Child's Play Library Books

Courtney Dicmas is a Faculty Instructor of Illustration and Graphic Design at Madison College in Madison, Wisconsin. After earning her BA in fine art from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota in 2006, Courtney traveled for five years, where, among her many adventures, she played saxophone in a reggae band in Brazil, taught kids the hokey pokey in South Korea, salted leeches off her ankles in Thailand, and nibbled sheep’s stomach in Iraq. She then spent four years in England, where she received a master’s degree in children’s book illustration at the Cambridge School of Art, before moving back to teach in the U.S. in 2015.

An exciting new talent, Kate graduated from Falmouth University in 2013 with a degree in Illustration. Now based in Wales, she is busy developing her picture book style, a wonderful mixture of energetic line, gorgeous characters, contemporary colour and fabulous hand lettering. Written and illustrated by Kate, her debut picture book Quiet! was published by Child’s Play International in 2017. This was followed by That is Actually My Blanket, Baby! illustrated by Kate and published by Little Tiger Press. Kate loves baby animals, textures, pencils and bow ties. She doesn’t like spiders or having wet socks.

Ariane has been drawing all her life, but only caught the picture book bug while working as an Au Pair near Chicago. She fell in love with all the picture books in the libraries she frequented. Never did it occur to her that she could do such a thing herself. Fast forward and a Psychology Degree and Masters in Children’s Book Illustration later and now in London, UK, her dream came true and she got her first picture book—Ice in the Jungle—published. She often bases her stories on her own experience, anecdotes and even research. With her books, she hopes to show children and adults alike how we can all live and learn together, no matter who we are or where we are from.

Summer Macon was raised in an itty bitty town of Southern NM. As a child, she quickly became known as “Tiger” as this is how she would sign her homework next to the many doodles covering their pages. She has decided to now go by her real name and lives in an even smaller itty bitty town (population 32) in beautiful Colorado. In the summertime you can find her rock climbing, mountain biking, or doodling on her contracts.

Katie Brosnan loves being creative. When she isn’t drawing, writing or screen-printing, she helps to run art workshops for children and makes one-off ceramic characters. She achieved an MA with Distinction in Children’s Book Illustration from the Cambridge School of Art and a BA in Fine Art from Nottingham Trent University. In 2018, Katie was a UK winner in the international picture book competition ‘Picture This!’ and was highly commended in the Macmillan Prize for illustration.

Gillian spends much of her time making beautiful things in the basement studio under her dad’s bicycle store, which she shares with a selection of friendly (but not very chatty) inner tubes and mudguards. Despite her underground work space, Gillian loves being outside in the garden, although she would probably be a more successful gardener if she was a bit less scared of wriggly things.

Jenny Duke has always loved books and making pictures, so children’s book illustration is her perfect occupation. Since graduating from the MA program in Children’s Book Illustration at Cambridge University, she has been working on a number of projects, several based in East Anglia where the skies, water and light inspire much of her work. Her books always begin with drawing, but she never knows until later whether she will use paint, print, collage or digital techniques to complete them.

Don and Audrey Wood are the husband-and-wife creators of many beloved books for children, including the best-selling classic The Napping House, The Full Moon at the Napping House, Heckedy Peg, and King Bidgood’s in the Bathtub, a Caldecott Honor book. The Woods divide their time between California and Hawaii.

Richard O’Neill is an award winning, Writer and Storyteller, based in Manchester UK. Brought up in a large traditional nomadic Romany family where he learned his storytelling skills. He has loved books since reading his first one when he was four years old. When he’s not writing and telling stories he’s making traditional wooden toys. He is the recipient of the ‘National Literacy Hero’ award in the UK and a Aesop award in the USA.

Based in the Netherlands, Marieke lived in Mexico and Costa Rica when she was young, and her influences come from cultures all around the world. She’s inspired by nature and creatives such as Edward Gorey, Lisbeth Zwerger, Shaun Tan, Tim Burton and Wes Anderson. Marieke has a degree in Visual Communication, specialising in Illustration, from Art School, ‘s-Hertogenbosch. Natural media is key to Marieke’s individual style. By building up forms with layer upon layer of gouache she gives her images a sense of volume and physicality. Sometimes, she mixes in coloured pencils and ink for a looser style, or works spontaneously with a glass dipping pen for black and white linework. Marieke’s art has all the charm and intricacy of traditional 19th century illustration, infused with drama, humour and narrative thanks to her unconventional compositions, use of light and shadow and small, whimsical details.

Julia is a children’s book illustrator and graduate of the prestigious Children’s Book Illustration MA at Cambridge School of Art. She especially loves creating illustrations of animals and Animal Babies were her very first books. Animal Babies have received a starred Kirkus review “”Readers hoping to share beautiful, age-appropriate images and accurate terminology should look no further than this book and its companions, bracing antidotes to the cuteness that floods the board-book shelves.””

Petronela Dostalova was born in the former Czechoslovakia. She grew up in a little village called Borsa where she was surrounded by woods and vineyards. At the age of eighteen Petronela decided to live and study in Suffolk where she received her Arts Degree. Soon after graduation she decided to enroll onto the MA Children’s Book Illustration at the Cambridge School of Art. She currently lives in scenic Tattingstone with her partner Dan and dog Haribo.

Rosie Faragher lives in Edinburgh. She was born in Berwick-upon-Tweed and spent her childhood in France and Luxembourg. After studying English Literature and Art History at the University of York she moved to Bristol where learned new creative skills, ran art workshops for children and got involved in publishing independent comics. It didn’t take long for her to find her way back to drawing and she graduated with a Masters in Children’s Book Illustration from Cambridge School of Art.