About the Author
In a previous life, author/illustrator Rob was the art director of publications such as the Observer Magazine, NME and Just Seventeen. Now he spends his time making up stories for his three daughters and drawing pictures to go with them. He is the official World Book Day Illustrator for 2019, 2020 and 2021.
His first picture book, Blown Away, was published in 2014 and was only the second illustrated book in history to win the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize. It was read as a CBeebies Bedtime Story by Mark Bonnar in 2017. His second book, GRRRRR!, was nominated for the CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal and was read as a CBeebies Bedtime Story by Chris Kamara in 2019. His third, Odd Dog Out, was nominated for a total of eight literary prizes, winning the BSC Festival of Literature Picture Book Award and the UKLA Student Shadower’s Vote Book Award. It was read as a CBeebies Bedtime Story by Tom Hardy in 2017. His fourth, Sunk!, was nominated for the CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal and shortlisted for The People s Book Award and Oscar s Book Prize. His fifth, Kevin, was nominated for the CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal and shortlisted for the BSC Festival of Literature Picture Book Award and the IBW Book Award. His sixth (Happy Hatchday), seventh (Give Peas a Chance) and eighth (Wide Awake) books are the first three in the Dinosaur Juniors series. Happy Hatchday was awarded a GOLD Junior Design Award in 2018 and Give Peas a Chance was nominated for the CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal in 2019. His ninth picture book, Show and Tell, was published by HarperCollins in August 2019 and has been shortlisted for three national literary awards. His tenth picture book, Dog Gone, will be published in September 2020.
As well as working on his own books he also illustrates for other authors including Michael Bond (of Paddington fame), Jeff Brown (the Flat Stanley series), Philip Ardagh, Piers Torday, Garth Jennings, Jess Butterworth, SE Durrant, Jenny Pearson, Christian O Connell and Barry Hutchison.
In March 2020 he started #DrawWithRob, a series of twice-weekly draw-along videos designed to help parents whose children were forced to stay home from school due to the coronavirus pandemic. It proved immensely popular, garnering millions of views and international media coverage. It has been used as a learning resource by thousands of families across the globe. On 21 May 2020 he broke the Guinness World Record for the largest ever online art class when 45,611 people tuned in to his live #DrawWithRob YouTube class. The first #DrawWithRob activity book was published in July 2020 and is a number one bestseller.
Before he became a full-time author/illustrator he was the art director of the Observer Magazine, NME, Uncut, SKY and Just Seventeen. He lives in London with his wife and three daughters and hasn t given up hope that, maybe, one of them will go to an Arsenal match with him one day.
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