Picture This winner!

18th September 2009: Waterstone's is delighted to announce that Karen George is the winner of our Picture This competition.

Karen, an undiscovered illustrator from London and graduate of the Royal College of Art, beat over 900 aspiring artists to take the prize of working with the biggest name in children's picture books, Julia Donaldson.

Waterstone's picture book buyer, Kate Skipper, believes Karen has a glittering career in front of her; "Karen is a wonderful new talent, and now has an amazing opportunity. Her first book will be with the undisputed queen of children's picture books."

Julia Donaldson, who announced Karen as the winner at the Bath Festival of Children's Literature, is looking forward to working with her new illustrator. "I am very pleased that Karen has won. She has a warm, appealing and distinctive style that I think will complement the text of Freddie and the Fairy perfectly."

Karen, a mum of two, said, "It has long been my ambition to illustrate picture books for children. I never dreamed I would start by working with the biggest and best name in the business! I cannot wait to show my own children a finished copy."

Freddie and the Fairy, by Julia Donaldson and Karen George, will be published by Macmillan Children's Books in Autumn 2010.

The shortlist - click on their names below to see examples of their work.

Alex Paterson            Anna Collison            Esther Johnson

Karen George           Maria Nilsson             Rod Waters

You can continue to share your pictures and discuss the competition on our Flickr site.

Picture This is Waterstone's search, alongside Macmillan Children's Books, for an unpublished illustrator to work with Britain's biggest-selling picture book author, Julia Donaldson - writer of The Gruffalo, The Princess and the Wizard and Tyrannosaurus Drip. The prize is the opportunity to illustrate a book to be published for Christmas 2010.

In April this year we invited anyone who had not worked professionally as a children's book or children's cover illustrator to submit full colour character sketches of the three main characters in Julia's story (Freddie, The Fairy and the Fairy Queen), at least two animals plus full colour artwork for one double-page spread. We had almost 1000 entries, and after a really tough judging process, these have been whittled down to a shortlist of six, who have been invited to submit further artwork for the final stage of judging. The overall winner of Picture This will be announced at the Bath Children's Literature Festival in September.

The judging panel consists of Julia Donaldson, Lauren Child, (bestselling children's author and illustrator), the editorial director for picture books at Macmillan Children's Books, a literary agent, Waterstone's picture books buyer and a children's book reviewer.

Full Terms and Conditions

Freddie and the Fairy

Freddie found a fairy

Tangled in a tree.

"Help! I'm stuck!" the fairy cried,

So Freddie set her free.

"Thank you," said the fairy.

"My name is Bessie-Belle.

I'll grant you all your wishes,

Though I can't hear very well."

Freddie thought, then mumbled:

"I wish I had a pet."

"Why, so you shall!"said Bessie Belle,

And conjured up . . . a net.

"I don't want fish," said Freddie.

"I 'd rather have a dog."

"Hey presto!" said the fairy

And conjured up . . . a frog...

See Julia Donaldson's text in full...

Text copyright © Julia Donaldson, 2009. All rights reserved. Copying or reproducing all or part of the text except as part of an entry to Waterstone's Picture This competition, is prohibited to the fullest extent provided by law.