The people behind the itchiwoos
- Meet the author -
Aparna Coutinho spent her childhood nose-deep in books of all shapes and sizes and used to put herself to sleep by imagining she was the hero in the latest story she was reading. Her favourites were and still are stories that weave elements of the fantastic, magic, adventure, triumph and humour but with an edge of silliness and a touch of reality that make you think that marvellous things " can happen" if you believe in them enough. At present, despite having to do lots of serious grown-up things like working and being a wife and mummy to two boisterous boys, she’s never stopped dreaming up new adventures. Now, she's sharing those whimsical tales with the world, inviting readers of all ages to believe in the impossible, laugh at the silly, and find a bit of magic in the everyday.​​
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- Meet the illustrator and editor -
John Kelly has been working in children's publishing since 1990. An ability to draw combined with a passion for explaining weird stuff, helped him design hundreds of history, science and engineering titles for various children’s reference book publishers, and licensing clients, inc Dorling Kindersley, Lucasfilm and Disney.
Experience writing educational graphic novels led to his first successful children's picture book, ‘Guess Who’s Coming For Dinner?’ (‘The Mystery of Eatum Hall’ in US). Since which he has written and/or illustrated many picture books that have been translated into over 20 languages. He has also illustrated countless 5+ chapter fiction titles, written screenplays for two award-winning CGI short films, worked in storyboarding, story development and the creation of concept art for animation projects.
John has won several publishing awards and been shortlisted twice for both the Kate Greenaway and Royal Society Junior Science book prizes.
His most recent 6+ fiction project is, 'The Monster Doctor'. A four book series for Macmillan Publishing in the UK.