Kate Read is a children’s book illustrator, who lives in East Anglia, and originally trained as a theatre designer. In 2018, she graduated from the MA in Children’s Book Illustration at Cambridge School of Art and was one of the winners of the SCBWI Undiscovered Voices competition 2018.

Kate loves colour and simplified form; she works using a mixture of media including collage, painting and print making, allowing the project to dictate the direction of the ideas.

Kate’s first picture book, One Fox (Two Hoots), a counting book thriller, was nominated for the 2020 Waterstones Children’s Book Prize for illustrated books and the 2021 UKLA book awards. Two Hoots have also published Kate’s subsequent titles Boo! A Fishy Mystery, The Littlest Elephant and most recently The Big Bad Bug.

Kate has also collaborated with Lauren Fairgrieve on the National Trust Press Out books Birds of Feather and Butterfly Skies (Nosy Crow), beautiful gift books in which readers can create their own 3D birds and butterflies and discover fascinating facts about each species.