An iconic picture book collaboration about feelings and acceptance from two of the most beloved voices in children’s literature.

Beautifully crafted compositions together with simple die-cut design, reveal the story of a child who feels as though all their colours have disappeared. Despite the joyful orange balloon, the huge yellow sun and the bright green trees, the child still feels grey. That is until a reassuring hand reaches out and shares words of kindness. Soon the child begins to see the warmth of colour again, and understands that their colours will always be there and that they will always be loved, whether they feel grey or sunshine yellow. Laura and Lauren have created a beautiful book full of empathy and understanding that will provide comfort and hope to readers of all ages.

Everybody feels ‘grey’ sometimes and children are no different they just don’t often understand their emotions and why they feel the way they do. They tend to express themselves differently to adults. Sometimes they lash out, other times they sit quietly feeling sad.

Grey is the story of a young child who feels like all the colours have left them and they feel just like a scribble on a page, like nothing.

Hopefully, young readers who pick up this book will soon realise that feeling this way is normal sometimes and that it doesn’t only happen to them, and that there are ways they can help themselves to feel a little more colourful.

The illustrations are full-page and match how the child is feeling, going from being colourful to grey and then back to a few colours again. They really represent the story well and capture the text perfectly.

Overall, Grey is an important book that will hopefully educate and help the reader to understand their feelings and make them feel less alone when they have grey days.

Laura Dockrill, a graduate of the Brit School of Performing Arts, is a performance poet, an author and an illustrator. At the age of twenty-two, she was named one of The Times’ “Top Ten Literary Stars”. She is the author of the bestselling Darcy Burdock series, the first of which was shortlisted for the Waterstones Book of the Year prize. Her adult book What Have I Done is an honest memoir about suffering post-natal mental illness. Her debut picture book, and first collaboration with Maria Karipidou, was Angry Cookie.

Lauren Child is an award-winning artist and writer. She is the creator of many much-loved characters, including Clarice Bean, Charlie and Lola, Hubert Horatio and Ruby Redfort. Lauren won the prestigious Kate Greenaway Medal in 2000 for I Will Not Ever Never Eat a Tomato, the first of her Charlie and Lola picture books. In 2010 she was awarded an MBE for Services to Literature, and was announced as the tenth Waterstones’ Children’s Laureate in 2017. Her books have sold over 15 million copies worldwide.