Emily Gravett
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Emily Gravett (born 1972) is an English author and
illustrator An illustrator is an artist who specializes in enhancing writing or elucidating concepts by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text or idea. The illustration may be intended to clarify complicate ...
of
children's A child () is a human being between the stages of birth and puberty, or between the developmental period of infancy and puberty. The term may also refer to an unborn human being. In English-speaking countries, the legal definition of ''child ...
picture books A picture book combines visual and verbal narratives in a book format, most often aimed at young children. With the narrative told primarily through text, they are distinct from comics, which do so primarily through sequential images. The ima ...
. For her debut book ''
Wolves The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the grey wolf or gray wolf, is a canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, including the dog and dingo, though gr ...
'' published in 2005 and '' Little Mouse's Big Book of Fears'' published three years later, she won the annual
Kate Greenaway Medal The Carnegie Medal for Illustration (until 2022 the Kate Greenaway Medal) is a British award that annually recognises "distinguished illustration in a book for children". It is conferred upon the illustrator by the Chartered Institute of Librar ...
recognising the year's best-illustrated British children's book.


Life

Emily Gravett was born in
Brighton Brighton ( ) is a seaside resort in the city status in the United Kingdom, city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England, south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze Age Britain, Bronze Age, R ...
, England, the second daughter of a printmaker father and an art teacher mother. After her parents separated, she lived with her mother, but she and her father would "go out drawing" in museums. She left school at 16 with a
GCSE The General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) is an academic qualification in a range of subjects taken in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, having been introduced in September 1986 and its first exams taken in 1988. State schools ...
qualification only in Art (grade A) and travelled Great Britain for eight years, living in "a variety of vehicles" and meeting her partner Mik. By 1997, they had settled in
Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...
and had a daughter, Oleander (Olly). Gravett "realised that I wanted a career, and drawing was my only skill", so she began an art course. The family returned to
Brighton Brighton ( ) is a seaside resort in the city status in the United Kingdom, city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England, south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze Age Britain, Bronze Age, R ...
in 2001, where persistence rather than qualifications got her an interview for the illustration degree course at the local university. She matriculated that September and graduated three years later. After bringing up her daughter in Brighton, Emily and her partner moved to rural Wales in 2023


Career

During her second year as a student, Gravett entered one of her school projects for the Macmillan Prize for Children's Illustration, a competitive annual award to art students established in 1985. She earned a "Highly Commended" then and won the prize in her final year, when she entered two books that the judges ranked first and second. That ensured a contract publication of ''
Wolves The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the grey wolf or gray wolf, is a canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, including the dog and dingo, though gr ...
'' by Macmillan Children's Books (now the Children's Books
imprint Imprint or imprinting may refer to: Entertainment * ''Imprint'' (TV series), Canadian television series * "Imprint" (''Masters of Horror''), episode of TV show ''Masters of Horror'' * ''Imprint'' (film), a 2007 independent drama/thriller film ...
of
Pan Macmillan Pan Books is a British publishing imprint that first became active in the 1940s and is now part of the British-based Macmillan Publishers, owned by the Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group of Germany. History Pan Books began as an indepe ...
). The editorial director later said, "It was quite obvious who the winner was going to be. Emily entered ''Wolves'' in a beautiful dummy format, and really we had to do very little work on it before it was published. She's a bookbinder as well as an artist; a real creator of books." Two years after graduation she won the
Kate Greenaway Medal The Carnegie Medal for Illustration (until 2022 the Kate Greenaway Medal) is a British award that annually recognises "distinguished illustration in a book for children". It is conferred upon the illustrator by the Chartered Institute of Librar ...
from the
Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals The Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP, pronounced ) is a professional body for librarians, information specialists and knowledge management, knowledge managers in the United Kingdom. It was established in 20 ...
, recognising ''Wolves'' as the previous year's (2005) best-illustrated new children's book published in the United Kingdom. By that time, rights had been sold in five other countries. Next year (officially dated 2007) she made the Greenaway shortlist for '' Orange Pear Apple Bear''. The year after that she won a second Medal (no one has won three) for her fourth book, '' Little Mouse's Big Book of Fears'', and made the shortlist as well for fifth book, ''Monkey and Me''.
WorldCat WorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of tens of thousands of institutions (mostly libraries), in many countries, that are current or past members of the OCLC global cooperative. It is operated by OCLC, Inc. Many of the O ...
reports that ''Orange Pear Apple Bear'' is her work most widely held in participating libraries. According to one library summary, it " plores concepts of color, shape, and food using only five simple words, as a bear juggles and plays." For 2008 Gravett was official illustrator for World Book Day (United Kingdom) — an honor with duties such as specially commissioned illustrations and recorded demonstration of characters from her books. The former
Children's Laureate Children's Laureate, now known as the Waterstones Children's Laureate, is a position awarded in the United Kingdom once every two years to a "writer or illustrator of children's books to celebrate outstanding achievement in their field". The rol ...
(2011–2013)
Julia Donaldson Julia Catherine Donaldson (; born 16 September 1948) is an English writer and playwright, and the 2011–2013 Children's Laureate. She is best known for her popular rhyming stories for children, especially those illustrated by Axel Scheffler, ...
wrote and Gravett illustrated ''Cave Baby'', a 32-page picture book featuring a prehistoric baby's tour atop a
woolly mammoth The woolly mammoth (''Mammuthus primigenius'') is an extinct species of mammoth that lived from the Middle Pleistocene until its extinction in the Holocene epoch. It was one of the last in a line of mammoth species, beginning with the African ...
, published by Macmillan in 2010. It has been published in
Welsh-language Welsh ( or ) is a Celtic language of the Brittonic subgroup that is native to the Welsh people. Welsh is spoken natively in Wales by about 18% of the population, by some in England, and in (the Welsh colony in Chubut Province, Argentina). ...
and Chinese editions but not in the United States. She is the illustrator of J K Rowling's Quidditch Through the Ages, illustrated edition (2020) published by Bloomsbury Children's Books. Gravett made many physical artefacts, including a broom, silk badges and ceramics that were then photographed for the illustrations


