Mini Grey was given her name after being born in a Mini in a car park in Newport, Wales. She studied for an MA in Sequential Illustration at Brighton under the tutelage of John Vernon Lord. Mini also worked as a primary school teacher in Oxford, where she now lives. Her books include Egg Drop, The Pea and the Princess (shortlisted for the CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal), Biscuit Bear (winner of the Nestle Children's Book Prize Gold Award), Traction Man is Here (winner of the Boston Horn Book Award and shortlisted for the CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal), The Adventures of the Dish and the Spoon (winner of the Nestle Children's Book Prize Bronze Award and winner of the CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal), and Traction Man meets Turbodog. Mini Grey is one of the Big Picture's ten Best New Illustrators.
Like a good brie, you feel Hermelin will only improve with age. -- Alex O'Connell * The Times * Grey's work is intricate and stylish, the images often as wordy as the narrative itself. -- Lorna Bradbury * The Daily Telegraph * Grey's pictures are nostalgic, comic, decorative and dramatically composed, and invite budding detectives to pay attention. -- Nicolette Jones * The Sunday Times, Children's Book of the Week * It's rare to find such a talented illustrator who can tell a gripping, original tale so effortlessly. * The Times, Children's Book of the Week * Fans of Grey's work will once again relish the hectic pace of her storytelling, its humour, its intertextual allusions, its typographical playfulness and its general layout. -- Robert Dunbar * Irish Times * Mini Grey's extra details and clues in her artwork are always so entertaining and hopefully this is just the beginning for this charming and astute mouse and his detecting friend Emily. * The Guardian * It's full of hilarious tiny details, which our sharp-eyed hero - and clever parents and children - can spot to solve the mysteries. * The Oxford Times * This is picture book storytelling at its best. Text and illustration perfectly integrated so that the eye moves easily across the page and the attention is held. Every page is carefully designed allowing different perspectives, creating excitement and movement through the juxtaposition of whole page and split page spreads as well as techniques adopted from graphic novel or film. There are not enough picture books that can reach older children. This is one - and it is a delight. * Books for Keeps * This is an utterly delightful book, packed with quirky text and illustrations and reall unusual. * Parents in Touch * How can you not want to read this book over and over again? How can you not want to share it with everyone you meet? -- Xena's Mom * Librarian's Quest *