Having always had a passion for drawing throughout her childhood, Ella chose to study an art & design diploma at Kingston Art College when she was 16. Her style is influenced by strong shapes, simplicity & a large sprinkling of imagination. Ella draws with passion, texture and tiny details to create memorable picture books that will inspire & delight young readers.

Her illustrations may often appear simple, but always make sure to look out for the details she hides in them.a lot like life, there’s always magic to be found somewhere.

I went to ten different schools (that’s a lot). I was always that new kid. Along the way, I learned that if I could make people laugh, then things would generally be okay, so that’s what I’ve carried on doing. I ended up working as a writer at Channel 4, I’ve also written a John Lewis Christmas advert and lots of children’s books. They’ve been translated into over 25 languages and twice been named ‘Books of the Year’ in The Guardian.

(That’s a photo of me hoping you’re about to laugh.)

Saskia Gwinn is an author of children’s books. She has worked in children’s publishing for nearly 20 years, crafting best-selling, award-winning non-fiction books to inspire kids on almost everything from how time began to the silliest things in the world today. She lives in Hertfordshire with her two boys who hope dinosaurs will one day revisit Earth.

Lily Dyu lives in a valley in Wales, UK. Growing up, she wanted to be a writer, then an astronaut. Her favorite things are running in the mountains, camping, and watching the night sky. Through her writing, she loves to tell true stories about people from all over the world.

Adeola is a writer-illustrator from London. She is an obsessive doodler and lover of fantasy stories. She also writes her own graphic novels. She studied Computer Visualisation and Animation at Bournemouth University. Adeola works for an animation company as a Studio Senior Lighting & Compositing Artist.

The illustrator Belinda Chen has brought a wonderful authenticity and depth to this book, filling the scenes with symbols of the celebration including festival foods, bamboo, red money envelopes, firecrackers, the Chinese knot as well as two hidden Chinese characters to discover!

Belinda is now based in Yorkshire, but she grew up in a family-run ceramic factory in North Taiwan and speaks so wonderfully of her experience celebrating Lunar New Year:

I grew up in a big family that spoke a mixture of dialogues – Mandarin, Taiwanese and Hakka. Our family love celebrating all kinds of Chinese events and for me, Lunar New Year was always one of the highlights. There are lots of big family gatherings, feasts, receiving red envelopes from relatives, playing card games with cousins, watching colourful dragon dance parade on the street and when the New Year comes the fireworks would go all night long.

Now I live in UK with my family, we have a 6-year-old daughter. We try to recreate the spirit of LNY with family/friends. We make dumplings, write Chinese calligraphy, give each other red envelopes with good wishes for the new year. I am so excited to have had the opportunity to illustrate and share my experience of LNY.

Award winning illustrator Nina Chakrabarti grew up in Kolkata, India, and moved to the United Kingdom in her teens. She brings her joyful style and distinctive line quality to an eclectic range of commissioned work and has written several books for children, including the international bestseller ‘My Wonderful World of Fashion’. Taking inspiration from both the extraordinary and the often overlooked, Nina has created a series of illustrated books that invite both children to reflect on their relationships with all sorts of things – from fungi to fashion, from ancient pots to a childhood stamp collection. She lives and works in Hastings, on the south coast of England.

Georgie is a BookTrust-award-winning children’s book writer and illustrator who has also been longlisted for the Kate Greenaway Medal. She has made many books for children and lives in the characterful town of Lewes, near the south coast of England, with her husband, two sons and two cats.

Christopher Edge is an award-winning children’s author whose books have been translated into more than twenty languages. His novel The Infinite Lives of Maisie Day won the STEAM Children’s Book Prize and his last four novels were all nominated for the prestigious CILIP Carnegie Medal. Before becoming a writer, he worked as an English teacher, editor and publisher – any job that let him keep a book close to hand – and he now lives in Gloucestershire with his wife and family, close to his local library.

Find out more about Christopher at christopheredge.co.uk and find him on Twitter @edgechristopher

Jules Howard is a zoology correspondent, author, science-writer and broadcaster. He writes for the Guardian, BBC Wildlife Magazine and Science Focus magazine and appears regularly on TV and radio, including Newsround and BBC Radio 5 Live. Jules’s popular non-fiction books for children include The Who, What, Why of Zoology, Respect the Insect and the bestselling Encyclopedia of Animals.

Frann’s first picture book, The Journey Home, was published in 2012 and was shortlisted for both the Waterstones Children’s Prize and the Cambridgeshire ‘Read it Again’ book Prize.

In 2011, she became the first UK recipient of the ‘Sendak Fellowship’ and spent a month living with and learning from Maurice Sendak.

She is one fifth of the design group Zombie Collective who specialize in workshops and pop-up galleries. They have worked with clients such as Tate Britain, the House of Illustration, the Design Museum, the British Library and UCL Hospital, creating workshops for both adults and children.