Playfulness in Lauren Child’s Picture Books

Abstract

Lauren Child is the author/illustrator of thirteen picture books, four board books and three novels, most prominently the Clarice Bean series and the Charlie and Lola series.1 She has been feted as ‘one of Britain’s foremost children’s writers and illustrators’ (Booth 2005, p.13). As Rose notes, ‘people rave about how clever the stories are, how the drawings and design are quirky and refreshingly different’ (2006). Child has won numerous awards, including the Kate Greenaway Medal (for I Will Not Ever Never Eat a Tomato) and the Smarties Prize (for Clarice Bean, That’s Me; What Planet Are You From, Clarice Bean? and That Pesky Rat).