Kitty Crowther (born 4 April 1970) is a Belgian

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 ...

and writer of

children's books 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 ''chi ...

. For her career contribution to "children's and young adult literature in the broadest sense" she won the 2010

Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award The Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award () is an international children's literary award established by the Swedish government in 2002 to honour the Swedish children's author Astrid Lindgren (1907–2002). The prize is five million SEK, making it ...

from the Swedish Arts Council, the biggest prize in children's literature.

Biography

Kitty Crowther is the Belgian daughter of a British father and a Swedish mother. She was born and grew up in

Uccle Uccle (French language, French, ) or Ukkel (Dutch language, Dutch, ) is one of the List of municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, 19 municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium. Located in the southern part of the region, it ...

, part of

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

, in Belgium. She and her husband now live in Blanmont with their two sons. She studied Graphic Arts at the

Institut Saint-Luc The Institut Saint-Luc () is an arts school in Brussels, Belgium. It consists of six departments, with a total of 2,200 students and 430 employees, spread over five locations in Ixelles and Saint-Gilles, Belgium, Saint-Gilles. History The school ...

in Brussels. She works mainly in French, occasionally in Dutch, and has as of 2010 created some 35 books of her own, and has illustrated books of others as well, e.g. work by Carl Norac,

Bart Moeyaert Bart Peter Boudewijn Moeyaert (born 9 June 1964) is a Belgian writer. Early life Moeyaert was born in 1964 in Bruges as the youngest of seven brothers. He is named after the character Bartje in the book series by Anne de Vries and after Bau ...

and

Toon Tellegen Antonius Otto Hermannus (Toon) Tellegen (born 18 November 1941) is a Dutch writer, poet, and physician, known for children's books, especially those featuring anthropomorphised animals, particularly those about an ant and a squirrel. His writings ...

.Myriam Deru et Mireille Moureau, « Analyse de l'album ''Mon royaume'' », dossier « Voyage au royaume de Kitty Crowther »
dossier de la revue ''Cahiers du CLPCF'' No. 2, 2001
p. 48-51. She made her debut in 1994 with ''Mon royaume'' (''My kingdom''). The jury of the

Gouden Griffel The Gouden Griffel (Golden Stylus) is an award given to authors of children's or teenagers' literature in the Netherlands. History Since 1971, it is awarded each year during the Dutch Children's Books Week, by the Stichting Collectieve Prop ...

awarded her a "Vlag en Wimpel" in 1997 for the illustrated book ''Mon ami Jim''. Further recognition followed in 2003 and 2005, when she received the Silver Pencil for ''In het pikkedonker'' (''In the pitch dark'') and ''Kleine Dood en het meisje'' (''Little Death and the girl''). In 2010 she received the Astrid Lindgren Award, administered by the Swedish Arts Council. In the jury's citation she was described as "the master of line but also of atmosphere".

Works

*1994: ''Mon royaume'' *1994: ''Chat-collection'', text by Florence Dutruc-Rosset *1995: ''Un jour mon Prince viendra'', text by Andréa Nève *1995: ''Va faire un tour'' *1996: ''Mon ami Jim'': translated in English as ''Jack and Jim'' in 2000 *1997: ''Copain des peintres: La Boîte à idées des artistes en herbe'', text by Geneviève Casterman *1997: ''Lily au royaume des nuages'' *1998: ''Les animaux et leurs poètes'', text by Jean-Hugues Malineau *1999: ''Grote Oma's'', text by

*1999: ''La Grande Ourse'', text by Carl Norac *2000: ''Moi et rien'' *2000: ''Trois histoires folles de Monsieur Pol'' *2000: ''365 histoires, comptines et chansons. Le Grand Livre des petits'' by

Marie Delafon Marie may refer to the following. People Given name * Marie (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the name ** List of people named Marie * Marie (Japanese given name) Surname * Jean Gabriel-Marie, French composer ...

, Kitty Crowther, Rémi Saillard, and Isabelle Chatelard *2000: ''Message de bonheur, pour une naissance'' *2000: ''365 histoires pour l'année'' *2000: ''Lever de rideau'', text by Sophie Dieuaide *2000: ''Le scoop du siècle'', text by Sophie Dieuaide *2000: 'Ce rat de Custer'', text by Sophie Dieuaide *2001: ''Le père Noël m'a écrit'', text by Carl Norac *2001: ''Tout va très bien, madame la marquise'' by

Paul Misraki Paul Misraki (28 January 1908 – 29 October 1998) was a French composer of popular music and film scores. Over the course of over 60 years, Misraki wrote the music to 130 films, scoring works by directors like Jean Renoir, Claude Chabrol, Ja ...

Henri Allum Henry Laverne (born Henri Allum; 1888 or 1890 – 4 September 1953) was a French stage and film actor; Laverne was also a comedian and humorist for a decade, as well as a singer on occasion. As an actor, he was usually billed Henry-Laverne in h ...

