Babette Cole

Babette Cole (born 10 September 1949) is an English children's writer and illustrator. She has created more than 70 picture books and her best-seller Doctor Dog has been adapted as a successful children's cartoon series. Most of her work is rude comedy like The Smelly Book, The Hairy Book, The Slimy Book and The Silly Book.

Cole was born on Jersey in the British Channel Islands. She attended the Canterbury College of Art (now the University for the Creative Arts) and received a BA Honours. She worked at the BBC creating children's programs such as Bagpuss and Watch With Mother.

She currently spends her time writing, visiting schools and travelling.

Awards

Cole won the Kurt Maschler Award, or the Emil, for Drop Dead (Jonathan Cape, 1996), which she wrote and illustrated. The award from Maschler Publications and Booktrust annually recognised one British "work of imagination for children, in which text and illustration are integrated so that each enhances and balances the other."^[1]

She was one of several commended runners-up for the Kate Greenaway Medal, the annual Library Association award for illustration in British children's books, for both Princess Smartypants (1986) and Prince Cinders (1987).^{[2][lower-alpha 1]}

Cole has won many other awards for her books:

• Nungu and the Hippopotamus (1980) — Children's Picture Book of The Year; Children's Books of the Year; Child Study Association of America
• The Wind in the Willows Pop-Up Book (1983) — New York Public Library Children's Books
• Princess Smartypants (1986) — British Library Association (BLA)
• Prince Cinders (1987) — BLA Annabell Fargeon Award
• Drop Dead (1996) — The British Book Trust

Notes

1. Today there are usually eight books on the Greenaway shortlist. According to CCSU, some runners-up were Commended (from 1959) or Highly Commended (from 1974). There were 99 distinctions of both kinds in 44 years including six for 1986, three 1987.

References

1. "Kurt Maschler Awards". Book Awards. bizland.com. Retrieved 2012-06-26.
2. "Kate Greenaway Medal" Archived 16 September 2014 at the Wayback Machine.. 2005(?). Curriculum Lab. Elihu Burritt Library. Central Connecticut State University (CCSU). Retrieved 2012-06-26.

Other sources

• Babette Cole at jrank.org
• Children's Library – Babette Cole at the Wayback Machine (archived 21 February 2006) at Tameside Library
• Babette Cole at Puffin Books (inconsistent service)

External links

• Official website
• Babette Cole at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• Babette Cole at Library of Congress Authorities, with 50 catalogue records