SATA

PERSONAL

Born in England; married; children: three.

Bath Spa University, M.A. (writing for young people).

ADDRESS

• Home - Somerset, England.
• Agent - Barry Goldblatt, Barry Goldblatt Literary, LLC, 320 7th Ave., Ste. 266, Brooklyn, NY 11215.

CAREER

Author. Practicing veterinarian, 1991-c. 2010.

Leeds Book Award, Green Earth Book Award, Solihull Children’s Book Award, Heart of Hawick Children’s Book Award, and numerous award shortlists, all 2012, all for Sky Hawk; Little Rebels Award, for The Scarlet Ibis; German Prize for Children’s Environmental Literature, for Moon Bear; Leeds Book Award, for Gorilla Dawn.

WRITINGS

• MIDDLE-GRADE NOVELS
• The Most Precious Thing, illustrated by Louise Ho, Good Books (Intercourse, PA), 2006
• Wild Wings, illustrated by Yuta Onoda, Atheneum Books for Young Readers (New York, NY), , published with illustrations by Mark Owen as Sky Hawk, Oxford University Press (Oxford, England), 2011
• White Dolphin, illustrated by Raquel Aparicio, Oxford University Press (Oxford, England), , published as One White Dolphin, Atheneum Books for Young Readers (New York, NY), 2012
• Moon Bear, illustrated by Alessandro Gottardo, Oxford University Press (Oxford, England), , Atheneum Books for Young Readers (New York, NY), 2014
• Scarlet Ibis, illustrated by Susan Meyer, Oxford University Press (Oxford, England), , Atheneum Books for Young Readers (New York, NY), 2014
• Gorilla Dawn, illustrated by Susan Meyer, Oxford University Press (Oxford, England), , Atheneum Books for Young Readers (New York, NY), 2016
• Sky Dancer, Oxford University Press (Oxford, England), 2017
• A Story like the Wind, illustrated by Jo Weaver, Eerdmans Books for Young Readers (Grand Rapids, MI), 2018
• The Storm Child, illustrated by James Gifford, Oxford University Press (Oxford, England), 2018
• Run Wild, Barrington Stoke (Edinburgh, Scotland), 2018
• Eagle Warrior, Barrington Stoke (Edinburgh, Scotland), 2019
• The Closest Thing to Flying, Oxford University Press (Oxford, England), 2019
• Swan Song, Barrington Stoke (Edinburgh, Scotland), 2021
• A Street Dog Named Pup, David Fickling Books (Oxford, England), 2021
• Song of the River, illustrated by Zanna Goldhawk, Barrington Stoke (Edinburgh, Scotland), 2022
• Moonflight, David Fickling Books (Oxford, England), 2023
• “PUPPY ACADEMY” READER SERIES
• Scout and the Sausage Thief, illustrated by Sarah Horne, Oxford University Press (Oxford, England), , Henry Holt (New York, NY), 2015
• Pip and the Paw of Friendship, illustrated by Sarah Horne, Henry Holt (New York, NY), 2016
• Star on Stormy Mountain, illustrated by Sarah Horne, Henry Holt (New York, NY), 2016
• Murphy and the Great Surf Rescue, illustrated by Sarah Horne, Henry Holt (New York, NY), 2017
• "WILLOW WILDTHING" CHAPTER-BOOK SERIES
• Willow Wildthing and the Swamp Monster, illustrated by Rebecca Bagley, Oxford University Press (Oxford, England), 2020
• Willow Wildthing and the Dragon's Egg, illustrated by Rebecca Bagley, Oxford University Press (Oxford, England), 2020
• Willow Wildthing and the Shooting Star, illustrated by Rebecca Bagley, Oxford University Press (Oxford, England), 2021
• Willow Wildthing and the Magic Spell, illustrated by Rebecca Bagley, Oxford University Press (Oxford, England), 2021
• "ISLAND VET" CHAPTER-BOOK SERIES
• Pirates and Sea Monsters, illustrated by Irina Avgustinovich, Barrington Stoke (Edinburgh, Scotland), 2024
• Rescue at Seal Bay, illustrated by Irina Avgustinovich, Barrington Stoke (Edinburgh, Scotland), 2024
• Devil Bird Island, Barrington Stoke (Edinburgh, Scotland), 2025

Contributor to anthologies, including A Wisp of Wisdom: Animal Tales from Cameroon, Lantant (London, England), 2016, and to periodicals, including the London Guardian.

