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  • Illustrator Nominee:Belgium

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Kitty Crowther
Belgium, Illustrator

What moves me in people is that they carry in them their past, their present and their future. I love to speak about moments of their lives.

- Kitty Crowther

Born in 1970 in Brussels, Kitty Crowther spent much of her childhood reading and looking at pictures. This encouraged her to adjust to the hearing impairment which she has had since birth, and helped her to feel less alone in a world where she often found it difficult to adjust to the mixed messages that adults seemed to convey. She did not begin to speak until she was four, and drawing was an essential means of communication for her.

Her family encouraged her to draw and write in the notebooks which she still uses to record whatever interests her. When she works, the visual narrative comes first, and later she adds words. With an English father and a Swedish mother and growing up in Belgium, she lived in a multi-lingual society; her parents and grandparents spoke to her in English, and initially, she wrote in English and her books were translated into French; subsequently, she switched to writing first in French. The English nonsense stories and verses related to her by her father influenced her work as well as providing her with a great deal of enjoyment. This can be seen in the black humour of picturebooks like La visite de Petite Mort, a work in pastel which depicts Death as a benign being, anxious to make the dying happy. In Crowther's hands, the unmentionable suddenly becomes endearing in this quirky tale for young children. This unexpectedness typifies much of her work, bringing in a humorous way an honesty not always found in books for younger readers.

Crowther considers herself as an illustrator, not a painter, and is intensely interested in the design and layout of her books as well as the content. Her chosen media vary, often she uses whatever is to hand: watercolours, crayons, felt pens, inks, pastels, acrylics and more feature in her artwork. The use of light in illustration fascinates her, and with it she illuminates her characters emotionally as well as physically.

Crowther was 24 when her first book was published, and since then she has written about 40 books. She has received many awards, including a number recognising the manner in which her books promote understanding and tolerance.


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Selected bibliography

Mon ami Jim [My friend Jim] 1996 Paris: L'école des loisirs
Scritch, Scratch, Dip, Clapote Scrape, Scratch, Peep, Swish 2002
La visite de Petite Mort [Little Death comes calling] 2004 Paris: L'école des loisirs
Poka et Mine au cinema [Poka and Mine at the movies] 2005
Moi et Rien [Me and nothing] [End Page 14]

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