Top ten writer/illustrators

Edward Carey is a writer and illustrator who was born in North Walsham, Norfolk, England, during an April snowstorm. He currently lives in Austin, Texas. He is the author of the novels Observatory Mansions and Alva and Irva: the Twins Who Saved a City, which have been translated into thirteen different languages, and both of which he illustrated. His latest book is Heap House, book one of The Iremonger Trilogy.

One of Carey's top ten writer/illustrators, as told to the Guardian:

Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak

I remember as a child being very disturbed by the Wild Things when I first saw them, but I kept returning. Sendak's refugee relatives were the inspiration behind the book, he said of them, "these people didn't speak English. And they were unkempt. Their teeth were horrifying…And they'd pick you up and hug you and kiss you, 'Oh we could eat you up.' And we know they would eat anything, anything. And so they're the wild things." There's always a sense of danger in his books, and also a sense of the past, of melancholy. His posthumous work My Brother's Book is a tribute to his brother filled with haunting paintings inspired by William Blake.

Read about the other entries on the list.

Where the Wild Things Are is among Sara Maitland's top ten books of the forest and Anthony Browne's six best books.

--Marshal Zeringue