Jane McGuinness is a Scottish illustrator and author specialising in picture books. Say Hi to Hedgehogs (Prickly Hedgehogs) - her first book as author-illustrator - was an Ezra Jack Keats Honor book.

Jane McGuinness's sumptuous art for Sarah Tagholm's new picture book text We Are the Wibbly! came out with Bloomsbury in 2024. This delightful tale of a reluctant tadpole simply froths on the page in Jane's hands.

Biography

Wildlife and nature, songs and stories have always filled Jane's imagination.

After a BA Illustration at the University for the Creative Arts in Kent, Jane graduated from Cambridge School of Art's MA in Children's Book Illustration. She was subsequently awarded the Sebastian Walker Prize.

Jane's animals are always captivating, especially her wildlife. And the hoglets in her debut as author-illustrator are especially memorable. Published as Prickly Hedgehogs by Candlewick in North America, it received an Ezra Jack Keats Illustrator Honor and International Literacy Association Primary Nonfiction Honor.

She followed her hedgehogs with some beautiful work with The Woodland Trust and Kew Gardens, illustrating Into the Forest by Christiane Dorian and A Kew Children's Guide by Catherine Brereton. Both published by Bloomsbury.

Having found her happy place in woodlands, Jane also illustrated Timothy Knapman's What's Next? with Walker - about a small badger and his father.

And back to non-fiction, for four guides to wildlife by Martin Jenkins. Find Out About Animal Babies and Find Out About Animal Homes, Find Out About Animal Tools, and Find Out About Animal Camouflage with Walker. These gentle, appealing non-fiction guides genuinely delight the very young.

Jane McGuinness spent her childhood absorbing a heady mix of Scottish folk songs, books about Narnia and Farthing Wood. And now she's looking forward to tangling herself up in words and pictures for the foreseeable future.