Meet the author

Catherine Rayner.

Writer & illustrator · United Kingdom · b. 1976

Catherine Rayner: Kate Greenaway-winning British picture-book maker (Augustus and his Smile, Arlo the Lion, Molly, Olive & Dexter) — watercolour, emotionally observant, a reliable bedtime shelf staple for ages 2–6.

Catherine Rayner is a British author-illustrator born in 1976, whose painterly, watercolour-textured picture books have become a quiet staple of the gift-shelf end of UK children's publishing. She won the Kate Greenaway Medal in 2009 for Harris Finds His Feet and has been a Greenaway shortlister several times since. Best known for Augustus and his Smile, Harris Finds His Feet, The Bear Who Shared, Smelly Louie, Arlo the Lion Who Couldn't Sleep, and the Molly, Olive and Dexter early-reader series. Rayner's work is gentle, emotionally observant and visually distinctive, her animals are loose-brushed and full of feeling rather than slickly drawn. Strong read-aloud and bedtime quality for ages 2–6.