Kate Pankhurst Books in Order

If you want the signature history books: Fantastically Great Women Who Changed the World → Fantastically Great Women Who Made History → Fantastically Great Women Who Worked Wonders
If you want the themed follow-ons: Fantastically Great Women Who Saved the Planet → Fantastically Great Women Scientists and Their Stories → Fantastically Great Women Artists and Their Stories
If you want funny detective adventures: Mariella Mystery Investigates the Ghostly Guinea Pig → Mariella Mystery Investigates a Cupcake Conundrum → Mariella Mystery Investigates the Huge Hair Scare
If you want to keep going with Mariella: The Mystery of the Cursed Poodle → The Spaghetti Yeti → A Kitty Calamity → The Disappearance of Diana Dumpling → The Mystic Mustache

Kate Pankhurst grew up in Liverpool, and a lot of her early creative life seems to have begun in ordinary places, on the walk to school, at home with pens and paper, and in the local library with her dad. She has said the library felt amazing because you could turn up, choose a pile of books, and take them home for free. That mix of reading, wandering, and looking closely at the world still feels very present in her work.

Drawing arrived early too. She has talked about making pictures from around the age of five or six, and about how a copy of The Beano nudged her toward storytelling as well as illustration. When she was about eight, she made her own comic and even sold a few copies to friends. It was a small childhood project, but it gave her a very clear feeling that making stories was what she wanted to do.

There were a few detours. At one stage she thought shoe design might be the future, but illustration kept winning. She studied illustration at the University of Central Lancashire, completing both a BA and an MA, and it was there that the idea of working in children's books became real rather than wishful thinking. Once she saw that writing and drawing could live together on the same page, the direction clicked.

Then she started making books of her own.

An early turning point came in 2002, when she won second place in the Macmillan Prize for Picture Book Illustration. She built up a career illustrating books by other writers, then moved into writing as well. Her first series as both author and illustrator was Mariella Mystery, which follows a young detective who records clues, doodles, and case notes while solving odd little cases around Puddleford. The books are funny, busy, and welcoming, which has become a hallmark of Pankhurst's style.

Another big shift came with Fantastically Great Women Who Changed the World. While researching it, she discovered she was very distantly related to Emmeline Pankhurst, a connection that helped spark conversations about creating a lively, accessible book on women's history for young readers. The result was a bright, visual introduction to figures such as Mary Anning, Frida Kahlo, Marie Curie, and Rosa Parks. That book led to more titles, including Fantastically Great Women Who Made History, Fantastically Great Women Who Worked Wonders, Fantastically Great Women Who Saved the Planet, Fantastically Great Women Scientists and Their Stories, and Fantastically Great Women Artists and Their Stories.

Curiosity is the thread that ties it all together.

Whether she is writing about a child detective, a scientist, or an artist, Pankhurst tends to focus on people who ask questions, notice details, and keep going when the world tells them not to. Readers often come to her books for the humor and lively layouts, but they stay for the sense that history, art, and problem solving are open to them too. Her pages are full of speech bubbles, side notes, maps, doodles, and visual jokes, yet the ideas underneath are steady ones, pay attention, trust your interests, and do not assume the story is already finished.

She now lives in Leeds with her family and works from a studio in an old mill. Her dog, Olive, has become a small supporting character in interviews and on her site, mostly because Olive sometimes joins her at work and sometimes steals things from bins. Pankhurst has also said that when she is not drawing or writing, she enjoys working with children and teachers to help spark a love of reading. That seems like a good fit. Her books have the feel of someone opening a door and saying, come in, this is interesting, let me show you.