Illustrator of the Year 2025
Illustrator of the Year
Proudly sponsored by Sweet Cherry Publishing
For the first time a shortlist for Illustrator of the Year has been revealed. It includes last year’s winner Jamie Smart, who would be the first creative to win the award twice. He faces stiff competition though, not least from Dav Pilkey, who had two number one bestselling Dog Man books in 2024. Two HarperCollins illustrators Rob Biddulph and Oliver Jeffers join Jim Field and Mariajo Ilustrajo to make up the rest of the shortlist.
Winner
Rob Biddulph
It’s been a stellar 12 months for the acclaimed illustrator Rob Biddulph. Sales of I Follow the Fox marked his biggest picture-book sales ever and the paperback edition of Gigantic resulted in a 63% sales uplift on his previous second-format outing. But this award is never only about the numbers. Biddulph worked tirelessly in 2024 to bring the joy of reading and drawing into children’s lives, appearing at more than 36 events and continuing his enormously popular #DrawWithRob video series that went viral during the Covid pandemic.
With reading for pleasure under threat, last year Biddulph, in his capacity as a World Book Day author, visited 10 Downing Street as part of the WBD campaign, and created the 100 Story Hotel exhibition, an interactive world of storytelling for children aged one to eight. With this award, we celebrate Biddulph as an illustrator and torchbearer for children’s reading.
The Shortlist
Dav Pilkey
In 2024, more than one in three graphic novels sold in the UK were by Dav Pilkey, published here by Scholastic. He had two number one bestselling Dog Man books in 2024, in addition to being a global number one bestselling author-illustrator. He accounts for 36% of the graphic novel category by TCM volume (34% by value). Pilkey’s UK sales value increased by 41% year on year in 2024. As a neurodiverse creator who has made his ADHD and dyslexia his "superpowers", Pilkey is a powerful role model, whose books champion empathy, togetherness and doing good.
Jamie Smart
Reigning Illustrator of the Year Jamie Smart is back, having had an even better year in 2024. His Bunny vs Monkey series, published by David Fickling Books, sold well over 650,000 copies in a single year – an 82% year-on-year growth from an already very impressive 2023. Likewise, his Looshkin series saw a 102% increase in sales and Flember an 11% increase against the previous year. In total, Smart sold more than 800,000 titles last year. He also took part in a number of exceptionally successful events, including the sold out Phoenix Festival in Oxford, sold out Phoenix Digital Workshops to over 6,000 children, several sold out Waterstones signings, and multiple sold out signings and workshops across the independent bookshop market.
Jim Field
Jim Field's first book was published in 2011: today, his books with Hachette Children’s Group (HCG) alone have been translated into more than 43 languages, with millions of copies sold worldwide. In 2024, Jim’s HCG books sold 318,121 copies through UK TCM, with double-digit growth of 10.2% on the previous year. 2024 was the 10th anniversary of Oi Frog!, which was first published in 2014. Over 10 years, this series has sold more than 3.2m copies worldwide, with over 2m copies sold in the UK. In September, Oi Dinosaurs!, the 8th book in his series with Kes Gray, was published.
Mariajo Ilustrajo
Mariajo Ilustrajo is one of the most exciting and acclaimed illustrators to emerge in recent years, with a distinctive and emotionally resonant style. Her latest book, I Love Books, published in 2024 by Quarto, has already been nominated for the 2025 Yoto Carnegie Medal and is on course to be her most commercially successful title yet. Her first title Flooded won the prestigious Klaus Flugge Prize, as well as the UKLA Book Award and The English Association Award.
Oliver Jeffers
2024 was a landmark year for Oliver Jeffers as it saw him celebrate 20 years since the publication of his very first picture book, How to Catch a Star. It also saw the long-awaited return of two of his most popular and best-loved characters, the Boy and the Penguin, with the publication of Where to Hide a Star, the first new picture book in this series for nearly thirteen years. There was a year-round sales, marketing and PR push orchestrated by HarperCollins, championed in particular by Waterstones and independent booksellers, with signed stock sold out ahead of publication. All of this led to a 162% increase in year-on-year sales.
Rob Biddulph
Rob Biddulph is an award-winning illustrator and author. His books – ranging from picture books to activity books to middle-grade novels – have sold over 600,000 copies in the UK alone and been translated into 19 languages. He is a renowned supporter of booksellers, schools and libraries, and an advocate for literacy and education. He appeared at more than 36 events and festivals in 2024 alone. Biddulph published four books with HarperCollins Children’s Books, with I Follow the Fox his biggest hardback picture book to date.