SIDELIGHTS

Gill Lewis is a British author of children’s books that often focus on animals, reflecting her nearly two-decade career as a veterinarian. As a child growing up in England, Lewis fell in love with animals, not only family pets but also the scaly, feathery, and furry creatures that inhabited the wild places near her home. One of her favorite childhood pastimes was pretending to be all the different animals she had seen and known, while wishing that she really could shape-shift and change her form. [open new]In her early reading she appreciated illlustrations and favored one book in particular: The Living World of Animals. She explained to the Letterpress Project, “It was a huge book that covered life on earth across the biomes—from polar regions to oceanic islands to tropical rainforests. It has a wonderful key at the back showing how the Animal Kingdom was classified. It was my route into the reading world.”[suspend new]

Having a poor opinion of her handwriting and spelling abilities, and never writing any stories in secondary school, Lewis never really considered the possibility of becoming a writer. Her interest in animals instead led her into a career as a veterinarian. Subsequently, this career ended up inspiring her to spread empathy by becoming a storyteller, as she explained to a Book Activist interviewer: “As a vet I could see the deep bond between people and animals and how animals can become a bridge, bringing people and communities together. I think an understanding of how we relate to animals and each other is something we all have huge capacity for. Building empathy for an animal or human allows us to envision what life is like for another living person or creature, and hopefully allow us to build a fairer society respecting the rights of other humans and animals.”

As befits the focus on animals, Lewis also often focuses on nature and the environment. She explained to a U.K. National Trust interviewer, “My stories are always about the natural world and our connection with it. … As a child I could always be found outdoors, scrambling in the dirt after insects or fossils, or climbing up a tree, as far as I could. The natural world is a constant place of wonder and drives our imagination. As an adult I need it just as much, to remember what it is to stop and wonder at the world, to observe the small things, to simply have headspace to think and breathe.” Lewis shares her love of animals and the great outdoors in children’s stories that include The Most Precious Thing, One White Dolphin, Sky Hawk, and Gorilla Dawn. The last book was inspired by a trip to Zambia during her young adulthood and involves a gripping tale about child soldiers in war-torn central Africa.

A picture book featuring illustrations by Louise Ho, The Most Precious Thing introduces readers to Little Bear, a cub that decides to find that one thing in life that is most precious. On her search, Little Bear discovers fragrant flowers, beautiful stones and insects, and soft and lighter-than-air feathers, but her mother holds the secret to the most valuable thing in the young bear’s life. Praising The Most Precious Thing as a “sweetly simple tale,” a Kirkus Reviews writer added that Lewis’s portrayal of the ursine mother and child evokes “their deeply held affection.” Ho’s colorful, “light-filled artwork also captures “the innocent sincerity” of The Most Precious Thing, according to the Kirkus Reviews critic, and in School Library Journal, Daisy Porter maintained that the artwork enhances “the feelings of warm sunshine and mother-daughter bonding created” in Lewis’s simple text.

Lewis addresses older readers in Wild Wings, a story about two children who attempt to save the life of two ospreys, a species of bird that, during the nineteenth century, was hunted to near extinction for its eggs. After eleven-year-old Iona McNair comes to stay with her Scottish grandparents, she has trouble making friends because of her grandfather’s reputation as an alcoholic. Her discovery of an osprey nest while trespassing on a neighboring sheep farm finally wins her the friendship of schoolmate Callum McGregor. Because the bird—which they name Iris—is so rare, the children are wary of confiding in any grown-ups, but they finally share the nest’s location with a local naturalist. From him, the children learn how to track Iris’s amazing migration back to Africa and they are able to locate her when she becomes injured.

