Katie Cottle

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Books by Katie Cottle

Tortosaurus

Author: Katie Cottle

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My new picture book The Tortosaurus follows Dot as she starts a new school, and struggles to make new friends. She ends up hiding behind a big stressful lie when all she needs to do is be herself. Mak…

Coming out of your shell: The inspiration behind the Tortosaurus by Katie Cottle

March 6, 2025 at 11:20 am

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littletigerbooks

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Apr 15

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🌱 I Am Strong Just Being Me Takeover 🌱

@lauraleedockrill's new picture book explores the many different meanings behind the word Strong and what it means to a curious young child.

So Laura, what does being Strong mean to you?

Strong, to me, is being kind to myself. Even though at times that can be hard! Talking to myself how Nanna might talk to little Bean in the book, with the look of love that @kipalizadeh has so deftly illustrated with.

Comment below what Strong means to you ⬇️

#BooksforKids #ChildrensBooks #KidsBooks #raisingreaders #booksforkids #bedtimestories
#IAmStrongJustBeingMe #LauraDockrill #KipAlizadeh

littletigerbooks

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Apr 15

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🌱 I Am Strong Just Being Me Takeover 🌱

Illustrator @kipalizadeh's favourite spread from I Am Strong Just Being Me written by @lauraleedockrill.

It was hard to pick one but my favourite spread from I Am Strong Just Being Me is this one! It was tricky to illustrate using imagery from the garden and it took a collaborative effort between everyone who worked on the book to get it right. I love the dynamic perspectives of the two pages, the effective use of white space, the expressions of the animals, and Bean’s wonder about seeing things differently. I also love the textures of the grass and nests. The cat is based on my black cat, Spencer, as I have lots of reference sketches of him going about his mischievous life. Once he brought me a mouse! Fortunately the mouse was alive, but definitely as scared as the mouse in this illustration.

#BooksforKids #ChildrensBooks #KidsBooks #raisingreaders #booksforkids #bedtimestories
#IAmStrongJustBeingMe #LauraDockrill #KipAlizadeh

littletigerbooks

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Apr 15

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🌱 I Am Strong Just Being Me Takeover 🌱

Hi it's @kipalizadeh taking over the Little Tiger instagram account to share how I illustrated I Am Strong Just Being Me written by @lauraleedockrill. 🌼

Illustrating I Am Strong Just Being Me was fast and fun! I was contacted about the book in December 2023 and needed to finish the illustrations in time for the Bologna Book Fair in April 2024. This was no problem as I loved the text and worked with an amazing art director, Rebecca Essilifie. We started with character sketches and sample art of Bean, Nanna and also the garden. It was important that Nanna was cool and fresh, not frumpy, so I put her in a pair of Doc Martens and dungarees. Bean is based on how I was when I was little, and am now, so is quite androgynous, since I related to the theme of the book so much. I made sure to put Bean and Nanna in bright colours that would stand out against the busy background of the garden.

After that I did thumbnail sketches! The garden in my thumbnails had cactuses in it, but we realised to keep it feeling like a garden, and not the wild, it needed flowers and trees that are closer to home. Rebecca suggested thinking of the garden as a character too, which was really helpful. The garden is where we find a lot of the strength that is referred to in the book, so it was important that the garden was as expressive and expansive as possible, while also feeling like a garden. To this end, I also did a sketchy map of the garden, and in doing so, learnt quite a bit about garden design, and garden flower names and meanings. This is very visible in the endpapers which are my favourite endpapers I’ve done so far, as they add an extra layer to the book!

Swipe through to see the roughs to final spreads ➡️

#BooksforKids #ChildrensBooks #KidsBooks #raisingreaders #booksforkids #bedtimestories #IAmStrongJustBeingMe #LauraDockrill #KipAlizadeh

littletigerbooks

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Apr 15

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🌱 I Am Strong Just Being Me Takeover 🌱

Award-winning author @lauraleedockrill tells us about the inspiration behind her new thought-provoking picture book, I Am Strong Just Being Me, illustrated by @kipalizadeh.

When I was a little girl I thought I had to grow up to be a ‘strong woman.’ Like a Spice Girl mixed with Wonder Woman. This meant being tough, sticking up for myself, being confident, proud and most of all putting up a fight when stuff got hard and backing down no matter what! But when I needed this strength to turn up the very most- I couldn’t find it. It wasn’t there - I felt I had no super powers at all. I was hard on myself. Why couldn’t I be braver? Fearless and more resilient? But I had to re-learn that there are many other ways to be strong ; like kindness, self-compassion, acceptance and patience.

I am Strong Just Being Me is an exploration and celebration of the word Strong. What strength means to us and how it shows up in our lives. We all have our own ways of being Strong- it isn’t about being the toughest, hiding our sensitive side or pretending we’re fine when we’re not.

#BooksforKids #ChildrensBooks #KidsBooks #raisingreaders #booksforkids #bedtimestories #IAmStrongJustBeingMe #LauraDockrill #KipAlizadeh

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