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Michelle Robinson grew up in Gloucestershire and loved making up stories and being silly. She put that to good use by getting a job as a copywriter. She wrote over 6000 radio adverts before moving on to television and the web and devised websites for big brands like Coca-Cola, Guinness and Cadburys. She soon got bored though, which is when she started writing funny stories for children and their parents to enjoy reading umpteen times. Her picture book There's a Lion in My Cornflakes won the Sainsbury's Children's Book Awards. Michelle lives in Frome with her husband, young son and daughter and a tragically empty tin of Quality Street.
September 2021 Book of the Month | Two lorries, two cheerful crews, set out from the depot in the morning for a busy day, ‘Empty lorry, load lorry, straight back on the road, lorry’. There’s so much to do and so many other vehicles and drivers they encounter. With its irresistible tongue-exercising rhyming text, most lines only two words long, and bright, busy illustrations, this is a celebration of traffic jam-packed with fun. It will be essential reading for any young transportophile, but just as entertaining for the rest of the family too.
‘How much damage can one tiny dragon do?’ asks Princess Grace near the beginning of this very funny and enjoyable adventure. The answer is quite a lot it turns out. The arrival of Dennis the cheeky little dragon coincides with a visit from snooty mermaid Queen Jeen and her court, so the fact that Dennis loves water, and has a tendency to turn it purple, is an added challenge for Grace and her sister Portia as they struggle to keep him hidden from the king. At least they have friends to help, including imp Bramwell and apprentice witch Verity. Scenes of delicious just-contained chaos, including one in which Grace’s badly-behaved unicorn Poop starts to fly, plus a lovely sense of the castle’s idiosyncratic community make this very appealing and Grace, by no means the average princess, is a great central character. Illustrations by Sharon Davey catch the atmosphere and the characters perfectly too.
Children have been through a lot this year and this lovely book, bursting with hope and reasons to look forward, provides the comfort and reassurance they’ve been needing, plus a sense of the joy that’s been missing for too long. It stars a young sister and brother, plus their sometimes frazzled parents, and describes the creation of a rainbow image for their window. Painting the rainbow brings back good memories as well as some sad ones, but ultimately reminds them of the really important things in life – family and friends – and that “we’ll still have each other/when this rainstorm ends!” Michelle Robinson’s rhyme is on the beat throughout, seamlessly mixing realism, understanding and optimism, while Emily Hamilton’s illustrations have a sense of companionship and energy that makes everything feel better. A great book to read and to look at, and a really useful and important one to share with children.
This awesome, rawsome, rhyming picture book chomps through gender stereotypes with wit, vitality and a whole lot of dinosaur dynamism – it’s a cautionary tale with swashbuckling twists in its T. Rex tail. And the message? Boys – beware of mansplaining dinosaurs to girls. “Dinos are for boys,” claims Ed, Maisy’s less than enlightened brother as he refuses to share his toys with her. But Maisy knows that’s simply not true. And besides, she doesn’t even need Ed’s toys because she knows T. Rex’s sister, who’s big, bright and every bit as fierce as boy dinosaurs. “My dinosaurs are mean, for sure/And boy, oh boy, can these girls ROAR!” she asserts with convincing glee as Deborah Allwright’s pounce-off-the-page illustrations depict a range of rollicking, roaring, rock ‘n’ rolling dinosaurs in gargantuan glory. As Maisy’s passion gathers apace, so Ed asserts his expertise on the matter, resulting in an uproarious down-to-earth-with-a-bump ending, and an excellent final twist. For more books with girl-power take a look at Work It Girl - Inspiring and Informative Books on Feminism for All Ages
A tale of sausages and their fight for freedom, this rollicking picture book will have everyone laughing. We begin with ten sausages, of course, but as their friends go pop and bang, some of them decide to hop out of the pan, with varying degrees of success. Poor sausage number two ends up down the drain, while there’s an even worse fate for sausage number four – the liquidizer. Sausage number eight is eaten by the cat but the silliest sausages of all are numbers nine and ten, who hide themselves in the hot dog roll! Michelle Robinson’s energetic storytelling creates something funny or surprising on every page, and it’s great fun to read aloud. Tor Freeman gives each sausage its own personality, no mean feat, and makes us sympathise with them even while we’re laughing.
