Meet the author

Allison Colpoys.

Illustrator · Australia

Allison Colpoys: award-winning Australian illustrator whose bold, retro-bright artwork gives Davina Bell's All the Ways to be Smart its joyful, giftable warmth.

Allison Colpoys is an award-winning Australian illustrator and designer based in Melbourne, who previously worked as an art director and senior designer in publishing before turning to picture books. She is best known for her collaborations with author Davina Bell, including All the Ways to be Smart, a joyful rhyming celebration of every kind of clever, from building boats out of boxes to simply being kind. Colpoys's striking, retro-bright artwork, built from bold colour and expressive pattern, gives the book its warm, giftable feel, and helped make it an international bestseller and winner of the ABIA Children's Picture Book of the Year. Her illustration has also been longlisted for the CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal. A distinctive, design-led voice whose books work beautifully as read-alouds and reassuring self-esteem boosts for three-to-seven-year-olds.