Lauren Margot Peachy Child (born Helen Child; 29 November 1965) is an English children's author and illustrator. She is best known for the Charlie and Lola picture book series and other book series. Her influences include E. H. Shepard, Quentin Blake, Carl Larsson, and Ludwig Bemelmans.
Child introduced Charlie and Lola in 2000 with I Will Not Ever Never Eat A Tomato and won the annual Kate Greenaway Medal from the Library Association for the year's most "distinguished illustration in a book for children". For the 50th anniversary of the Medal (1955–2005), a panel named it one of the top ten winning works, which comprised the shortlist for a public vote for the nation's favourite. It finished third in the public vote from that shortlist.
Life
Lauren Child was born in Berkshire in 1965 and was raised in Marlborough, Wiltshire, where her father led the art department at Marlborough College and her mother taught in a primary school. She was the middle child of three daughters. She changed her first name from Helen to Lauren when she was a child. She attended St John's School and, from 16, Marlborough College. She studied Art briefly at Manchester Polytechnic and later at City and Guilds of London Art School. She started her own company, Chandeliers for the People, making lampshades. Between 1998 and 2003 she worked for the design agency Big Fish and includes its founder Perry Haydn Taylor in the dedications of her books.
Two picture books both written and illustrated by Child were published in 1999, and also issued in the U.S. within the year: I Want a Pet! and Clarice Bean, That's Me. The latter, published by Orchard Books, inaugurated the Clarice Bean series, was a highly commended runner-up for the Greenaway Medal, and made the Nestlé Smarties Book Prize shortlist. Next year she won the Greenaway Medal for the first Charlie and Lola book, I Will Not Ever, NEVER Eat a Tomato. Her timing was good, for a bequest by Colin Mears had provided a £5,000 cash prize to supplement the medal beginning that year. She won a second Smarties Prize in 2002 for That Pesky Rat, which was commended for the Greenaway too. In the same year she wrote her first children's novel, Utterly Me, Clarice Bean, one of 39 books nominated by the librarians for the Carnegie Medal. Her second novel in this series, Clarice Bean Spells Trouble was shortlisted for the 2005 British Book Awards Children's Book of the Year. The third novel, Clarice Bean, Don't Look Now was published in 2007.
Child's illustrations contain different media including magazine cuttings, collage, material and photography as well as traditional watercolours. She is the illustrator of the Definitely Daisy series by Jenny Oldfield.
A television series based on her Charlie and Lola books was made by Tiger Aspect for CBeebies, on which Child was an Associate Producer. Three series of 26 episodes and two specials were made. Charlie and Lola has been sold throughout the world, and won BAFTAs in 2007 for Best children's Television Show and Best Script.
She was announced as the new Children's Laureate for the UK on 7 June 2017 at a ceremony at Hull City Hall.
Charlie and Lola
Charlie and Lola is a series of picture books made by Lauren Child and was later adapted into a children's TV show. Each half-hour format show contains two segments with different plots, each starting off with Charlie saying, "I have this little sister, Lola. She is small and very funny." Charlie was based on her boyfriend, Soren, who used to wear shirts just like Charlie's, but with his name on it. Lola was based on a pixie-looking girl Child saw on a train who was with her parents, a young couple, and kept bombarding them with questions. Soren Lorenson was based on Lauren's boyfriend's sister's "better" imaginary brother, and so Soren Lorenson became Lola's imaginary friend.