A Publishers Weekly contributor noted that in Wild Wings Lewis “deftly explores … divisions within friendships and communities” and the difficulties they cause, while also showing the human connections that can be forged by shared interests and passions. Booklist critic Carolyn Phelan noted that a “strong ecological theme” underlies this “vividly imagined and well-written novel,” and a Kirkus Reviews writer suggested that “short chapters, some with cliffhanger endings, will read aloud well.” In School Library Journal, Susan Scheps praised Lewis’s “heartwarming and informative story” as one “that is hard to forget,” and Clare Morpurgo wrote in School Librarian that “the intensity of the writing” in Sky Hawk enhances “the optimism in the [author’s] message.”

A troubled preteen living in coastal Cornwall, England, is Lewis’s focus in One White Dolphin. Defensive about her mother’s disappearance and her father’s difficulty holding down a job, Kara lashes out at those around her. Fortunately, Kara’s interest in wildlife is shared by new classmate Felix, who becomes her friend. Together, they take an interest in a baby albino dolphin that washes ashore on an endangered reef. “Gracefully written and intense,” according to Chilton, One White Dolphin chronicles the teens’ efforts to take an unpopular stand in order to do what they believe is right. Their respective “flaws and strengths,” noted School Library Journal reviewer Kathy Piehl, “make them credible protagonists who demonstrate courage and skill in bringing the conflict to a satisfying resolution.” According to a Kirkus Reviews writer, Lewis “evokes the natural world beautifully,” particularly in her “compelling descriptions of the surprising undersea and shoreline wonders that support the strong environmental message.”

Lewis sets Moon Bear in Laos and includes rich in background detail about traditional Asian medicine. Tam’s family members had their lives and livelihoods disrupted or eliminated due to war and its aftermath. Penniless, he takes a job at a bear-bile farm, where enormous ursines are kept caged and fitted with cruel metal devices around their midsection to aid in the extraction of this endocrine byproduct. Tam bonds with a moon cub he names Sook-dii and also dreams about his peaceful rural childhood. “There is sufficient Laotian history and culture woven in to provide an authentic, intriguing setting,” remarked a Kirkus Reviews writer, making Moon Bear “a moving and memorable tale.” In Booklist, Sarah Hunter maintained that Tam’s “accessible first-person narrative offers an illuminating, gritty glimpse into an industry that’s likely foreign to most,” while School Librarian writer Rachel Ayers Nelson observed that, despite the instances of animal “cruelty in this book, … all is happily resolved.” “Through Tam’s selfless quest” in Moon Bear, “readers witness the depths of his bravery, compassion, and strong moral compass,” concluded a Publishers Weekly critic.

Lewis’s story in Gorilla Dawn is an emotionally wrought tale about child soldiers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Imara, a young female captive, is enslaved by a commander whose battalion considers her a talismanic figure that ensures them victory in combat. Traumatized by her experiences, the girl is given charge of an orphan gorilla and forges a bond with the creature. Helped by a boy soldier named Bobo, she cares for the primate and formulates a way out of the grim mining camp. “Suspenseful and emotionally intense,” according to a Kirkus Reviews critic, Gorilla Dawn “is eco-fiction at its most appealing” as well as “a riveting survival adventure with an important message.” In School Library Journal, Rhonda Campbell cautioned that, despite the potentially upsetting themes in Gorilla Dawn, Lewis’s narrative keeps “the right distance from the emotional resonance of the characters’ horror-filled experiences, resulting in a work that is gripping and educational.”

