Award winning author-illustrator Polly Dunbar has started as Booktrust’s fourth online writer in residence. Polly, best known for her character Penguin and Tilly and Friends, invites visitors to the Booktrust website into her studio, opening up her sketch book with illustration tips and to download an exclusive picture book created especially for her residency. See what she's already been blogging about!
To celebrate this, the Guardian have created an online gallery of Polly's work here.
As well as winning the Nestle Silver award 2007, The Booktrust Early Years awards 2007, The Red House award 2008 and being shortlisted for the Kate Greenaway Medal, Penguin
has been made into an enormously successful puppet show. Long Nose Puppets, of which Polly is co-founder, also tours adaptations of her popular books Shoe Baby and Fly Away Katie. Polly lives and works by the sea in Brighton.
Polly takes the virtual baton from award-winning debut author and independent bookseller Evie Wyld, and spoke of her delight on starting the post:
‘I am delighted to be taking on the post of Booktrust online writer/illustrator in residence. It will be an exciting and no doubt daunting adventure sharing my day-to-day working life with an audience. It will give me a chance to reflect on my creative processes and record the different layers involved with making books for children. It will be a place to share in the fun and colourful moments but also express the inevitable struggles of catching ideas and bringing them to life. Above all, it is a fantastic opportunity for me to connect with other book lovers, whether they be readers, writers or aspiring illustrators, what fun!’