Today's review...'Inspire Me!' @nicolettejones.bsky.social @nosycrow.bsky.social It really does what it says on the cover! www.throughthebookshelf.com/reviews/inspire-me

#NewIllustrationOfTheDay (cropped) by Adriena Fong from Ning and the Night Spirits which combines the styles of cartoons and of folk art in a scene with intriguing detail, balancing blue and orange. A story about making friends. Flying Eye 8 Jan. @flyingeyebooks.bsky.social @adrienafong.bsky.social

‪ In the rather unlikely event that you are eager to know more about what I'm up to, check out my relaunched website www.nicolettejones.com for books, blog, bio, events and gallery. Many thanks to those who can be bothered. This photo shows me dipping George Eliot's pen. @rsliterature.bsky.social

#NewIllustrationOfTheDay by Jessica Meserve from her picturebook The Home that Love Built, about animals collaborating to mend each other’s storm-destroyed homes. Using an exuberant scribbly line, sweet colours and comic caricatures of the creatures. Little Tiger 8 Jan. @littletigeruk.bsky.social

‪ In the rather unlikely event that you are eager to know more about what I'm up to, check out my relaunched website www.nicolettejones.com for books, blog, bio, events and gallery. Many thanks to those who can be bothered. This photo shows me dipping George Eliot's pen. @rsliterature.bsky.social

#NewIllustrationOfTheDay by Emma Dodd, from her compact picturebook Very Special You about the love of a parent for a baby (specifically a sheep for a lamb). Simple, defined creatures expressing affection. And silver highlights. Templar Books 1 Jan. @emmadodd.bsky.social @templarbooks.bsky.social

#NewIllustrationOfTheDay by Becka Moor. Elegant and appealing caricature for Reggie Rabbit and the Metro Mice, part graphic novel, part chapter book by Swapna Reddy. Young detective Reggie Rabbit investigates underground. Oxford Children’s 1 Jan. @beckamoor.bsky.social @oxfordunipress.bsky.social

#NewIllustrationOfTheDay by Emma Chichester Clark. From The Good Deed Dogs. Walker pb 1 Jan. Using colour and collage and humour in a dramatic explosion to make calamity seem fun. About dogs whose keenness. to help goes wrong. @walkerbooksuk.bsky.social

Thank you - and thanks to @nicolettejones.bsky.social for the interview

#NewIllustrationOfTheDay by Iona Campbell from her picturebook The Dreamies. Pretty colours and toy-like houses in a reassuring story about little Borrower-like people who create happy dreams, and about using your imagination to tame nightmares. Magic Cat pb 8 Jan. @magiccatpublishing.bsky.social

#NewIllustrationOfTheDay is back with a hopeful picturebook for the New Year. The Big Green: Everyone can make a difference by Ken Wilson-Max, about the planting that created the Great Green Wall of Africa. Otter-Barry Books 8 Jan. May your 2026 be full of illustration. @otterbarrybooks.bsky.social

See comments for ANSWERS to the #newillustrationoftheday #adventcalendar, which have mostly appeared in the comments but all here in case you want to use my timeline to play the quiz with others in the holidays. Wishing you the joy of picturebooks in 2026. #NewIllustrationoftheDay is back on 1 Jan

Day 24, the last post of the #NewIllustrationOfTheDay #AdventCalendar quiz. Two children’s book characters whose name begins with Z. In the first picture the character is the baby. Name the ILLUSTRATORS. Answers to the full quiz this afternoon.

Another #Christmas present from us to you! @nicolettejones.bsky.social interviews Jamila Gavin about her #nerobookawards shortlisted MY SOUL A SHINING TREE: it has musical prose and historical facts about a hero who won the Victoria Cross. #KidLitUK @farshorebooks.bsky.social tinyurl.com/y5ry8d8f

Day 23 of the #NewIllustrationOfTheDay #AdventCalendar quiz. Two children’s book characters whose name in the title begins with Y (not counting a definite article). Name the ILLUSTRATORS.

Presuming to plug this book which was a labour of love & about which I never even had a chat with a publicist. It contains 20 verbatim 1965/6 conversations with huge names of American art (see back of jacket) & is beautifully designed. The conversations were among 100 recorded in one year by my dad.

