Meet the author

Lucy Cousins.

Writer & illustrator · United Kingdom · b. 1964

Lucy Cousins: canonical British creator of Maisy — the primary-colour preschool mouse picture-book and board-book franchise (with TV adaptation) that anchors the ages 0–4 shelf.

Lucy Cousins is a British author-illustrator born in 1964, best known as the creator of Maisy, the long-running preschool picture-book and board-book franchise about a small white mouse and her animal friends (Charley the crocodile, Tallulah the chick, Cyril the squirrel). The Maisy series, launched in 1990 with Maisy Goes Swimming, has been translated into over 25 languages and adapted to an animated TV series. Cousins's style is bright, simple, primary-colour-led and intentionally drawn in a way that toddlers themselves recognise as familiar mark-making. The books anchor the ages-0–4 shelf in many UK and US homes. A canonical preschool author.