I love 'Little Owl and the Christmas Star' in the lovely new colours. There's a softer, warmer feel to the cover, with rounded corners and a more golden star. There's a very happy baby in the book - and a very happy Little Owl. 
Welcome back, Little Owl, for Christmas 2020!
The leaves are changing colour, and falling to the ground. I hear this is going to be an especially beautiful Autumn in Ireland - Hurray! (This image is from 'Only a Tree Knows How to be a Tree', Otter Barry Books, 2020.)
It's April 2020. When you grow up, you might remember this as 'The Time We All Had To Stay Home'. Maybe it will be 'The Time We All Had to Stay Home, and I Did Amazing Things.' Are you trying new things? To be honest, I'm not doing as many new things as I thought I might. But I have been rewriting some nursery rhymes and fairy tales that fit our stay-at-home times. I enjoy making rhymes that are different than the original nursery rhymes. Here's Bo Peep. .jpg)
I like trying to figure out how to change the familiar story to make it into an up-to-the-minute tale. I draw it really quickly because it is for fun, and I don't want to be serious. Here's my version of Cinderella.
The first one I did was Red Riding Hood. It was only one drawing, and it didn't rhyme. Red Riding Hood has to stay home, like all of us, and the wolf is so disappointed. In Red Riding Hood's day, I don't think they had telephones. But nowadays she would have, so she could talk to her Gran. 
You could easily do a new story or nursery rhyme too. You could even sing it or dance it or act it, and make it into a show for the grown-ups. Poor things, they're probably bored!
In December 2019, six children's books illustrators each made a picture, and each picture was made into a huge mural. It was for a gallery in Cork, called the Glucksman. I was one of the illustrators. My theme was 'family and identity'. I found out that we all have the right to our identity, and that the government and our families have the job of making sure that our right to our own identity is met. In my image, there is a big bear family, and the little ones are making pawprints. .jpg)
The pawprint symbolises the bear's identity. It's like our fingerprints - everybody has unique fingerprints. And making pawprints is also like writing your name, and your name is part of your identity. See the baby bear, in the arms of a big bear? The baby is making a print right on the big bear's face. A toddler bear is printing on the big bear's arm. The big brown bear behind is lifting another young bear, who is now old enough to print on the wall. Do you think that's a teenage bear in front, helping the running baby who is printing green footprints all over the floor? 
Another child bear is big enough to print on their own. See that one, making pink pawprints on the right? They know their own identity and they are making their mark wherever they like! (In fact, on the mural, he printed outside the mural area - very cheeky!)
HAPPY! is published on 7th March 2019, World Book Day. It's a companion book to 'Are You My Mummy?' and guest stars the wonderful Ellie and sweet little Dinah, who were my Galway companions for years.
Every April in Bologna, Italy, book lovers from all over the world gather to look at books, talk about books, read books and meet other book lovers. Here we are, some of the Irish writers and illustrators, at the Childrens Books Ireland stand at the Bologna Book Fair 2019. 
Because most writers work alone for hours on end, it is very different and exciting to meet other book makers and talk about books, books, books. Bologna has the oldest university in the world, wonderful food, and its very own leaning tower! We'll all go back soon.
After 17 great years in the west of Ireland, I've moved back to my home town of Dublin..jpg)
I now live on the banks of the Liffey, a stone's throw from the Phoenix Park. Moving house takes up a lot of time, so I haven't had a new book out for a while - but watch this space!
'Mouse is Small' has just been published in USA by Candlwick Press. And just selected by Amazon as an Editor's pick of the month, August 2017. Keep going, Small Mouse!
'Mouse is Small' Amazon editor's choice
This Small Mouse and her bigger friends are honoured to be selected by the Welsh Book Trust for a special 2017 bilingual edition.
Just as silly as Crocopotamus, with mixed-up farm animals and spring-sprong colours, Picken is published in January 2017, in plenty of time for Spring.
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'I Like it When...' was my first ever book, and this year it also became my first ever trilingual book! Yes, the publisher put the story into THREE languages (Korean, Chinese and English) in ONE book. It was a young Korean publisher called Raspberry who had the idea.
The Scottish Book Trust have been great supporters of my work.
'Mouse is Small' is a book for very small children, and here is a Scottish mum reading it to her lovely children.