Meet the author

Eva Eland.

Writer & illustrator · Netherlands

Eva Eland: a Klaus Flugge Prize-winning author-illustrator whose gentle Big Emotions picture books give feelings like sadness a shape children can meet and sit with.

Eva Eland is a Dutch author-illustrator who grew up in Delft and now lives and works in England. Her acclaimed debut, When Sadness Comes to Call, gives a difficult feeling a gentle shape — a soft, semi-transparent visitor at the door — so young children can meet it, sit with it and discover it isn't so frightening after all. It won the Klaus Flugge Prize and has been translated around the world. Its companion, Where Happiness Begins, turns the same calm, clear-eyed attention to a slipperier emotion, and was shortlisted for the Waterstones Children's Book Prize. Together they form her Big Emotions series. With spare text and simple, beautifully designed illustrations, Eland's books are quietly wise tools of emotional literacy — perfect for bedtime, for hard days, and for opening conversations about feelings.