Jeremy Tankard is the author and illustrator of some very silly picture books including the bestselling Grumpy Bird series (Grumpy Bird, Boo Hoo Bird, Hungry Bird and Sleepy Bird) and Me Hungry. His current projects include a couple of graphic novels with HarperCollins (Yorick and Bones, cowritten with his teenage daughter, Hermione). He has also illustrated books for other authors: Piggy Bunny by Rachel Vail; It’s a Tiger! by David Larochelle; Here Comes Destructorsaurus! by Aaron Reynolds; and Melvis and Elvis by iconic Canadian writer Dennis Lee.
The funny thing is, he never planned to be a writer. However, after many years of drawing pictures he decided that maybe adding some words to his art would be a nice thing to try. To his surprise he loved writing and it seemed to be a natural fit for his drawings. And to his even greater surprise those first books were bestsellers! The rest is history and he can’t imagine a life without stories.
Jeremy was born in Cape Town, South Africa but left at the age of four for a new life in the United States. After living in South Carolina, Kentucky and Tennessee, his family moved to Calgary, Alberta where he spent most of his school years, finally ending up at the Alberta College of Art and Design. After a few years in Toronto he now resides, with his family, in Vancouver.
When not making books he enjoys hiking, guitar playing, kung fu, apple pie and french fries (but not together – that would be weird).