Frané Lessac

Frané Lessac is a U.S.-born author, illustrator and painter who lives in Western Australia. She has published many children's books and won numerous awards for her illustrations.

Early life Lessac grew up in Cliffside Park, New Jersey, a small town outside New York City. As a child, she spent many weekends in museums and galleries. At the age of 18 she moved to Malibu, California, to study ethnographic film at the University of Southern California and UCLA. She worked at many jobs to finance her studies, including projectionist at the local cinema.

Lessac moved to the Caribbean island of Montserrat in 1979, where she began her career as a painter. Inspired by the beauty of the island, she concentrated on painting the old West Indies architecture and its people.

In 1983 Lessac left Montserrat

In 1989 she created the illustration for the cover of the fund-raising album After The Hurricane – Songs For Montserrat. and she has served on the executive committee of the Australian Society of Authors.

Her first book, My Little Island, became a feature book on the popular U.S television program Reading Rainbow.

In 2002 Lessac won a Western Australian Premier's Book Award for The Legend of Moondyne Joe. Simpson and his Donkey was nominated as an Honour book in the 2009 Children's Book of the Year Award: Eve Pownall Award for Information Books. Both books were written by her husband and frequent collaborator, Mark Greenwood.

Lessac's picture books with Traci Sorell, We Are Grateful and We Are Still Here, both received starred Kirkus reviews upon release, and both were named in Kirkus Best Books of the year lists. We Are Grateful won the 2019 Boston Globe-Horn Book Picture Book Honor Award and a 2020 American Indian Youth Literature Award. It also received an Honor in both the 2019 Robert F. Silbert Informational Book Medal and the 2019 National Council of Teachers of English Orbis Pictus Awards. We Are Still Here received a 2022 American Indian Youth Literature Award, and an Honor in the 2022 Robert F Silbert Informational Book Medal. It was also named in the National Centre for the Social Studies' 2022 list of Notable Trade Books for Young People.

Lessac's book A is for Australian Reefs was shortlisted in the 2023 CBCA Eve Pownall Award for Information Books. Lessac and Greenwood's book Our Country: Where History Happened won an Honour Book in the same category in 2024; it was also shortlisted in the WA Premier's Book Awards and the NSW Premier's History Awards the same year.

Personal life and family Lessac is married to Mark Greenwood, also an author of children's books, and they are parents to film producer Cody Greenwood. A is for Australian Animals (2017)Under the Southern Cross (2018)Australian Baby Animals (2019)Under the Milky Way (2019)Australia Under the Sea 1, 2, 3 (2020) A is for Australian Reefs (2022) The Big Book of Australian Nursery Rhymes (2024) The Little Book of Australian Nursery Rhymes'' (2025)