Catherine Rayner

Edinburgh

Catherine Rayner is an award-winning author and illustrator. She studied Illustration at Edinburgh College of Art where, for her final degree show, she created what would go on to be her debut picture book.

Originally from Yorkshire, Catherine fell in love with the city of Edinburgh and still lives there with her husband and young son, and a small menagerie of animals. Winner of the 2009 CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal for her second book, Harris Finds His Feet, Catherine has now been shortlisted for the prestigious award four times. She was also awarded the Best New Illustrator Award at the Booktrust Early Years Awards in 2006 and was named one of Booktrust’s ten Best New Illustrators in 2008. In 2010, she was the inaugural illustrator in residence at the Edinburgh International Book Festival. As well as producing award-winning picture books, she also exhibits her artwork in galleries all over the world and illustrates her own range of greeting cards.

She finds huge inspiration in her pets and often uses them as models, frequently asking Ena the cat to pose so that she can study her posture and movement. Then she translates sketches of Ena into characters such as dragons and hares, not to mention moose and bears! But it was creatures of a wilder kind that inspired her first picture book, Augustus and His Smile - Catherine spent hours and hours watching and sketching tigers (in freezing temperatures) at Edinburgh Zoo.

And it must have paid off, because in 2006 Catherine won the Best New Illustrator Award at the Booktrust Early Years Awards and was also shortlisted for the V&A Illustration Awards 2006. Augustus and His Smile was then selected as one of five picture books to be recommended on Channel 4's 'Richard and Judy Christmas Party' in December of that year. Since then, Augustus and His Smile has been shortlisted for the Kate Greenaway Medal, the 'Read it Again' Cambridgeshire Picture Book Award, the English 4-11 Award 2007 and the Royal Mail Scottish Children's Book awards (0-7 category) 2007.

In 2008 Catherine was selected as one of the ten best new illustrators for Booktrust's 'Big Picture Campaign'. This was the year her second picture book, Harris Finds His Feet was published, which went on to win the CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal in 2009. In 2010, she was the inaugural illustrator in residence at the Edinburgh International Book Festival. As well as producing award-winning picture books, she also exhibits her artwork in galleries all over the world and illustrates her own range of greeting cards.

Courtesy of Catherine Rayner

Catherine's other books include, Harris Finds His Feet, Sylvia and Bird, Norris, the Bear who Shared, Posy, Ernest and Solomon Crocodile.

Awards

2006
Augustus and His Smile
Winner - Best New Illustrator at the Booktrust Early Years Awards
Shortlisted - CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal

2011
Ernest
Shortlisted - CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal

2012
Solomon Crocodile
Shortlisted - Scottish Children's Book Awards

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  Augustus And His Smile
  Catherine Rayner - Hardback - Little Tiger
  Augustus the tiger was sad. He had lost his smile. So he did a huge tigery stretch, and set off to find it. In this book, the author and illustrator Catherine Rayner celebrates the beauty of the world and the simple happiness it brings us when we open our eyes to it.
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  Harris Finds His Feet
  Catherine Rayner - Paperback - Little Tiger
  Grandad shows Harris, the hare, how to hop high into the sky, to climb to the tops of the mountains, and to run very fast.
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  Solomon Crocodile
  Catherine Rayner - Paperback - Macmillan Children's
  Poor Solomon is looking for some fun, but no-one wants to play. The dragonflies tell him to buzz off, the storks get in a flap, and the hippo? Well, the less said about the hippo, the better! But then somebody else starts causing trouble - and for once it is not Solomon.

Selected Bibliography

• Solomon Crocodile - 2011
• The Tales of Olga Da Polga - 2011 (Illustrator)
• Iris and Isaac - 2010
• Norris, The Bear Who Shared - 2010
• Ernest - 2009
• Syvlia and Bird - 2009
• Posy - 2008 (Illustrator)
• Harris Finds His Feet - 2008
• Augustus and His Smile - 2006