Little Dune wins SCBWI Spark Award

I’m so pleased to announce that Little Dune, written by Lisa Van der Wielen and illustrated by me, has won Best Picture Book in the 2022 SCBWI Spark Award for books published through a non-traditional route!

I absolutely loved working on Little Dune, it’s such a sweet story, and Lisa is always a pleasure to work with.

Initially I was dismayed to see that the official announcement had left the names of the illustrators off. Considering the award is for best picture book, and illustrators had to be members of SCBWI for the book to be eligible (and the illustrations were part of the judging criteria) it was only fair that illustrator names were up there with our authors. We had to wage a bit of a campaign to get our just recognition, and I’m so pleased that the announcement was amended to include us. Credit is such a small thing, but it helps our careers so much, and shows that our hard work is recognised and appreciated. (Check out the Pictures Mean Business campaign for more information there, that was a huge help in making me brave enough to speak out about illustrator erasure!)

Despite all that, I am thrilled that Little Dune has been recognised. That makes for a very good start to 2023!

Here are a few of my favourite spreads:

If you are looking to purchase Little Dune, you can do so by clicking here.