Ivan Southall, one of Australia's best loved and most prolific children's book authors, has died. He was 87.

Southall won four Children's Book of the Year Awards during the 1960s and 1970s.  He received national and international acclaim for his books — including the British Library Association's Carnegie Medal for Josh (1971).  Hills End was included in The New York Times list of books of the year in 1963.

Maurice Saxby, children's literature expert and a close friend of Southall, said the author had had "an inestimable influence on the way his readers view themselves as individuals and as Australians".