Brownlow, Mike

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Brownlow, Mike

Personal

Born in England.

Addresses

Home—Somerset, England. Agent—Caroline Walsh, David Higham Associates, 5-8 Lower John St., Golden Square, London W1F 9HA, England.

Career

Illustrator. Creator of branded characters for Marks & Spencer and other companies. Picture-book illustrator, beginning 1997.

Writings

SELF-ILLUSTRATED

Little Robots, Ragged Bears (Brooklyn, NY), 2000.

Way out West—With a Baby!, Ragged Bears (Brooklyn, NY), 2000.

The Big White Book with Almost Nothing in It, Ragged Bears (London, England), 2000, Ragged Bears (Brooklyn, NY), 2001.

Little Robot Rabbit, Ragged Bears (Brooklyn, NY), 2001.

Bouncing Babies, Ragged Bears (Brooklyn, NY), 2002.

I've Got Nits, Ragged Bears (London, England), 2005.

Mickey Moonbeam, Bloomsbury Children's Books (New York, NY), 2006.

Move It! Builders, Campbell Books (London, England), 2006.

Move It! Garage, Campbell Books (London, England), 2006.

Move It! Farm, Campbell Books (London, England), 2006.

Move It! Rescue, Campbell Books (London, England), 2007.

Creator of comic strip for Royal Mail. Author of several episodes for Little Robots television series.

Adaptations

The "Little Robots" books were adapted as a television series by Lego Media (now Create TV and Film).

Sidelights

British author and illustrator Mike Brownlow is a graphic artist and illustrator who has designed licensed characters while also writing and illustrating a long- running promotional cartoon strip for England's Royal Mail postal service. Brownlow began his career in children's books in the late 1990s, by creating interactive board books for toddlers. His board books, such as Move It! Rescue and Move It! Farm, are designed to pique the interest of active young boys with their focus on vehicles with wheels and Brownlow's use of bright, primary colors. Bouncing Babies follows a baby's day from morning to night, while Way out West—With a Baby! is a humorous story that finds three rough-andready cowboys saddled with a howling infant. Praising Brownlow's "lilting verse" in Bouncing Babies, a Kirkus Reviews writer added that the author/illustrator "has an obvious fondness for his subject." In Publishers Weekly a critic dubbed Way out West—With a Baby! a "rollicking, rhyming romp" and predicted that young readers "will cotton to the author's brand of humor," while Jody McCoy concluded in School Library Journal that the story's "vibrant, crisp illustrations" would win approval from quintessential American cowpoke John Wayne himself.

Brownlow takes a futuristic slant in several of his children's books. In Little Robots and Little Robot Rabbit his rhyming text and brightly colored cartoon art follows Tiny Robot on a series of adventures, such as tracking down her missing Robot Rabbit in the latter title. In addition to its success among the toddler set, Little Robots also allowed Brownlow to become involved in animation after the book was adapted as a television series airing in England. Praised by School Library Journal contributor Catherine Callegari as "a fun extraterrestrial adventure for storytime," Mickey Moonbeam introduces a boy who lives on a distant moon. A distress call from long-time pen-pal Quiggle results in a meeting between the two, and both Mickey and the bright green Quiggle are surprised when they learn that each of them is not at all what the other imagined. Citing the book's "bright illustrations" with their "retro feel," a Kirkus Reviews writer noted that the art "matches the sunny mood" of Brownlow's upbeat story.

Biographical and Critical Sources

PERIODICALS

Kirkus Reviews, November 1, 2002, review of Bouncing Babies, p. 1610; October 1, 2006, review of Mickey Moonbeam, p. 1010.

Publishers Weekly, October 2, 2000, review of Way out West—With a Baby!, p. 80.

School Library Journal, December, 2000, Jody McCoy, review of Way out West—With a Baby!, p. 103; October, 2001, John Peters, review of The Big White Book with Almost Nothing in It, p. 106; November, 2006, Catherine Callegari, review of Mickey Moonbeam, p. 86.