Corrinne Averiss is the author of My Pet Star, winner of the Sainsbury’s Children’s Book of the Year, shortlisted for Stockport and Dundee Children’s Book Awards and is in over 450,000 homes as part of Booktrust’s Pyjamarama campaign.

Her first book, A Dot in the Snow, illustrated by Fiona Woodcock, was shortlisted for the CILIP Greenaway award, featured on CBeebies’ Bedtime Stories and in The Sunday Times’ Books of the Year. She is the author of Joy, Hope, Sorrel and the Sleepover, The Boy on the Bench and Floss the Playground Boss, with a further three titles publishing next year.

She is drawn to themes of identity and belonging in her books and aims to deliver big feelings with humour and tenderness.

Corrinne says: “I was delighted and honoured to be asked to write for the Carmelite Prize. It is a competition that has consistently unearthed some of the most original visual story-tellers. I can’t wait to see the different interpretations of this story and particularly the characterisation of its hero. My story combines small detail and moments of introspection, with sweeping cosmic vistas and dramatic action – I hope it offers an enjoyable illustrative challenge!”