Mini Grey has been selected as one of The Big Picture campaign's Best New Illustrators in 2008. Winner of Greenaway Award 2007.
Everybody knows that the Dish ran away with the Spoon but who knows why or what happened next? Mini Grey’s stylish illustrations tell of a love story from the moment the two first meet until, after some hair raising adventures as both celebrities and criminals and a period of separation, they are reunited and reaffirm their love. A picture book that is both beautiful and witty, The Adventures of the dish and the Spoon will appeal to all age groups. (0-5)
Judges' comment:
With many nods to 1920s film noir and other cinematic references throughout, this book offers so much to look at and contains great humour. There is real vitality in the drawings and the bold inky lines add drama. Grey gives amazing expression to the dish and the spoon without them having arms or mouths, and conveys beautifully the idea of villainous cutlery! There is so much to look at in this book; you see something new every time you open it.
Mini Grey’s spin on the nursery rhyme classic “Hey diddle, diddle, the cat and the fiddle” is a love story of sorts that starts when “the dish ran away with the spoon.” In the midst of the Great Depression, Dish and Spoon become rich and famous vaudeville stars until their taste for the high life puts them in debt to a gang of sharp and shady characters (depicted as evil knives). The cinematic presentation with a touch of Bonnie and Clyde, a dash of “The Perils of Pauline” proves that crime doesn’t pay and love conquers all. A visual treat with new details to discover again and again, here is absurd good fun for the whole family.
Mini Grey was given her name after being born in a Mini in a car park in Newport, Wales. She studied for an MA in Sequential Illustration at Brighton under the tutelage of John Vernon Lord. Mini also worked as a primary school teacher in Oxford, where she now lives. Her books include Egg Drop, The Pea and the Princess (shortlisted for the CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal), Biscuit Bear (winner of the Nestlé Children's Book Prize Gold Award), Traction Man is Here (winner of the Boston Horn Book Award and shortlisted for the CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal), The Adventures of the Dish and the Spoon (winner of the Nestlé Children's Book Prize Bronze Award and winner of the CILIP Kate Greenaway
