Katz Cowley Books in Order

Katz Cowley was born in London and first knew herself at school as Katie, the name on the register. Her grandparents called her Katz, meaning “little kitten,” and it was the name she preferred. It stuck.

She attended James Allen’s Girls’ School in London, where she describes herself as the daydreamer at the back of class, usually doodling. Traditional schoolwork was not her strong suit, but drama and art were. An art teacher noticed that her work had an illustrative quality and suggested a direction that made immediate sense.

Cowley went on to earn a degree in Illustration from the University of Northumbria. She had already written and illustrated a book as part of that degree, but her work took a longer route before it reached picture-book readers. She has said that she has always liked making up characters and letting them lead the way.

Her first children’s picture book arrived when musician Craig Smith asked whether she would illustrate The Wonky Donkey.

Published in 2009, The Wonky Donkey paired Smith’s playful cumulative song with Cowley’s big-eyed, comic drawings. The book follows a three-legged donkey whose list of odd traits grows sillier with every page. It later reached a much wider audience after a family reading video spread widely in 2018, bringing new readers to its noisy, laugh-aloud rhythm.

Cowley returned to that world for The Dinky Donkey and The Grinny Granny Donkey, adding a small daughter and a very memorable grandmother to the donkey family. Her pictures give each animal a clear personality before a word is read, from the wonky ears and wild hair to the expressions that sell the joke.

She has also illustrated Willbee the Bumblebee, a rhyming tale about a bee whose striped jersey comes undone. Across these books, readers will find animal characters, bold color, visual gags, and plenty of room for adults and children to join in with the repeated sounds. The stories are built for being read aloud, and Cowley’s art helps make every rhyme easy to follow.

The joke is often right there on the page.

Picture books are only one part of her creative life. Cowley has worked as a painter, assemblage sculptor, singer, and workshop leader, teaching drawing, creative journaling, and self-expression. Her work has taken her from the United Kingdom to New Zealand and Australia, and publisher profiles have also described her as returning to England. She has said she likes to make early sketches in cafés and public places, then move into the studio for the slower work of finishing them.

That sense of play carries through everything she does. Cowley’s illustrations invite children to look closely, laugh at the odd details, and feel that a character does not need to be neat, polished, or perfect to be worth cheering for.