Day 22 of the #NewIllustrationOfTheDay #AdventCalendar quiz. Two children’s book characters whose name begins with W. Name the ILLUSTRATORS.

Day 20 of the #NewIllustrationOfTheDay #AdventCalendar quiz. Two children’s book characters whose name in the title begins with V (not counting definite articles). Your task: name the ILLUSTRATORS.

Day 20 of the #NewIllustrationOfTheDay #AdventCalendar quiz. Two children’s book characters whose name in the title begins with U (not counting the definite article). Your task: name the ILLUSTRATORS

Day 19 of the #NewIllustrationOfTheDay #AdventCalendar quiz. Two children’s book characters whose name begins with T. I have heard it said that the first character resembles the illustrator. The second character is the boy, though in fact the dog also begins with T Your task: name the ILLUSTRATORS.

Day 18 of the #NewIllustrationOfTheDay #AdventCalendar quiz. Two children’s book characters whose name begins with S. Your task: name the ILLUSTRATORS.

Day 17 of the #NewIllustrationOfTheDay #AdventCalendar quiz. Two children’s book characters whose name begins with R. Your task: name the ILLUSTRATORS. (Answers will be posted on Christmas Eve.)

‪Day 16 of the #NewIllustrationOfTheDay #AdventCalendar quiz. Two children’s book characters whose name begins with P. Your task: name the ILLUSTRATORS. The second is a famous illustrator but a rather unexpected vision of a familiar character. (Answers will be posted on Christmas Eve.)

Day 15 of the #NewIllustrationOfTheDay #AdventCalendar quiz. Two children’s book characters whose name begins with O. Your task: name the ILLUSTRATORS. (Answers will be posted on Christmas Eve.)

Day 14 of the #NewIllustrationOfTheDay #AdventCalendar quiz. Two children’s book characters whose name begins with N (including, in the first picture, in the original French). Your task: name the ILLUSTRATORS. (The names of all characters and illustrators will be posted on Christmas Eve.)

Day 13 of the #NewIllustrationOfTheDay #AdventCalendar. Two children’s book characters whose name begins with M. The one in the second picture is the red-haired child. Your task: name the ILLUSTRATORS. Answers to the whole quiz will be posted on the afternoon of December 24th.

Day 12 of the #NewIllustrationOfTheDay #AdventCalendar. Characters whose name begins with L. A family name for all the characters in the first picture and the child in the second. Your task: name the ILLUSTRATORS. Answers to the whole quiz will be posted on the afternoon of December 24th.

A beautiful setting for a beautiful show, full of laughter and fun, and also moving, reminding us that life is not always a fairytale and sometimes we have to go #IntotheWoods and out again. #sondheim. @bridgetheatre.bsky.social

Day 11 of the #NewIllustrationoftheDay #adventcalendar quiz. Two children's book title characters beginning with K. Your task: name the two ILLUSTRATORS. Answers to the whole quiz will be posted on the afternoon of December 24th.

Day 10 of the #NewIllustrationoftheDay #adventcalendar quiz. Two children's book title characters beginning with J. Your task: name the two ILLUSTRATORS. Answers to the whole quiz will be posted on the afternoon of December 24th.

Day 9 of the #NewIllustrationoftheDay #adventcalendar quiz. Two well-known children's book characters beginning with I. Your task: name the two ILLUSTRATORS.

Day 8 of the #NewIllustrationoftheDay #adventcalendar quiz. Two well-known children's book characters beginning with H. Your task: name today's two ILLUSTRATORS. Have fun.

Day 7 #NewIllustrationoftheDay #adventcalendar. Two children's book characters beginning with G. (The character in the first picture who is not Harris.) Your task: name the two ILLUSTRATORS. Hope you are enjoying this quiz.

Day 6 #NewIllustrationoftheDay #adventcalendar. Two children's book characters beginning with F (the second is the child not the dog, though their names are a pair). Your task: name today's two ILLUSTRATORS, who have similar surnames.

‪Day 5 #NewIllustrationoftheDay #adventcalendar. Two iconic children's book characters beginning with E. Your task: name the two ILLUSTRATORS. The second is probably the greater challenge. Enjoy the pictures.