(aka

Henry Laverne Henry Laverne (born Henri Allum; 1888 or 1890 – 4 September 1953) was a French stage and film actor; Laverne was also a comedian and humorist for a decade, as well as a singer on occasion. As an actor, he was usually billed Henry-Laverne in h ...

Charles Pasquier Charles Simon Pasquier (Brussels, 3 June 1914, date of death unknown) was a Belgian canoeist who competed in the 1936 Summer Olympics. He was born in Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one gr ...

, and Kitty Crowther *2001: ''Le Bain d’Elias'' *2001: ''Champions du monde, la vie héroïque d'Antoine Lebic'', text by Sophie Dieuaide *2002: ''De verjaardag van de eekhoorn'' by

*2002: ''Scritch scratch dip clapote!'' *2002: ''Teri hate tua: L'épouvantable tortue rouge!'', text by

Jean-François Chabas Jean-François () is a French given name. Notable people bearing the given name include: * Jean-François Carenco (born 1952), French politician * Jean-François Champollion (1790–1832), French Egyptologist * Jean-François Clervoy (born 1958), ...

*2003: ''L'Enfant racine'' *2003: ''La Princesse qui n’existait pas'', text by

Christian Oster Christian Oster (born 1949) is a French writer. He has written more than a dozen novels, and he is also a prolific author of children's books. Noted works include ''My Big Apartment'' (1999) which won the Prix Médicis, and ''The Cleaning Woman'' ...

*2004: ''Petits meurtres et autres tendresses'' *2004: ''365 histoires, comptines et chansons'' by

Jacques Duquennoy Jacques or Jacq are believed to originate from the Middle Ages in the historic northwest Brittany region in France, and have since spread around the world over the centuries. To date, there are over one hundred identified noble families related t ...

, Rémi Saillard, Isabelle Chatelard, and Kitty Crowther *2004: ''Vingt-neuf moutons'', text by Christian Oster *2005: ''La Visite de Petite Mort'' *2005: ''Le grand désordre'' *2005–2010: ''Poka et Mine'': ''Le Réveil'', '' Les nouvelle ailes'', ''Au cinéma'', ''Au Musée'', ''Au fond du jardin'', ''Le football'' *2006: ''Spinoza et Moi'', text by

Sylvaine Jaoui Sylvaine is the solo music project of Norwegian metal multi-instrumentalist Kathrine Shepard. The project began in Oslo in 2013 and has released four albums to date. In 2019, Shepard became the first woman to earn a nomination for best metal albu ...

*2006: ''Copain des peintres'', text by Geneviève Casterman *2006: ''Les contes de l'armoire: Trente-cinq contes brefs'' by

Pierre Mosonyi Pierre is a masculine given name. It is a French form of the name Peter. Pierre originally meant "rock" or "stone" in French (derived from the Greek word πέτρος (''petros'') meaning "stone, rock", via Latin "petra"). It is a translation ...

, Kitty Crowther,

Eva Almassy Eva or EVA may refer to: * Eva (name), a feminine given name Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional characters * Eva (Dynamite Entertainment), a comic book character * Eva (''Devil May Cry''), in the ''Devil May Cry'' video game series * ...

, and Fanny Volcsanszky *2006: ''Les contes des magasins'' by Aliz Mosonyi, Kitty Crowther, and Eva Almassy *2006: ''Pas un mot'', text by Nathalie Kuperman Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award 2010-65

*2007: ''Dans moi'', text by Alex Cousseau *2007: ''Un nuage dans le ventre'', text by Gilles Abier *2008: ''Alors?'' *2009: ''Petits poèmes pour passer le temps'' by Carl Norac, Kitty Crowther, and Célestin *2009: ''Annie du lac'' *2010: "Le petit homme et Dieu" *2018: ''Stories of the Night'', 64pp., (

Gecko Press Gecko Press is an independent publisher of children's books based in Wellington, New Zealand. The company was founded in 2005 by Julia Marshall, formerly of Appelberg Publishing Agency, winner of the Storylines Margaret Mahy Medal 2021. Marshall ...

) *2019: ''The Runaways'', text by

Ulf Stark Ulf Gottfrid Stark (12 July 1944 – 13 June 2017) was a Swedish author and screenwriter (he adapted several of his own books for film and wrote the screenplay for the 1999 film '' Tsatsiki, morsan och polisen''). Stark has collaborated with th ...

136pp., (

)

Awards

*2006: Grand Prix triennal de littérature de jeunesse *2010:

References

External links

Some examples from her work
from ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Crowther, Kitty 1970 births Living people 20th-century Belgian women writers 21st-century Belgian women writers 20th-century Belgian women artists 21st-century Belgian women artists Belgian children's writers Belgian children's book illustrators Belgian women children's book illustrators Belgian illustrators Belgian women illustrators Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award winners Artists from Brussels Date of birth missing (living people) Belgian women children's writers Boekenpauw winners