The SAA are very pleased to be supporting the World Illustration Awards by sponsoring The SAA Agents Award for New Talent.
children’s book 
The chickens are clucking and the cows are mooing in this fun rhyming picture book, Animal Noises, by Thomas Flintham.
Published by Scholastic Children’s Books, this is the second in the series of toddler books by Tom. His drawing style uses bold shapes, strong lines and a limited colour palette to create a joyful book with a simple, engaging story, perfect for very young readers.
Thomas Flintham is represented by Arena
Beautifully illustrated Christmas story makes the second in a series of three books commissioned by Bloomsbury Publishing - the charming story of two best friends Amelie and Pilou Nanette and the trusty dog Pilou get involved in the preparation of Christmas ! Sophie is now working on her third book for Bloomsbury, and shortly afterwards on her other books for Simon and Schuster for the successful Princess Evie series - fiction, activity books, and picture books and growing ....
Sophie Tilley not only writes and illustrates beautiful chidren's books she also makes fabulous dolls, and creates characters, which then become her children's book ideas, she likes to imagine the worlds of the characters.
Sophie Tilley is represented by Artist Partners
This amazing book of songs is illustrated by Christopher Corr for Carus in Stuttgart.
Christopher has made some vibrant paintings of the people and places from these European countries including the UK, Poland and Spain. And aided by his own global travels, he was the perfect artist to be part of this book. He says "I did lots of black and white drawings and full colour page illustrations and vignettes to beautify the book. Europe is a wonderful place. It's a joy to be European!"
Christopher Corr is represented by Illustration Ltd
Cover
France & Germany
UK & Russia
Poland
Over the city, high above the sea, into a storm, and through a sky full of airplanes, the Noon Balloon is off on a magical journey. Read along as the boy, girl, and little dog fly away for a truly magical adventure from the hidden treasures of Margaret Wise Brown, author of the children’s classics Goodnight Moon and Runaway Bunny.
Having joined Bright in 2011, Lorena Alvarez has gone from strength to strength in the publishing world – developing a bold digital style that has become incredibly sort after. Her ability to create animated and personable characters within colourfully intricate scenes never ceases to stun readers!
Published 26th December 2014 – Buy The Noon Balloon here
Lorena Alvarez is represented by Bright Group
Meet Bear. He’s exhausted. All he wants is to go to sleep.
Meet Duck, Bear’s persistent next-door neighbor. All he wants is to hang out . . . with Bear.
Jory John, author of All My Friends Are Dead, and Benji Davies join together to create this standout hilarious picture book that will make bedtime memorable.
Following his international success with The Storm Whale and highly anticipated succeeding book On Sudden Hill (both Simon & Schuster), Benji Davies illustrates this soon-to-be classic bedtime story with a charming twist on his distinguished style. A hilariously playful take on the friend who just won’t quit, sleepy Bear endures the annoying antics of his energetic neighbour Duck through beautifully designed and textured spreads.
Goodnight already! has quickly gained critical acclaim only having just been released in the US market earlier this week, and featured first on Buzzfeed’s 25 Ridiculously Wonderful Books to read with Kids in 2015.
Published 2nd December 2014 – Buy Goodnight Already! here
Benji Davies is represented by Bright Group
Simon Bartram's Bob and Barry's Lunar Adventures continue in Curse of the Werefleas, published this month by Templar.
A big, hairy asteroid clips the moon and it take Bob and his dog, Barry, ages to clear up the itchy dust. Next morning Bob finds the itching is worse, and he has a strange hunger for - meat! Under a microscope all becomes clear, the dust was actually thousands of WEREFLEAS, travelling across the galaxy, turning planets and asteroids into hairy, scary, werewolf -infested places with their cursed bite! Can Bob save the Moon from the same fate, especially if he's feeling hair-raisingly unusual himself? Fortunately, Barry is there to help him, canine-to-canine!
Simon Bartram is represented by Arena
Congratulations to Neal Layton whose book, The Story of Stars, has won the SLA Information Book Award for the under 7's category. The judges said that his book is… "a superb simple and straightforward book which informs through being totally entertaining: with working pop-ups, humour and an imaginative progression - it is a totally engaging delight."
Neal's interest in life, the universe and everything has led to an amazing amount of research and his collaboration with paper engineer, Richard Ferguson has created a unique, child friendly view of the stars, solar systems and galaxies. Neal poses and answers the big questions that you might ask when you look up at the night sky full of stars and wonder: "what are they and where are they?". This book is the third in the series, published by Hodder Children's Books.
Neal Layton is represented by Arena
Duncan Beedie designs a poster for Scholastic in the US.
One of Duncan's most recent commissions is now hanging on the walls of classrooms and conveys an inspirational message; 'The expert in anything was once a beginner'. The campaign is to encourage children to dream and achieve in their choice of career, Duncan's child friendly illustrations do the job perfectly.
Duncan Beedie is represented by Illustration
It's been several years in the making, but we're very proud to announce that Tado's first picture book 'Monster Trucks: The Big Race' was published on July 3rd and is now available in all good bookshops.
Written by Jon Hinton and published by Scholastic Children's Books, The Big Race is the first in a new series of fast-paced, big-wheeled racing romps that follow Bolt, Chunk, Roxy, Fizz, Newton and Masher as they rev off on exciting adventures in a crazy world full of fun, laughter and a few spills along the way.
Tado is represented by Debut Art
‘As soon as I saw this book I fell in love with the cover and hoped that the rest of it would live up to my expectations. It far exceeded them. The sort of book I would be proud and excited to buy as a present for every young child I know.’ Viveka Alvestrand, Oscar’s Mother.
Bright Author-Illustrator Benji Davies recently won Oscar’s First Book Prize 2014 for his hauntingly moving ‘The Storm Whale’. The £5000 award is held by The Evening Standard in memory of Oscar Ashton, a lover of stories who sadly passed away unexpectedly aged 3 1/2 years. The Bright Agency were ecstatic and overwhelmed to represent 3 of the 5 Illustrators who made it to the final five and secured the book deal for a 4th:
Benji Davies - ‘The Storm Whale’ (Simon & Schuster)
Nicola O’Byrne - ‘Open very carefully’ (Nosy Crow)
Lee Wildish (& Charlotte & Adam Guillain) - ‘Spaghetti with the Yeti’ (Egmont)
Philippa Leathers – ‘The Black Rabbit’ was also a Bright publishing deal with Walker.
As a business celebrating it’s 10th year in the publishing world, Bright are incredibly proud to represent over half the nominees on this list. Nurturing new found talent as well as supporting established names is a key factor in the company’s working ethos. The Bright nominees have grown with the agency and are just small examples of what can happen when agent and creative really collaborate to achieve amazing artwork and stories that then turn into industry-shaping book deals.
The final 5 were narrowed down from an original 57 entries by a panel of esteemed judges and some very critical young readers. All involved were searching for books that could easily be read by children under 5 as well as being appreciated by their adult counterparts. Judge Charlotte Ross said that the books on the shortlist were “both timeless and original, and we picked tales with images and words that fired the imagination”.
But overall, the winning book was picked because the judges believed Oscar and his vivid imagination would have loved it to – because of this, Benji and Bright are honored and truly humbled to be a part of such an amazing award.
