Teach Primary Issue 19.5

How does a book come to life? Fol low the Big Cat process from concept to creation For more behind the scenes content from our creators, follow @BigCatBooksLikeMe on Instagram! For illustrated books, we scout for the best illustrators to bring the story to life. Sometimes the authors and illustrators like to meet up and discuss the book to ensure they’re both on the same page. Author Oliver Sykes and illustrator Ian Morris visited Denbigh Castle together to help Ian visualise Oliver’s story as accurately as possible. Pairing them with the perfect illustrator Every book’s journey starts with market research and valuable feedback from schools. This helps to define the focus and scope for each Big Cat book. Shaping the vision The in-house project lead crafts a detailed brief and reaches out to top authors – they may even bring in an external commissioning editor to discover new talent. Just three of our hundreds of amazing Big Cat authors (L-R: Michael Rosen, Julia Donaldson, Joseph Coelho) Finding the right author Authors collaborate with development editors and in-house editors over two draft stages. The manuscripts undergo copyedits, fact checks, and diversity and inclusion reviews to ensure meaningful representation. Crafting the manuscript Two of our incredible Big Cat illustrators (L-R: Dante Hookey, Sonny Fletcher)