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Kaz Cooke

カズ・クック

Kaz Cooke

Aliases: Karen Cooke

Profile

Gender
Female
Born
1962-12-17 （Melbourne, Australia）
Nationality
Australia
Languages
English
Residence History
Melbourne (born and raised)

Career

Occupations
author, cartoonist, broadcaster, columnist, illustrator
Active Years
1981-
Influenced By
Ronald Searle, Geoffrey Willans

Awards

Bookseller/Diagram Prize for Oddest Title of the Year
2002
Work: Living with Crazy Buttocks
Organization: The Bookseller / Diagram
Result: winner
Australian Publishers Association General Non-fiction Book of the Year
2008
Work: Girl Stuff
Organization: Australian Publishers Association
Result: winner
Australian Booksellers Association Nielsen BookData Booksellers' Choice Award
2008
Work: Girl Stuff
Organization: Australian Booksellers Association
Result: winner
Children’s Book Council of Australia — Honour
2008
Work: Girl Stuff
Organization: Children’s Book Council of Australia
Result: honour

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

Living with Crazy Buttocks

2001 Essay/Column collection

A collection of newspaper and magazine columns; humorous and satirical observations on everyday life.

humorsatireeveryday life

Girl Stuff: Your Full-on Guide to the Teen Years

2007 Practical nonfiction / teen guide

A practical guide for teenage girls covering bodies, emotions, relationships and self-care.

adolescencewomen's healthself-image

Up the Duff: The Real Guide to Pregnancy

1999 Practical guide / pregnancy

A frank, practical guide to pregnancy; a widely-read staple in Australia.

pregnancybirth preparationwomen's health

Kidwrangling: The Real Guide to Caring for Babies, Toddlers and Preschoolers

2003 Parenting guide

A practical and humorous guide to caring for babies, toddlers and preschoolers.

parentingpractical advicefamily life

Ada

2017 Novel

A novel by Cooke; detailed description is limited in available sources.

fiction

Bibliography

  • The Modern Girl's Guide to Everything (1986)
  • Beyond a Joke: An Anti-Bicentenary Cartoon Book (1988)
  • The Modern Girl’s Guide to Safe Sex (1988; revised 1993)
  • Keep Yourself Nice: Kaz Cooke Answers Your Etiquette Problems (1990)
  • Real Gorgeous: The Truth About Body and Beauty (1994)
  • Living with Crazy Buttocks (2001)
  • Up the Duff: The Real Guide to Pregnancy (1999; revised 2009)
  • Kidwrangling: The Real Guide to Caring for Babies, Toddlers and Preschoolers (2003; revised 2010)
  • Girl Stuff: Your Full-on Guide to the Teen Years (2007; 2nd ed. 2013)
  • Women's Stuff (2011)
  • Ada (2017)

Style & Themes

Literary Style
light, humorous and satirical tonepractical, frank advisory prose
Recurring Motifs
women's bodies and self-imageeveryday-life humorissues of adolescence

Legacy

Kaz Cooke is widely recognized in Australia as an author and cartoonist in women's practical advice and humor; her guides for teens, pregnancy and parenting have influenced many readers, and her columns and illustrations have been long supported.

Archives

  • National Library of Australia (collections and records)
  • Trove (National Library of Australia's digital archive)

In Popular Culture

  • Longstanding presence as a newspaper and magazine columnist
  • 'Girl Stuff' and similar guides have been referenced by schools and parents

Quotes

  • “I’m learning to get a whole lot better at making stuff happen on computer, but I still really love drawing in old-fashioned pen and a bottle of the blacker-than-black waterproof ink – delicious.”
    Source: geekgirl interview (1996) (1996)

Trivia

  • Birth name is Karen Cooke.
  • As a teenager she discovered the work of Ronald Searle and Geoffrey Willans and cited them as early major influences.
  • Created the cartoon character 'Hermoine the modern girl' in 1984 which later ran as a newspaper feature.
  • Released a calendar printed on sugarcane-pulp 'paper' in 1997.
  • Won the Bookseller/Diagram Prize for Oddest Title of the Year in 2002 for 'Living with Crazy Buttocks'.