Toad and I

Louise’s first book, A Small Surprise, was published by Random House in 2009. Her second, Dog Loves Books, debuted as a New York Times Bestseller and won the Parents’ Choice Award in the US. In the UK Dog Loves Books won the 2010 Roald Dahl Funny Prize and was nominated (along with the more recent Frank and Teddy Make Friends, 2011, and Dog Loves Drawing, 2012) for the Kate Greenaway Medal. Dog Loves Drawing has also been shortlisted for the Red House Children's Award, 2013. Dog Loves Counting was released in the UK in March 2013.

Louise is currently working on a new series, Toad and I with Random House and developing the Dog Loves series for TV with Random House Children’s Screen Entertainment.

Louise read English at Christ Church, Oxford, and studied drawing at The Prince’s Drawing School, London. As well as illustrating, she practises other forms of painting and drawing, and in 2010, won the Prince of Wales’ Award for Portrait Drawing at the Royal Society of Portrait Painters’ Annual Exhibition. She lives and works in London.

‘Even in a golden age of illustrated children’s books, Louise Yates stands out as a superb artist and storyteller.’ A. N. Wilson