Janine Ann Bower

Hi I’m Janine and I grew up in England and moved to Australia at the age of 15.

I currently live in the Great Southern part of Western Australia, nestled between the mountains on a 15 acre off grid hobby farm.

I was also a single mother for 13 years to two children, one of whom has Autism and had a lot of trouble learning to read; he is now a bookworm and is writing a young adults fiction book.

I was a social worker for over 20 years working with parents and children from disadvantaged backgrounds. During this time, I developed many programmes aimed at developing the skills of children, parents and educators. For seven years, I managed State Government-funded Child and Parent Centres, where I led allied health teams and worked closely with the Department of Education, and the State Library’s Better Beginnings Programme. During this time, I developed pre-kindy programmes, which have been used within both the state and private school systems. It is through insight gained during this time that I have developed the Read and Grow series, of which Jungle Party is the first.