Lynn Breeze

Lynn Breeze is a British illustrator and author who specialises in books for babies and toddlers. and has also written many stories. as well as the This Little Baby series. Her books have been translated into various European languages, and have been distributed internationally. and was influenced by the 1966 Aubrey Beardsley exhibition at the V&A Museum, as well as the work of Alan Cracknell. She started her career working at an advertising agency in Ipswich, and later worked as the art editor for East Anglia Magazine, where she also did all the illustrations. and achieved success with the This Little Baby series of board books.

The Pickle series written and illustrated by Lynn Breeze include books such as Pickle and the Ball, Pickle and the Blanket, Pickle and the Blocks, and Pickle and the Box, published by Kingfisher. Pickle is the name of a bald, bright-eyed baby who is curious about the world,

Other board books by Breeze have included My First Tooth, My New Potty, My Day Out, and My New Baby (Orchard Books), which she illustrated using pencil, watercolour, and gouache. Tony Bradman on Billy and the Baby (HarperCollins); Sue Nicholls on Bobby Shaftoe Clap Your Hands: Musical Fun with New Songs from Old Favourites (A & C Black); and Donna Bryant on the One Day series (Hodder & Stoughton).

Critical reception

US reviews In 1993, School Library Journal called This Little Baby Goes Out and This Little Baby's Playtime, which were both written and illustrated by Breeze, "pleasant fare for toddlers", adding, "Their large formats and vividly colored subjects make them useful for story times." Meanwhile, Entertainment Weekly said that This Little Baby series offered babies "tender pictures of a familiar world", but argued that while "Breeze's drawings are upbeat...sometimes her smiling characters look not just happy but tipsy."

In 1999, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette said in a widely syndicated review that the Pickle series of board books were "the very definition of simple, but just right for the youngest set."

In 1995, TES magazine called Our Baby by Tony Bradman and Lynn Breeze a "lifeline" for parents who have toddlers and babies at the same time. The book makes toddlers aware of the things that they can do, which babies and even parents cannot, helping them deal with having a baby in the family "through a sense of fun, presenting illustrations with bold shapes that a toddler can easily recognise; good, strong colours and a tremendous sense of pattern", with curving text woven into the images.

Personal life Breeze has two daughters, who were an inspiration for her work when they were very young. She has lived in many parts of the UK, and eventually settled in Hebden Bridge, where she has been part of the Upper Calder Valley artists' community.