Sean Taylor (author)


Sean Taylor is a British author of children's books. He was born in 1965 and grew up in Surrey, England, he taught in Zimbabwe before studying literature at Cambridge. He currently divides his time between the United Kingdom and Brazil, where his wife is from.

Career

Taylor has written more than 60 children's books. His best known picture books including When Dinosaurs Walked the Earth, Hoot Owl, Master of Disguise, When a Monster is Born, A Brave Bear, and Huck Runs Amuck!. He's co-authored three illustrated nature books with ecologist Alex Morss: Winter Sleep, Busy Spring and Funny Bums, Freaky Beaks. He's also written longer fiction, including A Waste of Good Paper - a novel for teenagers set in a Pupil Referral Unit, and a number of first reading books including the Purple Class series.
Taylor's roots are in writing and performing poetry and he has written a trilogy of poetry titles for Walker Books. The first is The Dream Train - Poems for Bedtime published in 2022. The second is You're a Poet - Ways to Start Writing Poems published in 2024. The third is the collection of finger rhymes Five Little Friends.
Among several plays for young audiences written by Sean Taylor are Finding Santa produced in the UK by Little Angel Theatre and A Linha Magica and O Sonho do Jeronimo produced in Brazil by A Fabulosa Companhia.
Aside from writing, Sean Taylor has taught on three continents and runs poetry workshops in schools.

Awards

In December 2007, his book When a Monster is Born, illustrated by Nick Sharratt, won a gold medal in the Nestlé Prize for works for children five years old and under. However, he turned down the prize money from the sponsor, Nestlé, because of "questions surrounding Nestlé’s marketing of breast-milk substitutes".
In January 2008, Nestlé withdrew from the 23-year-old sponsorship role of the Booktrust administrated prize for children's writing.
In August 2007 the Dutch edition of When a Monster is Born was awarded with a Pluim van de maand.
Robot Rumpus, illustrated by Ross Collins, won the Scottish Book Trust Children's Book Awards in 2015.
Hoot Owl, Master of Disguise has been recognised by a number of awards, winning the 2017 Hampshire Picture Book Award and the 2018 Hong Kong Golden Dragon Book Award, and becoming an Honor Book in the 2016 Charlotte Zolotow Award.
In 2017 Where the Bugaboo Lives, an interactive choose your own adventure story illustrated by Neal Layton, won the Hampshire Illustrated Book Award and the Coventry Inspiration Book Award. It is now a Little Angel Theatre production.
In 2024 When Dinosaurs Walked the Earth won Oscar's Book Prize.

Works