, theatre, and travel. The Richmond Football Club gets some attention in the winter, and two terrier dogs are a daily diversion