12 Curly Questions with author/illustrator Kimberly Andrews

1. Tell us something hardly anyone knows about you. 

I am not a big fan of a roast dinner (sometimes it feels like I am the only one).

2. What is your nickname? 

Wimble

3. What is your greatest fear? 

Not getting enough time to do all the things I want to do in life

4. Describe your writing style in 10 words. 

Succinct, fun, rhyming, readable, descriptive, improving, evolving, flowing, structured, reworked,

5. Tell us five positive words that describe you as a writer. 

Motivated, ambitious, open, accepting, curious

6. What book character would you be, and why? 

Jonathan Livingston Seagull. I would like to care less about what others thought and have a peaceful time, flying through life.

7. If you could time travel, what year would you go to and why? 

2250 – it would be amazing to see if we are teleporting yet, to see how technology has advanced (can we send sandwiches through the internet?), what new discoveries have been made and how we are taking care of our planet.

8. What would your 10-year-old self say to you now? 

It is so cool that you have become an illustrator and a writer of picture books! I hope you are planning on making a series so you can have a box set of your picture books just like Brambly Hedge (my favourite books of all time!)

9. Who is your greatest influence? 

Jill Barklem, author and illustrator of the Brambly Hedge series. I spent most of my childhood collecting and pouring over her incredible books. I wrote and illustrated countless versions of the hedgerow. I loved everything about her detailed cross-section tree houses, and was lucky enough to spend time exploring the Lake District of England as a child, which feels like perfect Brambly Hedge country!

10. What/who made you start writing? 

I worked in a beautiful, small ski town bookshop back in Canada, and had plenty of spare time to read and enjoy picture books. Studying the structure of these published books, seeing what worked and what didn’t, gave me the confidence to start writing for picture books.

11. What is your favourite word and why? 

Inoubliable - it means unforgettable in French and I have never forgotten it so it must work. 

But, if I am only allowed an English word then it would have to be 'snuggle' – I love the sound and look of this word and feel warm and happy when I read it!

12. If you could only read one book for the rest of your life, what would it be? 

The Complete Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Kimberly Andrews is a trained biologist and geologist who grew up in the Canadian Rockies, and she has also lived and worked in New Zealand, Borneo and the UK. In London, she worked for The House of Illustration, whose main ambassador is Quentin Blake. She also worked at the Natural History Museum, both in the live Butterfly House and also behind the scenes, assisting the curation of mammal specimens in the dry stores. Kimberly lives in a small house near Wellington, where she illustrates and writes, and runs her business Tumbleweed Tees, which features New Zealand birds and wildlife. Her first picture book, Tuna and Hiriwa, by Ripeka Takotowai Goddard (Huia, 2016), was a 2017 Storylines Notable Book. Puffin the Architect is the first picture book that she has both written and illustrated. For more information see www.kimberly-andrews.com.