Estelle Abbas is a married to a Bugis/Makassar Indonesian and they have three sons. Estelle has always enjoyed story telling; firstly to her sons and now to her three grandchildren.

She was prompted to start writing children’s stories when she became a long distance grandmother. To maintain a connection with her grandchildren, she wrote true stories about her life with Princess Cat and her son David as well as about her husband’s life in Indonesia. The characters and events in the dollhouse story were created to mirror the changes in the life of her grandchildren (e.g. The toys in A Brother for Yusuf are modelled on her grandson’s favourite toys and he did have to make room for his baby brother.)

Using her collection of dolls and dollhouses as props, Estelle has created a multicultural community for her books. Her stories explore life in a multicultural community, such as in Australia, and her aim is to break stereotypical ideas. All her books contain elements which do this (e.g. In Reggie Rooster, it is a little boy who pushes the doll’s pusher). In A Brother for Yusuf it is the father who steps in to help Yusuf cope with family changes and in Grandpa’s from Indonesia some of the questions are bordering on the disrespectful.

Estelle is also a medical scientist, a Chinese medicine doctor and she is a published researcher/author in Complementary Medicine.