Bear Heart

Louise Greig lives in Aberdeen where she writes picture books and poetry. She has won several awards for poetry and her picture books have been published in many different languages. Her first picture book, The Night Box was nominated for the CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal and shortlisted for the Waterstones Children's Book Prize, the Teach Primary Book Awards and the Klaus Flugge Prize. It was the Cultura book of the year in France. Her picture book Sweep, illustrated by Julia Sarda, was nominated for the CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal in 2019. Louise is profoundly deaf.Hoang Giang is a Vietnamese illustrator, she grew up in Da Lat, a small town in highland of Vietnam. She always dreamt to be a mangaka since childhood but ended up graduating from a Finance and Banking BA degree due to family expectations. Luckily, after graduation, she immediately found a job as an illustrator for magazines for children and young adults. She learnt digital painting and traditional arts by herself during this time. In 2016, she decided to get herself proper education about storytelling so I went to Cambridge school of Art, UK to pursue her MA Illustrations and Book Arts. After the studying, she published her first graphic novel and comic books series in Vietnam and several picture books for clients such as Puffin, Little Tiger and Walker Books

In Louise Greig's glorious Bear Heart (Flying Eye, 11 Sept), we meet Earnest, a bear with a heart so full that when he encounters a lonely lion "the colour of buttercups" he finds he can only make space for him by discarding the other things he? ?cherishes. Befittingly for a book about how love can make us braver and stronger, Hoang Giang's illustrations glow magnificently?: ?her sunset-coloured depiction of Earnest surrounded by his favourite things, from blueberries to the perfect tree, is one of the most gorgeous picture book spreads I've seen all year.