on the narrator’s instructions, it’s him who seems to be making magical things happen to the spots as he turns the pages. Alongside this playfulness, the book also encourages hand-eye coordination, memory skills, counting, colour recognition and learning left

. Hopefully this little book shows my debt to these great masters. How can we encourage children to appreciate art? I think there is nothing better than visiting art galleries as often as you can, or if this isn’t possible, then getting books out

illustrated (he is adverse to calling it a children’s book, as he believes its appeal is ageless), it was a nerve-wracking process. "I dealt with the text and the publisher, and we went backwards and forwards for six months. It was a real collaboration," he

Big and small, hit and miss, up and down, hot and cold – discovering the world of opposing elements is one of the stock-in-trades for young children. This vibrant book takes a tried-and-tested topic and skillfully transforms it into a stunning work

and rips it to shreds and arranges it in her bed like it’s a collage. And I think Lucy Locket was once a very famous film star but is now in retirement! Characters in the book seem to have descriptive/straightforward names e.g. Mr and Mrs Shinyshoes

, but it was not a conscious decision. I think a lot of books and rhymes follow this kind of rhythm, and it is one that children are familiar with and enjoy.What do you think would appeal to a child about the repetition of all the different sounds?I think it

it into a solid picture book.I always try to write about what excited me as a child in the hope that children will share that same excitement. Stories of feral Mogli-esque children have always fascinated me and as a child I adored animals and daydreamed