Chris Riddell
AUTHOR & ILLUSTRATOR
SOUTH Africanborn Chris Riddell is an accomplished illustrator, children’s author and renowned political cartoonist for The Observer in the UK. He is known especially for his distinctive line drawings of fantastic creatures and monsters. Riddell has enjoyed great acclaim for his books for children and many have won a number of major prizes. He has won the prestigious Kate Greenaway Medal three times, in 2002 for Pirate Diary, in 2004 for Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver, and for The Sleeper and the Spindle in 2016. His solo work includes the Goth Girl series, the Ottoline series and the picture books The Emperor of Absurdia and Alienography. The first Goth Girl novel won the prestigious Costa Children’s Book Award in 2013.
Riddell has just completed two years as the UK Children’s Laureate, where he passionately conveyed how much fun young people could have by drawing.
During his term as Children’s Laureate, he was a huge advocate for visual literacy, encouraging children to draw every day. On the importance of libraries, Riddell said “There’s a danger we can become complacent and we don’t need to worry about them. School librarians play such an enormous role in bringing children to books they are going to enjoy. It’s a magic alchemy when that works.”
Riddell has worked widely with a variety of collaborators: Paul Stewart on the Muddle Earth, Edge Chronicles and Wyrmeweald Series; Neil Gaiman on The Graveyard Book, The Sleeper and the Spindle, and Fortunately, the Milk, and Russell Brand on Trickster Tales: The Pied Piper of Hamelin. He has also illustrated A Great Big Cuddle: Poems for the Very Young by former Children’s Laureate Michael Rosen. He has recently been chosen to create the artwork for J.K. Rowling’s The Tales of Beedle the Bard (Bloomsbury) in a new edition to be sold next year in aid of Lumos, Rowling’s international children’s charity, which works to improve the lives of disadvantaged children around the world. Riddell’s latest book is the beautifully illustrated mystery adventure and ghost story Goth Girl and the Sinister Symphony, sequel to Goth Girl and the Ghost of a Mouse, Goth Girl and the Fete Worse Than Death and Goth Girl and the Wuthering Fright. It includes an additional delight of a minibook, Fable of a Faun, tucked into the back cover. LEARN MORE: www.chrisriddell.co.uk www.panmacmillan.com/authors/ chris-riddell Teachers can produce explainer videos easily for flipped learning. Students can produce videos to demonstrate their understanding of concepts being taught Groups can collaborate on MySimpleShow projects Students can develop their digital media and creative skills by creating personal videos in different projects. Classroom discussions can be led by students using MySimpleShow creations geared toward specific areas of learning. Students can export and share videos online.