Following her conversation with illustrator Ella Brissenden, young Autistic aspiring author and illustrator Tania sat down with children's book author Michael Theo to discuss his debut book. Best known as an actor, Michael shares what inspired the story, the importance of including a neurodivergent main character, and his experience working with Scholastic and Ella to bring the book to life.
(Tania) It is wonderful to read about an autistic character in a children's book. Was it important to you to represent neurodivergence in a children's book?
(Michael) It was extremely important for me to represent new diversity in this book because I'm considered an inspiration in that community and therefore I decided to make the main character a neurodivergent character.
Have you always wanted to write a book? Did Scholastic approach you to write the book or was it a project you came up with?
My agent contacted various publishers to see who wanted to do a book deal with me and we went with Scholastic. They've done heaps of children's books for years. Prior to that I didn't really know anything about writing.
Do you think your unique perspective of being a neurodiverse person helps inspire you as a writer and an actor?
Yes I believe that it does because sometimes in life the best stories always come from the most unlikely tellers; story tellers that have a very fresh, brand new, unique perspective that a lot of people may not offer.
The book has a great moral that it's cool to be authentic to yourself and to celebrate your differences. When you were writing the story, did you draw from your own experience of being an autistic person in the public eye?
Actually I didn't draw any experience for the story because I wanted to make the character and his story completely fictional not based off me in any way.
The adults in the book tell Edward to be himself and embrace who he is. Who are the supportive people in your life?
The supportive people my life would be my family, wide network of friends around the world, my closest confidants, my colleagues at Aspect, my castmates from Austin and Caper Crew and one of my best friends in life, Darren Ashton who is the director of Austin.
Do you have any advice for aspiring authors?
The best advice I can offer is let the words come to you when you're writing, ask yourselves what are you most passionate about and also don't do it for the money. Do it because you want to do it and give somebody hope.
Did you enjoy reading picture books growing up?
Yes, I would say that I did enjoy reading books as a child. I don't really remember many of the titles I read as a child but I do enjoy reading a lot of them today. Certain examples would be How The Grinch stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss, The Railway series by the Reverend W. Awdry and another example is Go To Sleep, Anxiety which is based on the sequel to Inside Out. They released the second film two years ago and one of the new emotions is anxiety but she's actually one of my least favourite emotions given my own experience with the condition.
Some songwriters write lyrics in the Notes app of their phone. The children’s author Libby Hathorn has a notebook that she writes her ideas down in at the hairdresser’s. When inspiration strikes, what format do you use to jot down your ideas?
If I had a strike of inspiration I would write that in a notebook or even on Google Docs. Definitely, yes. And it's also handy for when the other person can make some tweaks themselves.
How was working with a big publishing company like Scholastic?
It was quite an honour; a very huge honour, and it was also a lot of fun to work with them on this book.
How did you and the illustrator Ella Brissenden get in touch?
We got in touch via Zoom through my contact at Scholastic named Tiffany Malins. We live in separate states as well. Ella lives in Melbourne and I live in Wollongong. I'm hoping for Melbourne to be my future home.
Oh wow, seems like quite a nice place.
It's beautiful, it's very artistic. Full of action!
Did you have an editor or mentor during the writing of this book?
Tiffany was actually going [back and forth] throughout the writing process. They have an editor at Scholastic.
You described yourself as an animal enthusiast. Can you relate to the main character of Edward?
Yes. Because like me, he's on the spectrum. We both love animals, we both enjoy nature documentaries, we both have toys of animals...
Thank you Michael for sharing and congratulations on publishing your first book!
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From EDWARD’S ASTONISHING ANIMALS by Michael Theo and Ella Brissenden
Text copyright © Michael Theo, 2026.
Illustrations copyright © Ella Brissenden, 2026.
First published by Scholastic Press, a division of Scholastic Australia Pty Limited, 2026.
The moral rights of Michael Theo and Ella Brissenden have been asserted.
Reproduced by permission of Scholastic Australia Pty Limited.
