Our Story

The Children's Bookshop was established in Beecroft in 1971 and is the oldest children's specialist bookshop in NSW. We are celebrating 50 years this year!

The Children’s Bookshop has continued to expand and provides books to hundreds of schools across NSW for school libraries and for school wide reading programmes, class sets and literature circles.

Paul Macdonald has been the owner of The Children’s Bookshop since 2005. Paul’s extensive knowledge of children’s literature and his experience as a teacher for more than 20 years ensures that schools can rely on The Children’s Bookshop for quality service and expert consultation and advice on the current reading landscape in Australia and overseas.

The Children’s Bookshop also organises successful book fairs for schools on site or online and can support author/illustrator visits to schools with a custom designed book sale site for parents and carers.

The Children’s Bookshop team look forward to working with you to ensure your school is resourced with quality books for both staff, students and your school community to enjoy.

Meet The Team

Paul Macdonald

Paul Macdonald

Paul Macdonald owns the award-winning The Children's Bookshop which has been a Sydney literary institution since 1971. Paul has a Master of Education, working almost 20 years as a teacher of Upper Primary and Secondary.

He has won numerous awards in teaching such as a Quality Teacher Award and The Premiers English Scholarship. Paul won the inaugural Maurice Saxby Award in 2012 for his contributions to raising the profile of teen fiction. Paul Macdonald also was the winner of the 2016 Lady Cutler award for services to children's literature and literacy in Australia.

Paul not only manages The Children's Bookshop but is also a consultant working with numerous schools focusing on building reading cultures and he is currently completing his PhD focusing on Australian Young Adult literature.

Paul is the co-author of the CBCA Notable picture book The Hole Idea and has written several other academic texts.

Beth Macdonald

Beth Macdonald

Beth Macdonald joined Paul at The Children's Bookshop in 2015.

Beth Macdonald has worked for over 15 years in schools and libraries and is a qualified Teacher/Librarian and passionate advocate of reading for children and teens.

Beth is the author of several children’s books including co-author of the CBCA Notable The Hole Idea. She is also an artist and illustrator and was shortlisted for CBCA New Illustrator of the Year in 2019 for Paperboy (written by Danny Parker).