Joel Stewart

Joel Stewart is a writer and illustrator of children's books and has published over 20 books since graduating from Falmouth College of Arts in 2000. He is known internationally for his Dexter Bexley picture books, and for illustrations for contemporary authors such as Julia Donaldson, Carol Ann Duffy, and Michael Rosen, and classics by authors such as Hans Christian Andersen and Lewis Carroll. Joel is also known as the creator/director of the hit children's animation series The Adventures of Abney & Teal, which he created, designed, co-wrote, and directed under the guidance of Anne Wood and Ragdoll Productions LTD (creators of Tellytubbies and In the Night Garden). Since completing 52 episodes of Abney & Teal Joel has returned to illustrating and writing for children's books with a renewed passion for lively drawing and for colour. He is also once again working on his own texts for picture books and longer stories.

Awards won:

Macmillan prize for children's book illustration 2000.

Silver medal, Parents Choice, 2002, for The Adventures of a Nose.

Selected for the IBBY Honour List for outstanding book illustration work in 2006 for Tales of Hans Christian Andersen.

Winner of 0-5 Nestle Bronze award 2007 for Dexter Bexley & the Big Blue Beastie.

Chosen by Booktrust in 2008 as one of the ten best new illustrators of the last decade.

Praise:

"Evocative, magnificent. Stewart's drawings have a touching, down-to-earth gravity and every gesture is eloquent." The Guardian

"His talent for telling is every bit as insightful as his line and ink drawings" The Guardian

"Stewart's style is vigorous, unsentimental and humorous, yet capable of expressing the dark side of the tales. His pictures look as fresh as Andersen's tales must have been to their first listeners." The Times Educational Supplement

"This tale of a lost bear in wintry city does what the best picturebooks do: it tells the story through the pictures as much as the words" Nicolette Jones, Sunday Times

Latest Publications:

Peggy and Stu Investigate: Book 1 (Tangletree Mysteries)

A comic/graphic novel series for 5+ following the adventures of Peggy the dog, who – when she enters Tangletree Woods on her walk every day – takes up her position as investigator of mysteries.

Beyond the park and deep in the woods is a world of surprises. Here Peggy the dog has a secret life of mystery and investigation amongst the twisty trees and strange townsfolk of Tangletree.

No problem is too perplexing, no puzzle too small. Along with her faithful sidekick, Stu the shrew, Peggy finds all sorts of ways to help her friends.