What the Klaus Flugge judges said: ‘Really impressive use of colour and the characters are really alive; the hand-lettered typography works very well as do the compositions; there’s a wonderful sense of looseness to the pictures, which is very hard to accomplish; there’s a special tension in the final pages before a happy ending.’
Rachel Stubbs celebrates another special relationship, that between grandparent and child. With fluid, elegant line, a delicate limited palette and hand drawn typography, she conveys an extraordinary depth of emotion and love.
In Rachel Stubbs' gentle meditation on love and memory, a grandfather passes down to his grandchild the joyful anticipation of a life lived with wonder and openness ... and a very special hat. The hat is full of dreams, secrets and stories and can even spark new adventures. Explore all the possibilities that a treasured hand-me-down can bring and see how love is handed down with it.
Rachel Stubbs is a London-based illustrator who loves observing human behaviour and interaction. After studying illustration in Falmouth, Cornwall, she went on to work as a freelance illustrator before joining the Cambridge MA in children's picture books to refresh her creative practice. Here she rediscovered the joy of drawing from life in her sketchbook, which has now become the foundation of all her work. Upon graduating from the MA, Rachel was awarded the Sebastian Walker Award for Illustration. My Red Hat is her debut picture book as an author-illustrator.