July 2017 Book of the Month This picture book puts a quirky spin on the ‘I want a pet’ theme. Imagine if, instead of goldfish, the fair was giving away giraffes as prizes. Of course you’d want to keep it, but how would you persuade your parents to let you, and if they said no, how would you hide your new pet? The little girl’s plans get increasingly wild – I particularly liked the suggestion that you paint your whole house like a giraffe, or your whole giraffe like a house for camouflage purposes – but in the end she agrees they’ll just have to take her new pet home to the jungle, which allows for a lovely twist. Imaginative, silly and heartwarming, this is also a wonderful celebration of family love. ~ Andrea Reece
Longlisted for the UKLA 2017 Book Award and Julia Eccleshare's Pick of the Month, February 2016 Feel brave enough to go on a huge adventure? If so, this is the book to guide you! Bearspotting can be a scary business and it is best to know as much as possible about the different bears you might see. In particular, there are brown bears and black bears. And both can be very, very dangerous. Each needs to be handled in a different way: with a black bear you must walk away backwards and very slowly; with a brown bear, you must just play dead! But what if you meet both at the same time? Wittily illustrated by David Roberts, this is a playful and engaging picture book. ~ Julia Eccleshare
Everyone will enjoy this epic tale of true love and steadfastness, no less heroic or inspiring for starring a pair of woolly socks! Sosh and Suki are made for one another and their life on a fresh pair of feet is idyllic, until Sosh spots something that fills him with dread – a little hole in Suki’s big toe. The dire warnings from old sock Big Bob seem to come true when Sosh wakes up alone, but he’s determined to find his other half. Author and illustrator both go to town, creating a fabulously funny and inventive story of true sock love, with a surprise ending that will leave everyone smiling. Great fun, and the sock drawer will never be the same again! ~ Andrea Reece
Tim Peake’s voyage to the International Space Station has caught the imagination of children everywhere and this picture book is perfect for the very young. Two space mad little boys getting ready for bed are careful to say goodnight to their daddy, ‘a spaceman far away’. In their dreams they climb aboard a rocket and fly up to the ESA to join their daddy and the crew. Floating in the starry sky they can say goodnight to the planets and the shooting stars before a final orbit past the moon and home time. As ever in this deservedly popular series the rhyming text is perfect for bedtime reading while the pictures are particularly appealing. It also contains a letter to readers from Tim Peake, himself the father of two little boys, making it even more special. ~ Andrea Reece See below for a letter from astronaut Tim Peake.
Longlisted for the UKLA 2017 Book Award and Julia Eccleshare's Pick of the Month, February 2016 Feel brave enough to go on a huge adventure? If so, this is the book to guide you! Bearspotting can be a scary business and it is best to know as much as possible about the different bears you might see. In particular, there are brown bears and black bears. And both can be very, very dangerous. Each needs to be handled in a different way: with a black bear you must walk away backwards and very slowly; with a brown bear, you must just play dead! But what if you meet both at the same time? Wittily illustrated by David Roberts, this is a playful and engaging picture book. ~ Julia Eccleshare
Chicken Nugget is a hilarious new picture book by Michelle Robinson and Tom McLaughlin. My name is Nugget. Chicken Nugget. This is my family. I'm the smallest. And when you're the smallest, nobody ever listens.
Everyone will enjoy this epic tale of true love and steadfastness, no less heroic or inspiring for starring a pair of woolly socks! Sosh and Suki are made for one another and their life on a fresh pair of feet is idyllic, until Sosh spots something that fills him with dread – a little hole in Suki’s big toe. The dire warnings from old sock Big Bob seem to come true when Sosh wakes up alone, but he’s determined to find his other half. Author and illustrator both go to town, creating a fabulously funny and inventive story of true sock love, with a surprise ending that will leave everyone smiling. Great fun, and the sock drawer will never be the same again! ~ Andrea Reece
