Jeanne Willis - Children's Author

Jeanne has been writing since she was five and has published over 150 books across all genres from picture books to teen fiction. She has had other strange jobs alongside being an author, including cowboy boot seller and reptile vet's assistant and once conducted the school orchestra in concert despite not being able to read a note of music or identify the instruments. As well as cats, rabbits, hamsters, dogs, fish and rats, she has owned a garter snake called Betty, a 25 years old smooth-clawed toad called Dave, an axolotl, newts, locusts and some giant hissing stick insects. She was once thrown out of her religious studies class at school by the Reverend Brown for writing rude poems. She was the Blue Team Captain at Junior School, sprinted for the county and can still do cartwheels.

She has won numerous awards including the Red House Children’s Book Award, the Smarties Prize and the Sheffield Children’s Book Award. She lives in North London.

Photo credit: Justine Stoddart

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Featured Books, with extracts by Jeanne Willis

Fly, Chick, Fly!
Jeanne Willis
An engaging and amusing tale about overcoming fear from an award-winning team.
Featured in: 3+ readers | 5+ readers
Format: Paperback - Released: 07/03/2013
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The Wind in the Wallows
Jeanne Willis
A side-splitting look at a topic every child knows and giggles about - noisy bottoms! - cheeky, quirky and outrageous humour from this bestselling team. Boys in particular will love this but beware parents they may decide to wallow around...
Featured in: 3+ readers | 5+ readers | Books for Boys
Format: Paperback - Released: 03/01/2013
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Hippospotamus
Jeanne Willis
Winner of The English Association 2013 (Fiction 4-7) September 2012 Book of the Month. This best-selling author/illustrator team have come up with a cracker of a story told with flair and invention. Poor hippopotamus has a spotamus on her bottomus…How on...
Featured in: 3+ readers | Book Awards
Format: Hardback - Released: 06/09/2012
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The Goffins: Bubbies and Baubles
Jeanne Willis
An appealing story with memorable characters, which celebrates the importance of family and friendship. Even when times appear to be tough, the bonds of friendship endure. From the author of the 2007 Red House Award-winning Who's in the Loo? this...
Featured in: 7+ readers
Format: Paperback - Released: 06/09/2012
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Mammoth Pie
Jeanne Willis
Can a scrawny caveman turn a giant woolly mammoth into delicious pie? Both sides gather their friends as they square up for a major confrontation. Who do you think will win? Jeanne Willis’s rhyming text charts the plotting and planning...
Featured in: 3+ readers | Books of the Month
Format: Paperback - Released: 02/08/2012
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Caterpillar Dreams
Jeanne Willis
This is a magical picture book from what you could call the dream team of Jeanne Willis (who writes the words) and Tony Ross (who creates the illustrations). Caterpillar Dreams celebrates the life of two curly caterpillars who dream of...
Featured in: 3+ readers
Format: Paperback - Released: 05/07/2012
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Penguin Pandemonium - The Rescue
Jeanne Willis
A thrilling zoo adventure takes place in this wittily written and illustrated first reader. Will the Penguins in the City Zoo be able to find the missing baby penguins? Who will help them? Young readers will love this fast-paced drama...
Featured in: 7+ readers
Format: Paperback - Released: 07/06/2012
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Mayfly Day
Jeanne Willis
September 2012 Book of the Month. Its message is one to treasure. Mayfly lives for only one day. Is she sad? No, everything about that one day is to be celebrated. Mayfly sees buds burst open, she sees babies being...
Featured in: 3+ readers | Baby and Toddler
Format: Paperback - Released: 03/05/2012
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Fly, Chick, Fly!
Jeanne Willis
In the middle of a wood there is a chick who will not fly. Not I! she cries to Mother Owl and Father Owl. She flaps, she flips, she flops and hops back into the nest. Time passes and seasons...
Featured in: 3+ readers | Baby and Toddler
Format: Hardback - Released: 05/04/2012
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Downtown Dinosaurs: Dinosaur Olympics
Jeanne Willis
Daft dinosaurs create delightfully madcap fun in this hilarious family saga with a difference. When gang warfare between Darwin the stegosaurus and T Rex Flint Beastwood breaks out, the exuberant mayor Boris comes up with a great plan. Why not...
Featured in: 5+ readers | 7+ readers | Books for Boys
Format: Paperback - Released: 24/02/2012
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Mole's Sunrise
Jeanne Willis
A beautifully illustrated and moving story about a blind mole who wonders what a sunset is like.  This is a heart-warming tale about the shared experience of blind Mole and his friends. You're in the right place if you want a...
Featured in: 3+ readers
Format: Paperback - Released: 02/02/2012
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Wild Child
Jeanne Willis
Shortlisted for the Little Rebel Children's Book Award 2013. Meet Wild Child! She's spirited and curious. She's fearless and free. She lives alone in a mystical, prehistoric world - the last child in a dramatic landscape, where anything could happen....
Featured in: 3+ readers | 5+ readers | Book Awards
Format: Hardback - Released: 05/01/2012
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We're Going to a Party!
Jeanne Willis
Packed full of pop-up surprises this is a hilarious lift-the-flap book with an excellent joke at the end. Wonderful transformations of a host of animals are uncovered under every flap. But, someone isn’t in disguise. Who can be? Young readers...
Featured in: 3+ readers | Baby and Toddler
Format: Hardback - Released: 06/10/2011
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Sticky Ends
Jeanne Willis
Age 7+. Twenty six fabulously funny modern cautionary tales are wittily illustrated by Tony Ross in this vivid and entertaining collection. The sticky ends of the title bring delightful surprises to verses about the truly disgusting nature of school dinners,...
