Meet the illustrator Jackie Morris

Jackie Morris is a picture book author and illustrator you are sure to fall in love with. Her art is sophisticated and rich. I was not surprised to read her list of favourite things:

Blue, cats, the smell of honeysuckle, rose petals, birds, words, fires, good books, crayons and paint, the smell of a new book, polar bears, moonlight and moonshadows, stars, sunrise, sunset, dew on the grass, poetry, red, random acts of kindness, long gold grass of late summer, the sound of the wind in the trees, the brush of a butterfly’s wings, the fragility of bone, wasp’s nests, washing on a line blowing in the wind on a sunny winter’s day, the patterns the sea draws on a beach each day and night. Jackie Morris

The two books at the top of this post are Lord of the Forest and The Snow Leopard. You can see more of her art in this gallery. 

Back in the not so distant past when we could still visit bookshops (yes there is a covid lock down in my city) I spied this beautiful Nursery Rhyme book with illustrations by UK author and illustrator Jackie Morris. This book is a reprint of a book originally published in 2011 with the title The Cat and the Fiddle: A treasury of nursery rhymes. I added new edition to my shopping list and some weeks later I placed an order with a discount book seller. Now, after nearly four months, the book has finally arrived. 

Inside this book you will find some familiar rhymes along side many which you may not know. This book would make a lovely gift for a new baby or perhaps for a new grandparent. Jackie reads her book in this video. 

The entire book has a dream-like, timeless quality to it thanks to the exquisite watercolour paintings that grace every spread. Red Reading Hub

Jackie has a beautiful website which is to be expected given her artistic style. I have mentioned Jackie Morris in a previous posts

The White Fox

I also mentioned her famous book, winner of the 2019 Greenaway medal, The Lost words in this post.

Here are some more books by Jackie:

Here is a list of some other books to explore. I am very keen to source a copy of The Wild Swans which is one of my favourite fairy tales. I have put the original cover here. A new edition, with a different cover, will be available later this year.

The Seal Children (2004)

Can You See a Little Bear (2005) with James Mayhew

Illustrations in Little One, We Knew You'd Come (2006) by Sally Lloyd-Jones

The Snow Leopard (2007)

Illustrations in Singing to the Sun (2008) by Vivian French

Tell Me a Dragon (2009)

The Ice Bear (2010)

The Cat and the Fiddle: A Treasury of Nursery Rhymes (2011)

Queen of the Sky (2011)

I am Cat (2012)

Song of the Golden Hare (2013)

East of the Sun, West of the Moon (2013)

Illustrations in Starlight Sailor (2013) by James Mayhew

Little Evie in the Wild Wood (2013) illustrated by Catherine Hyde

Something About a Bear (2014)

The Wild Swans (2015)

Cat Walk (2015)

The Quiet Music of Gently Falling Snow (2016)

The White Fox (2016)

The Lost Words (2017) with Robert Macfarlane

Illustrations in Walking on Water: Miracles Jesus Worked (2017) by Mary Hoffman

Illustrations in Lost and Found: Parables Jesus Told (2017) by Mary Hoffman

Mrs Noah's Pockets (2018) illustrated by James Mayhew

The Secret of the Tattered Shoes (2019) with Ehsan Abdollahi

The Lost Spells (2020) with Robert Macfarlane

I am also keen to read the books about Mrs Noah written by Jackie Morris and illustrated by James Mayhew.