Style

Gravett completed ''Wolves'' in six weeks as an illustration course project and added only the back
endpaper The endpapers or end-papers of a book (also known as the endsheets) are the pages that consist of a double-size sheet folded, with one half pasted against an inside cover (the pastedown), and the other serving as the first free page (the free ...
spread during the editorial process. Some projects take longer but she wrote and sketched '' Orange Pear Apple Bear'' in merely 11 hours, waking one Mother's Day with the four words in her head and staying in bed for "the whole book in one go". Gravett's books are interactive. She encouraged the pet dog to chew the dummy for ''Wolves'' "to simulate the impact of the wolf's teeth". That didn't work so she chewed it herself. She wanted '' Little Mouse's Big Book of Fears'' to look genuinely chewed, so she painted
yoghurt Yogurt (; , from , ; also spelled yoghurt, yogourt or yoghourt) is a food produced by bacterial fermentation of milk. Fermentation of sugars in the milk by these bacteria produces lactic acid, which acts on milk protein to give yogurt its tex ...
on plain white paper and laid it in the cage of the two pet rats. They nibbled it and peed on it, which she scanned to produce background for drawing. The front cover illustration shows the title ''Little Mouse's Emily Gravett's Big Book of Fears'', a mouse looking through a hole it has chewed, and damage along the book edges. ''Little Mouse'' is also a movable book, with "lift flaps and a fold-out map" (quoting a review).


Works


As author and illustrator

* ''
Wolves The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the grey wolf or gray wolf, is a canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, including the dog and dingo, though gr ...
'' (Macmillan, 2005, ) : —published as ''Wolves'' by "Emily Grrrabbit" in the United States (Simon & Schuster, 2006) * '' Orange Pear Apple Bear'' (2006) * ''Meerkat Mail'' (2006) * '' Little Mouse's Big Book of Fears'' (2007) * ''Monkey and Me'' (2007) * '' The Odd Egg'' (2008) * ''Spells'' (2008) * ''Dogs'' (2009) * ''The Rabbit Problem'' (2009) * ''Blue Chameleon'' (2010) * ''Wolf Won't Bite!'' (2011) * ''Again!'' (2011) * '' Matilda's Cat'' (2 August 2012) * '' Little Mouse's Big Book of Beasts'' (2013) * ''Bear and Hare: Go Fishing'' (2014) * ''Bear and Hare: Snow!'' (2014) * ''Bear and Hare: Where's Bear?'' (2015) * ''Bear and Hare: Mine!'' (2016) * ''Tidy'' (2016) * ''Old Hat'' (2017) * ''Cyril and Pat'' (2018) * ''Meerkat Christmas'' (2019) * ''Too Much Stuff'' (2020) * ''10 Cats'' (2022) * ''10 Dogs'' (2023) * ''Bothered by Bugs'' (2024) * ''Bear's Nap'' (2025)


