Kate Pankhurst Books In Order

Publication Order of Fantastically Great Women Books

Publication Order of Mariella Mystery Books

Kate Pankhurst is a nonfiction, biography and historical author and illustrator. The award winning author wrote and illustrated “Fantastically Great Women Who Changed the World,” a novel that would become a phenomenon. It went on to get a Kate Greenaway nomination in 2018 and was made into a series. Pankhurst was born and bred in Liverpool but decided to make her home in Leeds from where she writes her works from a studio in an old mill. She is fortunate to have Olive her dog accompany and stay with her while she writes. Her journey to becoming a well known author and illustrator started in her childhood when her father used to take her to the local library. She found the library amazing as she could turn up and find all manner of interesting books that she would then take home to read for free. Reading mystery novels, she always hoped that she stumbled upon a mystery that she would then resolve.

In addition to reading, Pankhurst had always loved to illustrate and began drawing when she was about five or six years old. The first drawing she ever did was a picture of her house and her family. There are many photos of the young author standing with pen in hand that she believes she was born to illustrate. While she loved to draw, the biggest inspiration came from the comic strips she found in a “Beano” magazine. She had been bored that there was not much mystery in her life and after going through the comics of a thrilling issue of Beano as an 8 year old, she though why not make her own. The comic was a huge success in her young mind as she sold three copies to her girlfriends who loved it. It was at this time that she knew that she needed to abandon her dreams of growing up to become an archeologist no matter how much she loved “Temple of Doom” and “Indiana Jones.” She began looking for a career that involved drawing though she did not even know it was called at the time. She would then get sidetracked into shoe designing but ultimately found a job as an illustrator. Practicing since she was young, she perfected her drawing and still pinches herself that she has come so far and made a career of what she always wanted to do.

Since Kate Pankhurst had always been a storyteller the writing would also become something she would try given her love for reading. While she knew she loved illustrating stories, it was not until she studied for a bachelors and masters degree in illustration that she realized she could make a career of it. By 2002, she had made the shortlist for the Picture Book Illustration Macmillan Prize and she was on her way. Since then she has been published as an author and illustrator and illustrated for several renowned authors. After her win in the Macmillan Awards she decided to try her hand at fiction and wrote “The Ghostly Guinea Pig,” the debut novel of the “Mariella Mystery” investigative series. She illustrated and wrote the entire series which is still ongoing. Plum Pudding Illustration acquired the series very early on even though Bloomsbury would subsequently be the publisher.

While she is best known for her fiction works, a less known fact about her is that she is related to Emmeline Pankhurst the suffragette. It was while she was doing the research for her phenomenal work “Fantastically Great Women” that she realized that she had paternal links to Emmeline. The incredible suffragette happens to be great grandfather’s brother’s son’s wife and so even though she technically does not have suffragette blood, she has always been fascinated by the astounding story which has no doubt inspired much of her writing. The connection she found resulted in a conversation that made her determined to write a novel that tells the stories of women in history who had done great things. She needed to do it in a simple and accessible way that could appeal to young readers hence the “Fantastically Great Women” series was born. When she is not doodling, drawing and writing, she loves to work with teachers and children. She usually shares the inspiring stories of great women that sparked her own journey to become an author and illustrator.

Kate Pankhurst’s “The Ghostly Guinea Pig” is the story of a super sleuth detective girl named Mariella Mystery. She is smart as a whip and can usually solve the most perplexing and mysterious problem in no time. Aged only nine years old, she has learned that to be a good detective one needs to write down the important facts of a case and everything pertinent that comes. In this outing Miss Crumble her teacher sees the ghost of Mr. Darcy her pet guinea pig walking in her back yard. She does not know if she is hallucinating or if her mind is playing tricks on her. It is now up to Mariella and her friends to try to understand and resolve the mystery. Writing down important observations and clues and sometimes including helpful drawings, it is an intriguing story that will captivate its readers from the first page to the last.

“A Cupcake Conundrum” by Kate Pankhurst opens to someone trying to ensure that the “Great Puddleford Bake Off” does not happen. Mariella and her friends are determined to find the person responsible. They want to save the pavlovas and Victoria sponges and ensure that the yearly contest will not become a veritable Kitchen Nightmare and Cupcake Catastrophe. It is a hilarious mystery with clever protagonists and a villain that is very hard to pin down. It makes for an interesting read trying to work out the culprit and readers will love the diary format with a ton of illustrations. These are novels that would be great for children in a wide range of ages given the ease of reading.

Kate Pankhurst’s “The Huge Hair Scare” opens to a strange fog causing havoc in Puddleford. Anyone that goes out in the fog usually experiences some strange problems such as shocking color transformations, uncontrollable wild volume and extreme frizziness for days. It is now left to the Mystery Girls to determine the cause of the fog and what to do before everything gets out of hand. The hair changing and cloud stuff make for fun reading and it is great to see the abstraction and hair changes among the characters in the illustrations.