Nicolette Jones

#NewIllustrationOfTheDay. Spread by Ruth Brown from her gorgeous new picturebook Tick-Tock Around the Clock: A day in the life of a cat. Stunning draughtsmanship in a wonderfully detailed handmade scene of the cat going out into the garden, with squirrels, birds, mouse, dog. Scallywag Press 3 March.

#NewIllustrationOfTheDay by Alexander Mostov, from his Igor and the Mending Mice, about mice who teach a town to repair their clothes instead of buying new. Flat colour & defined shapes in a scene full of interest. Printed in the UK on recycled paper by Ivy Kids Eco 3 March. @quartokids.bsky.social

#NewIllustrationOfTheDay by Tom Schamp, a page from Beauty of Letters: The Most Awesome, Brilliant and Comprehensive Alphabet Book. With a spread per letter, this makes objects and ideas out of the shape they begin with. Lots of detail to look at and discuss. Prestel 3 March. @tomschamp.bsky.social

#NewIllustrationOfTheDay by David Barrow from My Tiger (Gecko Press 3 March). Painterly, characterful & comic, with impact not least in the use of scale. Text by Joy Cowley: things don’t go well when the tiger is taken to the dentist & told not to eat cake any more. Unwise. @geckopress.bsky.social

#NewIllustrationoftheDay by Daniel Egneus from The Big Journey, with text by Michael Rosen about two bears on their way to a new home. Snowy landscape, mist and natural forms conjured in almost abstract sweeps of colour. Bloomsbury 26 Feb. @bloomsburybooksuk.bsky.social @michaelrosenyes.bsky.social

Oops, wrong publisher. Otter-Barry Books. @otterbarrybooks.bsky.social

#NewIllustrationoftheDay by Jessica Love from Little Passenger with text by Deirdre Sullivan. A peaceful and cosy chronicle of pregnancy and the arrival of a baby. Lovely watercolour portraits and decorative borders with fruit, vegetables and flowers. Walker Books 26 Feb. @walkerbooksuk.bsky.social

And Shakespeare became a big part of your life.

Should we ‘dumb down’ the classics for our children? Modern retellings of complicated classics can make great stories accessible for a new generation, argues Nicolette Jones

My Sunday Times piece mostly in favour of simplified classics for young people. @farshorebooks.bsky.social @sweetcherrypub.bsky.social @harpercollins.bsky.social
www.thetimes.com/culture/book...

#NewIllustrationoftheDay by Stefania Aldana Trujillo from The Hunt for the Fog Town Moose (Kumasha Books 2025), one more debut I'm sorry to have missed, from the Klaus Flugge Prize longlist. (Also longlisted for the Inclusive Books for Children Award 2026.) Colourful, ink-&-watercolour winter crowd.

#NewIllustrationoftheDay by Sheena Davies, from Unity Street School Saves the Planet (Scallywag Press 2025), another book longlisted for the Klaus Flugge Prize for new illustrators announced this week. Glad to catch up with this book, and this lively fund-raising stall. @scallywagpress.bsky.social

For more book/art-themed brief blog posts see nicolettejones.com/blog

#NewIllustrationOfTheDay by Forest Xiao, from Seven Babies (Walker Books), one of the 19 picturebooks on the www.klausfluggeprize.co.uk/longlist-2026/ for a new illustrator, announced today. (Nine more of the longlist have already featured in #NewIllustrationOfTheDay.) @walkerbooksuk.bsky.social

#NewIllustrationOfTheDay by Tim Hopgood from a Cedric and Boo board book, New Boots. Cedric at ease after he and his elephant friend Boo have played in the muddy park and broken in Boo’s shiny new boots. Digital image with humour and a look of collage. Walker Books 12 Feb. @walkerbooksuk.bsky.social

#NewIllustrationOfTheDay by Robin Boyden, a cartoonist who demonstrates here an expressive talent for creating a charming character and for capturing movement. From Raindrops, a picturebook about a mouse who has a very wet journey home clutching a present. Farshore 12 Feb. @farshorebooks.bsky.social

#NewIllustrationOfTheDay by Ross Collins from When Tad Kicked Vlad. Skilled, colourful comic draughtsmanship showing anxious family and friends including parents in fancy dress. Text by Julian Gough about a kick, a fart & then a hug that go around the world. Faber 12 Feb @faberchildrens.bsky.social

#NewIllustrationOfTheDay by Chiara Fidele from Mr Darwin‘s Tortoise, Angela McAllister’s story of a local boy who meets Charles Darwin on the Galápagos Islands. This spread is an exuberance of foliage and wildlife with The Beagle at anchor in the distance. Zephyr 12 Feb. @zephyrbooks.bsky.social

Sorry, mistake re publisher. This should say Puffin books. @puffinbooksuk.bsky.social

#NewIllustrationOfTheDay by Cree-Metis illustrator Julie Flett from We All Love, a picturebook about different kinds of love and care shown by animals, carers and children. Softness and simplification in the depiction of three snuggling children contemplating a butterfly. Greystone Kids 14 Feb.

#NewIllustrationOfTheDay by Katie Cleminson from her very personal picturebook about loss, Beyond: A story of love and grief. A beseeching penguin alone in a crowd on a busy, rainy street. Drawn in brown Ink and smudged colour, evoking mood & place. Bloomsbury 12 Feb. @bloomsburybooksuk.bsky.social

So grateful to have the proper term. Thanks.

Site working again. Thanks to those who donated directly to the @RNLI while it wasn't.

My donation site is back up and running.

#NewIllustrationOfTheDay by Lydia Corry. Detail of a spread from A Little Slice of Sky, about a boy who grows a tree from seed in a city & a community that comes together to defend it when it’s threatened. A retro look in a pleasingly composed scene. Bloomsbury 12 Feb @bloomsburybooksuk.bsky.social

Thank you! And I have tried to sort it. They’re coming back to me.

#NewIllustrationOfTheDay by Seng Soun Ratanavanh from The Paper Bridge, one of 19 books longlisted for the Carnegie Medal for Illustration; 11 had featured in my daily posts, plus the illustrators of 2 more. This, photographing paper sculpture, would’ve done if I’d seen it. @florisbooks.bsky.social

#NewIllustrationOfTheDay by Iranian-American illustrator Rashin Kheiriyeh from Home Away from Home by Nazneen Akbari. Hand-painted section of a spread, with a deliberately childlike charm, from a picturebook about growing up with two cultures. Barefoot Books 2 February. @barefootbooks.bsky.social

Plimsolls for Plimsoll Day Help Nicolette Jones raise money to support RNLI - Royal National Lifeboat Institution

Happy Plimsoll Day.
Very grateful to anyone who wears trainers (or doesn't) and donates to the RNLI on justgiving.com/nicolette-jones today. Thank you.
I will be talking about #SamuelPlimsoll live on Radio Sheffield at 11.10-11.30 this morning.
#sheffield

Tomorrow!

#NewIllustrationoftheDay by award-winning Australian author/illustrator Zeno Sworder from Once I Was a Giant, in which an artist's pencil records its history as a tree. Precisely drawn spread of the towering tree and its tiny, magical protector. Thames & Hudson 15 Jan. @thamesandhudson.bsky.social