Lara Kate Jones (1975 – 26 March 2010) was a British artist,
children's author
Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. Modern children's literature is classified in two different ways: genre or the intended age of the reader.
Children's ...
and
illustrator
An illustrator is an artist who specializes in enhancing writing or elucidating concepts by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text or idea. The illustration may be intended to clarify complicat ...
. She is best remembered for her ''
Poppy Cat
Poppy Cat is a series of books created by British illustrator and writer Lara Jones. The books are published by Campbell Books (a division of Macmillan Publishers), and include ''Poppy Cat's Play House'', ''Poppy Cat's Christmas'', ''Poppy Cat Lo ...
'' series of children's books, which have been published in 20 languages and sold over two and a half million copies.
In 2012 a major award was set up in her name by Macmillan Children's books, called The Lara Jones Illustration Award, with a prize of £500 for the best illustration for a children's book by a new illustrator. So far there have been four winners.
Early life
Lara Kate Jones, was born in
Ashby-de-la-Zouch
Ashby-de-la-Zouch, sometimes spelt Ashby de la Zouch () and shortened locally to Ashby, is a market town and civil parish in the North West Leicestershire district of Leicestershire, England. The town is near to the Derbyshire and Staffordshire ...
, Leicestershire and spent her childhood in
Shropshire
Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to th ...
.
Both of her parents were writers. Her father was
Ivan Jones the best selling fiction writer and poet, and her mother
Mal Lewis Jones
Mal Lewis Jones is a British children's author.
Background
She was born in Kidderminster, England and attended a private school before moving to Kidderminster High School for Girls at eleven. She continued her education at Warwick Universit ...
was also a children's writer. Lara was the first born of their three children, her siblings being Levin, a professional violinist and Jessica an artist, poet and singer songwriter.
Lara studied art at
Canterbury College of Art
The Kent Institute of Art & Design (KIAD, often ) was an art school based across three campuses in the county of Kent, in the United Kingdom. It was formed by the amalgamation of three independent colleges: Canterbury College of Art, Maidstone Col ...
and then at
Cheltenham College
("Work Conquers All")
, established =
, closed =
, type = Public schoolIndependent School Day and Boarding School
, religion = Church of England
, president =
, head_label = Head
, head = Nicola Huggett
...
and went on to work at the
Royal Academy
The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its pur ...
and the
Inkshed artists' agency before becoming a full-time writer and illustrator.
As a writer
She published many books, but is best remembered for her ''
Poppy Cat
Poppy Cat is a series of books created by British illustrator and writer Lara Jones. The books are published by Campbell Books (a division of Macmillan Publishers), and include ''Poppy Cat's Play House'', ''Poppy Cat's Christmas'', ''Poppy Cat Lo ...
'' series which are published by
Macmillan/Campbell Books. These books, for the very young, have sold in 20 languages and nearly two million copies. They are published in Brazil, Spain, France, Italy, Mexico, Finland, Denmark, Ireland, the Netherlands and Japan as well as other countries. To date there have been two major television animated series of 52 episodes each and were produced by
Nick Jr.
Nick Jr. (known on-air as the Nick Jr. Channel) is an American pay television channel spun off from Nickelodeon's long-running programming block of the same name. It is run by Paramount Global through its networks division's Kids and Family Gr ...
and BAFTA award-winning King Rollo Films. The 104 episodes are shown all over the world including America and Great Britain.
Jones was awarded the 2004 Sheffield Baby Book prize (bronze) and then a
Booktrust Early Years Award
The Booktrust Early Years Awards, originally the Sainsbury’s Baby Book Award(s), was a set of annual literary prizes for children's picture books. It was administered by Booktrust, an independent charity that promotes books and reading; from ...
for ''"Poppy Cat's Farm"'' in 2005.
''"Poppy Cat Hug"'' won the Bronze Award at the Right Start Best Toy Award 2006 and
''"Swap the Scene Poppy Cat"'' is a recent Bronze Award winner of the Practical Parenting Award 2006.
''Good Night, Poppy Cat'' was acclaimed as one of the best ten books for the under fives in the Independent, by Boyd Tonkin.
The recently published, ''"Poppy Cat's First Word Book"'' has been highly praised by pre-school magazine containing over 50 words which toddlers can learn.
She illustrated numerous other books, including her own picture books, ''"I Love Hugs"'' and ''"I Love My Potty"''. Other books illustrated by Jones include ''"Mermaid Poems"'' (Clare Bevan), Mermaid Stories, ''"Fairy Poems"'' and ''"Fairy Stories"'' (all published by MacMillan) as well as ''"Babies Can"'' by
Ian Whybrow
Ian Whybrow (born 3 May 1941) is a British writer of children's books, first published in 1989. He has written over 100 books for children, has been translated into 27 languages and is published in 28 countries. His books are humorous and range ...
and ''"Pip and the Edge of Heaven"'' by Elizabeth Liddle (Lion, 2002). Her final book was ''I Want a Mini Tiger'' written by Joyce Dunbar and published by Macmillan Books. She also had other projects in the pipeline, notably a book with Orchard Books, for which she had done initial drawings.
Personal life
While at college Jones met fellow artist Shaun Clarke whom she married in 2003; they had two children.
On 26 March 2010, she died at the age of 34 from
malignant melanoma
Melanoma, also redundantly known as malignant melanoma, is a type of skin cancer that develops from the Biological pigment, pigment-producing cells known as melanocytes. Melanomas typically occur in the skin, but may rarely occur in the mouth, i ...
.
References
External links
Poppy Cat Official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jones, Lara
2010 deaths
British artists
British children's writers
People from Ashby-de-la-Zouch
Deaths from cancer in the United Kingdom
Deaths from melanoma
1975 births