Ordinary, Extraordinary Jane Austen by Deborah Hopkinson illustrated by Qin Leng

"It is a truth universally acknowledged that Jane Austen is one of our greatest writers."

So begins Deborah Hopkinson's picture book biography about Jane Austen. 

The blurb continues:

"... before that she was just an ordinary girl. In fact, young Jane was a bit quiet and shy, if you had met her back then you might not have noticed her at all. But she would have noticed you. Jane watched and listened to all the things people around her did and said and locked those observations away for safekeeping. Jane also loved to read. She devoured everything in her father's massive library, and before long she began creating her own stories. In her time, the most popular books were grand adventures and romances, but Jane wanted to go her own way ... and went on to invent an entirely new kind of novel."

There are so many amazing biographies published for young children. Take a look at this Pinterest collection from my friend at Kinderbookswitheverything. She has a list of over 450 Picture book biographies on a wide range of people from around the world.

You may already know that Qin Leng is one of my favourite illustrators. The book Shelter is one of my top ten all time most precious picture books so I went hunting for more of Qin's work and I found this biography picture book of Jane Austen.

The story is beautifully complimented by Qin Leng’s evocative illustrations: the soft pen and watercolor spreads are reminiscent of Quentin Blake, and bring life and depth to the story.  This is a well-composed volume which is sure to bring pleasure to readers both young and old. Children’s Book Review

Leng beautifully captures the Georgian era and Jane’s multifaceted personality. Quill and Quire

Realistic vignettes, single-page illustrations, and double-page spreads of Jane and her family accompany and expand the text;generous use of white space and delicate line work give the pictures an airyfeel. Kirkus

Here are a set of teachers notes from the publisher useful for a number of picture book biographies featuring talented women. This is the perfect book to introduce young readers to Jane Austen. The subtitle reads: The story of Six Novels, Three Notebooks, a Writing Box, and One Clever Girl.

Here is an interview with Deborah Hopkinson and more art from the book on Qin Leng's web page.