Maisy Learns to Swim

Lucy Cousins

Lucy Cousins is one of today´s most acclaimed author-illustrators of children´s books. Her unique titles fascinate babies, toddlers, and preschoolers with their child-like simplicity, bold outlines, and vivid colours. The engaging adventures of characters such as Maisy reflect the familiar experiences that young children have every day. "Maisy does things that children all over the world do," Lucy Cousins says of her superstar mouse. "The way she dresses, the way she acts, are typical of children all over the world."

Where does the prolific Lucy Cousins, a mother of four children, find the energy? "I'm quite disciplined," she says of her productivity. "If I'm having an 'ideas' day, I just sit at my desk and draw and write until I feel something is happening-though I admit that this is usually helped by a cup of tea, some lively music, and an abundance of sunshine." As for outside inspiration, she says she's sometimes influenced by the work of other artists, as long as those artists are children. Says the author-illustrator, "I get more pleasure and inspiration from walking around a primary school than from any art gallery." While the character Maisy was born before any of her four children, Lucy Cousins says there is no doubt she can "create better books and stories now that I have the insight into children's minds that all parents have. It's like having a market research team in my own home!" During the creation of the My Cloth Books, for example, her daughter, Josie, who was seven months old, proved a helpful critic: "Josie looked at them and chewed them and did all the right things," the proud mother says. Lucy Cousins works from home in Hampshire, England.