Day 4 #NewIllustrationoftheDay #adventcalendar. Two children's book characters beginning with D. Both loved, though one of them is inanimate. Your task today: name the two connected ILLUSTRATORS. Enjoy the pictures.

'This production makes the most of a novel that revelled in the business of performance. It celebrates its own art & artifice, & [...] invites the audience to revel in it too.' Ballet Shoes back at @nationaltheatre.org.uk BfK review by @nicolettejones.bsky.social booksforkeeps.co.uk/article/ball...

Day 3 #NewIllustrationoftheDay #adventcalendar. Two iconic children's book characters beginning with C. Your task: name the two ILLUSTRATORS. Have fun, and enjoy the pictures.

Day 2 #NewIllustrationoftheDay #adventcalendar. Two iconic children's book characters beginning with B. Your task: name the two ILLUSTRATORS. Have fun, and enjoy the pictures.

#NewIllustrationoftheDay #adventcalendar. This year it's alphabetical. These two pictures show children’s book characters who BOTH BEGIN WITH A and appear in book titles/series names. Your task: name the ILLUSTRATORS, NOT the CHARACTERS (so others can have a go at that). (There'll be no Q or X.)

From tomorrow, look out for the #NewIllustrationoftheDay #adventcalendar. This year it'll be alphabetical. I’ll post two pics of children’s book characters who BEGIN WITH THE SAME LETTER & appear in titles/series. Your task: name the ILLUSTRATORS, NOT the CHARACTERS so others can have a go at that

#NewIllustrationOfTheDay by Jon Klassen from Rock Paper Incisors by Amy Timberlake, a Skunk and Badger Story. Badger meets a dinosaur in snowy woods. Double page spread using an earthy pallette and a scratchy succinctness. Scholastic 4 December. @jonklassen.bsky.social @scholasticuk.bsky.social

Yesterday for the first time in 18 months I missed a #NewIllustrationOfTheDay. To make up, this portrait is by children’s illustrator Sarah McIntyre. I bought it a while ago for a family member to whom Tom Stoppard matters a great deal. As he does to us all. @sarahmcintyre.bsky.social #tomstoppard

I spent #NationalIllustrationDay with illustrator Helen Oxenbury at the Harley Gallery in Nottinghamshire, where the glorious exhibition of her work continues until 4 January.

#NewIllustrationoftheDay by Matt Tavares from his neat and surreal Dasher and the Polar Bear, the third book in the bestselling Dasher series, with a polar bear riding in Santa's sleigh. Out since autumn from Walker Books. #NationalIllustrationDay @walkerbooksuk.bsky.social @matttavares.bsky.social

A pause from the wintry #newillustrationoftheday images to draw attention to Helen Oxenbury’s current exhibition at the Harley Gallery in Nottinghamshire and the fact that she and I will be in conversation at noon at the gallery tomorrow (28th). Here are the grandmothers from Trish Cooke’s So Much.

Another wintry #NewIllustrationoftheDay, a minimalist snowy spread with a sense of depth by Matt Hunt from How to Find a Yeti, in which the sharp-eyed can spot the outline of a yeti louring over the distant row of grey trees. The paperback published this autumn by Nosy Crow. @nosycrow.bsky.social

#NewIllustrationOfTheDay by Guy Parker-Rees from a new board book edition of Giraffes Can’t Dance: Jingle Bells, with text by Giles Andreae. Anthropomorphic drawing that looks casual but convincingly gives animals unlikely moves. Orchard Books. @hachetteuk.bsky.social @guyparkerrees.bsky.social

#NewIllustrationOfTheDay by Nick Butterworth from a 2025 board book, The Greatest Snowman, in the Percy the Park-Keeper series Stories from Percy’s Park. Acrobatic squirrels on a sledge demonstrate Butterworth’s humour, fine draughtsmanship and skill with dramatic action. @harpercollins.bsky.social

#NewIllustrationOfTheDay by Jane Hissey from her classic Jolly Snow, first published in 1993 & re-issued in paperback this autumn by Templar Books. Skilled photo-realism featuring her scrupulously depicted soft toys acting out a story that celebrates real and pretend snow. @templarbooks.bsky.social