Meet the author

Mariajo Ilustrajo.

Writer & illustrator · Spain

Mariajo Ilustrajo: Klaus Flugge Prize-winning author-illustrator whose droll, near-wordless picture books wrap warmth and wit around a serious heart.

Mariajo Ilustrajo is a Spanish author-illustrator based in the UK, who trained in Madrid and Bath before an MA in children's book illustration at Anglia Ruskin. Her droll, near-wordless picture books pair striking, atmospheric artwork with a serious heart. Her debut, Flooded, in which a city of animals carries on regardless as the water keeps rising, won the Klaus Flugge Prize for Illustration and has been translated into some twenty languages; a sly, funny allegory about ignoring a problem until it is almost too late. Lost follows a very lost polar bear and the small girl who is the only one to notice him, and I Love Books celebrates the moment a reluctant reader falls headlong into a story. Warm, witty and quietly pointed, her books are lovely to share aloud with three-to-eight-year-olds.