The MIRROR Mentorship program is a partnership between Think+DO Tank Foundation and Scribble Kids’ Books made possible with the financial assistance of Creative Australia.

We are excited to share the 2024–2026 iteration of the MIRROR Mentorship Program produced three extraordinary artworks that reflect the multilingual and multicultural reality of contemporary Australia.

To celebrate these works in the form of leporelli, we hosted an Industry Afternoon event at the State Library NSW on Tuesday, 19 May, 2026. This event, presented in partnership with the State Library of New South Wales, started with a Welcome to Country delivered by Uncle Allan Murray, representative of the Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council (Metro LALC), and featured presentations, artists’ talks and lots of opportunities for industry connections.

New Multilingual Literature

The 2024–2026 MIRROR iteration strengthens the culture and practice of multilingual children’s book illustration, ensuring it more accurately reflects contemporary Australian society in which more than 20% of households use languages other than English (ABS Census,2021).

The new leporelli were created by MIRROR mentees Lima Maula (Bahasa Indonesia), Leila Frijat (Arabic), and Huaning Wu (Mandarin) with the support of their individual mentors. They offer glimpses into the lived experiences of Indonesian Muslims; subvert the centrality of English by foregrounding Arabic; with one work also representing the first publication in Australia by a Chinese diasporic writer within the MIRROR Mentorship.

About Lima’s Leporello - When The Adzan Calls

Lima Maula worked alongside her mentor, Sher Rill Ng. Lima's leporello works around key Arabic terms which have been absorbed into the daily lexicon of Indonesian Muslims. She reflects:

“When The Adzan Calls is my interpretation of congregation in the mosque during prayer times. My leporello invites the reader into a close-up experience of not only gathering in the mosque, but also the initiation of that moment as the Adzan berkumandang (reverberates) which we may not experience in a Western society.”

— Lima Maula

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About Leila’s Leporello - Yallah Kazdura

Leila Frijat was mentored by Freda Chiu and created a bilingual Arabic-English leporello.

“I chose Yallah Kazdura as both the language and thematic focus of my leporello to encourage a pause in the pace of everyday life. The phrase itself captures a sense of playful invitation. The leporello format, with its extended, unfolding pages, allowed me to visually and narratively stretch these moments of pause. Choosing to orient the story from right to left prioritised Arabic, while creating a dynamic tension with English text. This challenged me to consider how the two languages interact, whether they function in tandem or if one takes precedence.”

— Leila Frijat

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About Huaning’s Leporello - Heibao

Chinese author, Huaning Wu was mentored by Zeno Sworder and produced her first work in Australia as a diasporic writer. Huaning shared:

“This leporello is very meaningful to me. It is the first work I created in Australia, and also the first project that I both wrote and illustrated myself. It truly helped me bring writing and illustration together, and I believe it will have a great influence on my future creative career.”

— Huaning Wu

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About MIRROR Mentorship Program

The MIRROR Mentorship program exists to broaden development opportunities and industry access for talented artists who come from historically marginalised communities and who are developing literary work for children and young people (0-14 years) for publication in English and in languages other than English (bilingual works).

The MIRROR Mentorship recognises the factors that exclude literary artists from seeing themselves reflected on Australian bookshelves. When one in five families in Australia speak a language other than English at home (and growing!), MIRROR is an exciting opportunity to give children and young people better access to stories that reflect the linguistic diversity of the Australian reading public.