As illustrator

* ''Cave Baby'' (2010), written by
Julia Donaldson Julia Catherine Donaldson (; born 16 September 1948) is an English writer and playwright, and the 2011–2013 Children's Laureate. She is best known for her popular rhyming stories for children, especially those illustrated by Axel Scheffler, ...
* '' The Imaginary'' (2014), written by A. F. Harrold * ''The Afterwards'' (2018), written by A. F. Harrold * ''Evie and the Animals'' (2020), written by
Matt Haig Matt Haig (born 3 July 1975) is an English author and journalist. He has written both fiction and non-fiction books for children and adults, often in the speculative fiction genre. Early life Haig was born on 3 July 1975 in Sheffield. He grew ...
* ''Evie in the Jungle'' (2020), written by
Matt Haig Matt Haig (born 3 July 1975) is an English author and journalist. He has written both fiction and non-fiction books for children and adults, often in the speculative fiction genre. Early life Haig was born on 3 July 1975 in Sheffield. He grew ...
* ''A Song of Gladness'' (2021), written by
Michael Morpurgo Sir Michael Andrew Bridge Morpurgo ('' né'' Bridge; 5 October 1943) is an English book author, poet, playwright, and librettist who is known best for children's novels such as '' War Horse'' (1982). His work is noted for its "magical storytelli ...
* ''Locked Out Lily'' (2021), written by Nick Lake * ''The House With a Dragon in it'' (2023), written by Nick Lake * ''Island of Whispers'' (2023), by
Frances Hardinge Frances Hardinge (born 1973) is a British children's writer. Her debut novel, '' Fly by Night'', won the 2006 Branford Boase Award and was listed as one of the ''School Library Journal'' Best Books. She has also been shortlisted for and receive ...
* ''The Ogre Who Wasn't'' (2023), written by
Michael Morpurgo Sir Michael Andrew Bridge Morpurgo ('' né'' Bridge; 5 October 1943) is an English book author, poet, playwright, and librettist who is known best for children's novels such as '' War Horse'' (1982). His work is noted for its "magical storytelli ...
* ''The Forest of a Thousand Eyes'' (2024), by
Frances Hardinge Frances Hardinge (born 1973) is a British children's writer. Her debut novel, '' Fly by Night'', won the 2006 Branford Boase Award and was listed as one of the ''School Library Journal'' Best Books. She has also been shortlisted for and receive ...


Awards and recognitions

Gravett has won annual British book awards three times. ;Awards * ''
Wolves The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the grey wolf or gray wolf, is a canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, including the dog and dingo, though gr ...
'' won the 2005
Kate Greenaway Medal The Carnegie Medal for Illustration (until 2022 the Kate Greenaway Medal) is a British award that annually recognises "distinguished illustration in a book for children". It is conferred upon the illustrator by the Chartered Institute of Librar ...
. * ''Monkey and Me'' won the 2007 Booktrust Best Emerging Illustrator for children up to five-years-old. * '' Little Mouse's Big Book of Fears'' won the 2008 Kate Greenaway Medal. * ''Tidy'' won the 2017 Indie Book Awards for Picture Book category. ;Runners-up, etc. * 2005, ''Wolves'' was bronze runner-up for the
Smarties Prize Smarties are dragée chocolate confectionery. They have been manufactured since 1937, originally by H.I. Rowntree & Company in the United Kingdom, and now by Nestlé. Smarties are oblate spheroids with a minor axis of about and a major axis ...
, ages 0–5 years. * 2006, '' Orange Pear Apple Bear'' made the shortlist for the Booktrust Early Years Pre-School Award. * 2007, ''Orange Pear Apple Bear'' made the Greenaway shortlist. * 2007, ''Little Mouse's Big Book of Fears'' was bronze runner-up for the Smarties Prize, ages 6–8 years. * 2007, ''Wolves'' made the shortlist for the Hampshire Illustrated Book Award. * 2008, ''Monkey and Me'' made the Greenaway shortlist. * 2012, ''Wolf Won't Bite!'' made the Greenaway shortlist. * 2013, ''Matilda's Cat'' made the Indie Book Awards shortlist. * 2022, ''Too Much Stuff'' made the Greenaway shortlist.


Notes


References


External links


Emilygravett.com
archived 2011-01-28 * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gravett, Emily 1972 births Living people Date of birth missing (living people) English children's book illustrators English women children's book illustrators English children's writers English women children's writers Writers who illustrated their own writing Kate Greenaway Medal winners