Lewis’s juvenile novel Scarlet Ibis is narrated by twelve-year-old Scarlet Ibis Mackenzie, named after a bird from her absent father’s homeland of Trinidad. Like her father, Scarlet has caramel-colored skin, while her brother Red, with a different father, has pale skin and orange hair. The autistic Red spends his days cataloguing feathers, while their mother mostly smokes and lies in bed, leaving Scarlet to care for the family. She manages to hold things together when social worker Mrs. Gideon visits, but disaster results in the siblings’ separation, leaving Scarlet to strive for a reunion. In School Library Journal, Carol Connor deemed Scarlet Ibis “a loving story of family and the bonds of trust between siblings.” A Kirkus Reviews writer observed that with “a dash of her signature wildlife enthusiasm, Lewis explores an array of complexities.”

With A Story like the Wind, illustrated with blue-toned drawings by Jo Weaver, Lewis provides middle graders a window into one of the most pressing issues of the twenty-first century, the worldwide refugee crisis. The story is set in the Mediterranean, across which boats full of migrants often precariously cross from Africa or the Middle East to Europe. Fourteen-year-old Rami is drifting in a small dinghy with other Middle Eastern refugees whose supplies are running low. Having nothing to share with the others, he refuses to accept anything from them. At their urging, however, he offers a song, playing out with his beloved violin the story of an orphaned stallion. The horse is nursed back to health by a Mongolian shepherd and defies the Dark Lord’s attempts to suppress its existence. The story speaks to the passengers’ own life stories and their quest for an outer freedom to match the inner freedom they will always have.

Michele Shaw, in School Library Journal, called A Story like the Wind “a deeply powerful and timely narrative that will evoke conversation and thoughtfulness regarding the plight of refugees.” In School Librarian, Chris Brown likewise affirmed that the novella “evokes empathy, sympathy and a hope for the hopes of others.” A Kirkus Reviews writer declared that Lewis’s “measured, lyrical prose … brings to life the unified power of hope and faith and freedom.”

[resume new]Lewis kicked off her “Willow Wildthing” chapter-book series, starring an imaginative young explorer, with Willow Wildthing and the Swamp Monster. When her family moves to be closer to a hospital for the sake of her sickly younger brother, Willow is intrigued by the overgrown garden wilderness behind their house. Exploring alone one day with dog Sniff, Willow meets fellow children—named Fox, Hare, Mouse, and Raven—who appear to inhabit the wilderness, and she joins them to confront witches, caves, and a monster in the mire. In School Librarian, Brenda Heathcote appreciated how this title revolves around “imagination and creative play,” with the boundary between reality and make-believe blurred. Heathcote affirmed that Lewis’s “passion for nature” makes for “another delightful story,” one that “draws the reader in and involves them in the adventure.”

 Swan Song is a middle-grade novel about a boy having trouble getting along with his peers. His mother responds by quitting her job and taking him to live with her father in a seaside village in Wales. Doubtful at first, Dylan appreciates how Grandad declines to judge him, and they enjoy fishing and swan watching. When Dylan and new friend Elsie finds an ailing swan, they bring it to the vet and hope to help it heal in time to rejoin its migrating flock. School Librarian reviewer Clare Morpurgo declared that Lewis “never short changes her readers” and that “this little book packs a powerful punch.”

Humble rat Tilbury is the hero of Moonflight, though not by choice: as the seventh-born rat of a seventh litter, the curse of a priceless diamond hangs over his head. The journey overseas to return the diamond to its proper owners will test his mettle and merit to the max. In School Librarian, Louise Ellis-Barrett hailed Moonflight as a “story of adventures … with deep, heartfelt meaning” and “a quest to discover just what true treasure really is.”[close new]

Sharing her technique in writing animal stories in a London Guardian article, Lewis explained that she spends time in her animal characters’ setting. “Try to imagine yourself as an animal and use your observations of animal behavior and heightened animal senses,” she suggested. “Try to see the world from the animal’s perspective. What may sound like beautiful, joyful woodland birdsong to us may sound to the birds an aggressive riot of individuals claiming territory and calling for a mate.” “Above all,” she added, “have fun, get out there, and enjoy it.”

