Picture Books
The picture books on this page are all fiction. You can see my non fiction picture books on my non fiction page.
I have also written another picture book with a completely new main character. The illustrator is in the process of drawing the pictures, and the completed book will be published by Scholastic in 2011. I can't tell you any more at the moment, but I'll put more details on this page as soon as I can.
The Lamb-a-roo
(Frances Lincoln)
When a lamb is adopted by a kangaroo, he's very happy with his new family but worried that he doesn't look like them. He sets out to change himself, but, in the process, he discovers that who you are is more important than what you look like.
This story about adoption was inspired by my beautiful, brown-eyed adopted daughter who longed to have blue eyes like the rest of the family.
More information
The Bear Father Christmas Forgot
(Scholastic)
The idea for this book popped into my head one day as a picture of a teddy bear dangling from the back of Father Christmas' sleigh. The resulting story of a bear who has to deliver himself became my first paperback and is still my most successful with over half a million copies sold worldwide. First published in 1994, it has been translated into Finnish, Norwegian and Danish as well as being published in the USA where there is also a Spanish/English dual language edition.
(out of print, rights available)
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A Good Place for Kittens
(Scholastic)
It's a stormy night and the cat has nowhere to go. But she knows she must find a good place for kittens before it's too late. Her searches take her to a variety of places which turn out to be unsuitable before she finds the perfect home just before her kittens are born. The text is perfectly illustrated by Kathryn Prewett's watercolours.
(out of print, rights available)
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Ruby Red and Sky Blue
(Rigby Rocket)
When I was asked to write a story including the words red, blue and purple, it seemed natural to use the fact that the first two colours mix to make the third.
The Clay Dog
(Ginn - Lighthouse series)
Have you ever realised that many of the items archeologists find were originally lost? I hadn't until I went to a fascinating talk and it was that talk that inspired this story. It tells of a Roman child's toy which is lost for centuries until it's finally dug up and found by a present day child. It's designed for use as a guided reader in the Literacy Hour and comes in packs of 6 with teachers' notes.