Featured in: 11+ readers | 7+ readers | 9+ readers | Books of the Month | Poetry
Format: Hardback - Released: 01/09/2011
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Dr Xargle's Book of Earth Tiggers
Jeanne Willis
In this laugh-out-loud funny book, Dr Xargle is instructing his class of small fellow aliens on the nature and habits of the earth creatures known to us as cats. It's brilliant with parents and children enjoying it in equal measure.
Featured in: 3+ readers
Format: Paperback - Released: 07/07/2011
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Mole's Sunrise
Jeanne Willis
A beautifully illustrated and moving story about a blind mole who wonders what a sunset is like.  This is a heart-warming tale about the shared experience of blind Mole and his friends. You're in the right place if you want a...
Featured in: 3+ readers | 5+ readers
Format: Hardback - Released: 07/02/2011
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Susan Laughs
Jeanne Willis
A prize winning title, this introduces Susan who loves to swing, dance, swim, ride do all the things other children do. In fact, she’s no different from any other little girl except that, as the final spread shows, she gets...
Featured in: 3+ readers | Bookshelf Essentials
Format: Paperback - Released: 03/02/2011
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Silly Cecil and Clever Cubs: A Pocket Money Puffin
Jeanne Willis
Highly entertaining, this is a touching story about an unlikely friendship between two cats. Stuck up Sir Cecil aspires to the higher way of life – such as the one his master leads; Cubby is a scruffy down to earth...
Featured in: 5+ readers
Format: Paperback - Released: 06/05/2010
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The Nanny Goat's Kid
Jeanne Willis
Nominated for the Roald Dahl Funny Prize 2010. A wonderfully funny and touching story of friendship from the comic wordsmith Jeanne Willis and brilliantly brought to life with wacky and laugh-out-loud illustrations from Tony Ross.
Featured in: 3+ readers
Format: Hardback - Released: 29/04/2010
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Caterpillar Dreams
Jeanne Willis
This is a magical picture book from what you could call the dream team of Jeanne Willis (who writes the words) and Tony Ross (who creates the illustrations). Caterpillar Dreams celebrates the life of two curly caterpillars who dream of...
Featured in: 3+ readers | Books of the Month
Format: Hardback - Released: 04/03/2010
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Who's in the Loo? (Book and Audio CD)
Jeanne Willis
Quirky and great fun. We’ve all experienced the problem of wanting the loo at the same time first thing in the morning.  Well here, Jeanne Willis’ talent with words comes up trumps and will bring a smile to every face,...
Featured in: 3+ readers
Format: Paperback - Released: 03/09/2009
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Bottoms Up!
Jeanne Willis
A brilliantly light hearted celebration of the bare bottie! Human toddlers protest against the wearing of nappies, knickers, pants, boxers, bloomers or briefs. After all, the human babies protest in the jaunty rhyming text whilst the entertaining illustrations which illustrate...
Featured in: 3+ readers
Format: Paperback - Released: 05/03/2009
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The Bog Baby
Jeanne Willis
A tender story with a big message. Two sisters playing by the pond find a magical tiny being complete with wings. It’s a bog baby and the two girls decide to take the best care of it that they can....
Featured in: 3+ readers | Book Awards | Books of the Month | eBooks
Format: Paperback - Released: 01/05/2008
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Mammoth Pie
Jeanne Willis
An hilarious hairy adventure at the time of the woolly mammoth. Can the very thin, very hungry caveman ever get the fat mammoth and turn him into a delicious – and filling – pie? Mammoth Pie is hard to get...
Featured in: 3+ readers
Format: Hardback - Released: 07/02/2008
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Who's In The Loo?
Jeanne Willis
Quirky and great fun. We’ve all experienced the problem of wanting the loo at the same time first thing in the morning.  Well here, Jeanne Willis’ talent with words comes up trumps and will bring a smile to every face,...
Featured in: 3+ readers
Format: Paperback - Released: 15/08/2007
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Who's in the Loo?
Jeanne Willis
Quirky and great fun. We’ve all experienced the problem of wanting the loo at the same time first thing in the morning.  Well here, Jeanne Willis’ talent with words comes up trumps and will bring a smile to every...
Featured in: 3+ readers
Format: - Released: 03/05/2007
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Shhh!
Jeanne Willis
The little shrew has a very big message but a very small voice. He wants to make a plea for peace but he just cannot get his voice heard above all the other noises in the world. Luckily, he never...
Featured in: 3+ readers
Format: Paperback - Released: 02/11/2006
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Really Rude Rhino
Jeanne Willis
Little Rhino is rude to everyone, and has been since the day he was born. He sticks his tongue out, makes rude noises, and waves his bottom at anyone in front of him. Until, that is, he meets his match...
Featured in: 3+ readers
Format: Paperback - Released: 18/08/2006
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Dozy Mare
Jeanne Willis
Dozy mare is a lazy horse. She won’t go backwards, she won’t go forwards, she won’t trot, she won’t jump and she won’t perform tricks. Carrots, sugar lumps, ice cream – nothing will tempt Dozy Mare to do anything that...
Featured in: 3+ readers
Format: Paperback - Released: 04/05/2006
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Mayfly Day
Jeanne Willis
Handsomely produced in a beautiful binding, this is a gift book to treasure. Its message is one to treasure, too. Mayfly lives for only one day. Is she sad? No, everything about that one day is to be...
Featured in: 5+ readers
Format: Hardback - Released: 04/05/2006
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Dr. Xargle's Book Of Earthlets
Jeanne Willis
An early collaboration from one of the country’s best-loved author/illustrator teams, this best-selling picture book shows an alien’s view of Earth babies.
Featured in: 3+ readers
Format: Paperback - Released: 24/01/2002
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