BIOCRIT

PERIODICALS

• Booklist, March 1, 2011, Carolyn Phelan, review of Wild Wings, p. 54; May 15, 2012, John Peters, review of One White Dolphin, p. 56; February 15, 2015, Sarah Hunter, review of Moon Bear, p. 77.

• Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, June, 2015, Jeannette Hulick, review of Moon Bear, p. 503.

• Daily Telegraph (London, England), November 18, 2011, Martin Chilton, review of Sky Hawk; May 2, 2012, Martin Chilton, review of White Dolphin.

• Guardian (London, England), May 2, 2012, “Top Writing Tips: Gill Lewis.”

• Horn Book Guide, fall, 2011, Lauren Aimonette Liang, review of Wild Wings, p. 361; fall, 2015, Lauren Causey, review of Moon Bear, p. 91.

• Kirkus Reviews, September 15, 2006, review of The Most Precious Thing, p. 959; March 1, 2011, review of Wild Wings; May 1, 2012, review of One White Dolphin; December 1, 2014, review of Moon Bear; December 1, 2016, review of Gorilla Dawn; April 15, 2018, review of Scarlet Ibis; August 1, 2018, review of A Story like the Wind.

• Publishers Weekly, March 14, 2011, review of Wild Wings, p. 74; January 26, 2015, review of Moon Bear, p. 169.

• School Librarian, autumn, 2011, Clare Morpurgo, review of Sky Hawk, p. 164; autumn, 2012, Wendy Worley, review of White Dolphin, p. 166; summer, 2013, Rachel Ayers Nelson, review of Moon Bear, p. 103; winter, 2014, Liz Smith, review of Scarlet Ibis, p. 232; winter, 2015, Brenda Heathcote, review of Gorilla Dawn, p. 229; autumn, 2017, Chris Brown, review of A Story like the Wind, p. 169, summer, 2020, Brenda Heathcote, review of Willow Wildthing and the Swamp Monster, p. 106; spring, 2021, Clare Morpurgo, review of Swan Song, p. 50; summer, 2023, Louise Ellis-Barrett, review of Moonflight, p. 57.

• School Library Journal, December, 2006, Daisy Porter, review of The Most Precious Thing, p. 107; May, 2011, Rick Margolis, interview with Lewis, p. 24; July, 2012, Kathy Piehl, review of One White Dolphin, p. 83; January, 2016, Rhonda Campbell, review of Gorilla Dawn, p. 89; May, 2018, Carol Connor, review of Scarlet Ibis, p. 86; October, 2018, Michele Shaw, review of A Story like the Wind, p. 66.

ONLINE

• Book Activist, https://thebookactivist.blog/ (April 4, 2017), author interview.

• Books for Keeps, http://booksforkeeps.co.uk/ (September 1, 2017), author interview.

• Five Books, https://fivebooks.com/ (January 25, 2019), Zoe Greaves, “Gill Lewis on Children’s Books about the Refugee Crisis.”

• Gill Lewis website, https://www.gilllewis.com (August 19, 2024).

• Guardian (London, England), http://www.guardian.co.uk/ (May 7, 2011), review of Sky Hawk.

• Letterpress Project, https://www.letterpressproject.co.uk/ (February 28, 2021), “An Interview with Gill Lewis.”

• National Trust website, https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/ (January 25, 2019), “An Interview with Children’s Author Gill Lewis.”

• Publishers Weekly, https://www.publishersweekly.com/ (February 2, 2017), Kristin Baver, “Q&A with Gill Lewis.”

• World Book Day website, https://www.worldbookday.com/ (May 1, 2017), author Q&A.

• Youth Libraries Group Northwest website, https://ylgnorthwest.wordpress.com/ (June 20, 2017), “Gill Lewis in Conversation with Jake Hope.”