Dinosaurs and Dragons: Did Dinosaurs really exist?

Rose Siva was born in New Zealand and has lived in Australia since the late 1990’s. She currently lives on beautiful Tamborine Mountain.

For 15 years she ran a successful education business providing courses for secondary school students across Australia with a focus on helping young people develop reading and learning skills. Her insight during those years has provided valuable insight into what motivates children to read and, more importantly, enjoy reading.

Rose’s involvement with dinosaurs in Queensland started in 2008 and led to her qualifying as an Honorary Technician with Australian Age of Dinosaurs (AAOD) in Winton, Queensland. Work there preparing bones has enabled her to combine her two interests – dinosaurs and writing young adult fiction.

“There is something about working with 100 million year old dinosaur bones. Firstly, the absolute privilege of being allowed to be the first person EVER to expose the bones of a dinosaur that roamed the plains of central Queensland. Then the effect of 100 million year old dinosaur dust on my brain…”

Her first three books were picture books or ‘read-to-me’ books, designed to be read to a very small child to inspire the love of books. Based on bones of several different dinosaurs she had been working on they were titled Matilda faces her WORST FEAR, Banjo bounces into BOTHER, and Clancy gets STUCK.

Boolarong Press in Brisbane published Rose’s first young adult fiction book, Dinosaurs Fight to Survive, which was launched at the Outback Writers Festival in 2017. The success of this book led to her writing Dinosaurs and Dragons followed by DINOTHAW, The search for the Coldest Dinosaur, in which she takes her young hero Josh to Antarctica in an attempt to recover recently uncovered dinosaur bones.

Rose is currently working on her fourth young adult fiction book about opalised dinosaur discoveries in the Opal fields in Australia.