I was seven years old when I first thought I would like to create books. At school I wrote stories and drew comics for my friends. When I left school I attended art college in England, (where I was born). I served for several years in the British Royal Navy and then worked as a designer and commercial illustrator. When I came to live in the USA that I began to illustrate and write books for children.
I grew up in the coastal town of Scarborough, Yorkshire in the UK. Now I live in mid coast Maine and work from home in my attic studio. Maine has an amazing heritage of children’s book authors and illustrators - including Ashley Bryan, E.B. White, Melissa Sweet and Dahlov Ipcar to name a few! There’s inspiration everywhere. I am lucky to live quite close to the sea and swim when it’s warm enough as Maine can be very cold. My two poodles keep me company in the studio - Toby, (who has his own book) and Cloudy.
I’m the author and illustrator of Toby and Sweet Pea Summer from Candlewick Press and I’ve helped create more than twenty children’s books including Borrowing Bunnies by Cynthia Lord (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), Imani's Moon (Charlesbridge), Animally (Kane Miller) and Where Do Fairies Go When It Snows? (Down East). You can find out more about my books - click here.
If you'd like to talk about an illustration project, arrange a visit to your school or library, buy a signed book or just say 'hi', please send a message below or email me at hazelgmitchell@outlook.com. thanks for visiting my website.
Awards and recognitions include: NYC READS 365 Anna Dewdney Read Together Finalist Audiofile Best Book Reading is Fundamental Choice Book Bank Street's Best of Children's Books Bronze Award Children's Books SILA MASL Show ME Readers MS Association Books For A Better Life Finalist Forewords Review BOTYA Gold Medal Learning Magazine Teachers’ Choice Award Charlotte/Mecklenburg Library Best Book List Chicago Library Best Book List Maine State Libraries 'Cream of the Crop' The Association of Children’s Librarians of Northern California Distinguished Books PAL member SCBWI
Publishers include: Candlewick Press, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Charlesbridge Publishing, DownEast Books, Highlights, ABDO/Magic Wagon, Kane Miller, Freespirit, Reading A-Z and SCBWI.
Latest Books Sweet Pea Summer, Candlewick Press The Fall Fairy Gathering (by Liza Gardner Walsh) Down East Books I Love You, Oceanly (by Lynn Parrish Sutton) Kane Miller Borrowing Bunnies (by Cynthia Lord and John Bald) Farrar, Straus and Giroux Farmers Market Surprise (written and illustrated by Hazel Mitchell) Kane Miller How Do Fairies Have Fun in the Sun? (by Liza Gardner Walsh) Down East Books 1,2,3 Fairies (by Liza Gardner Walsh) Down East Books Do Fairies Bring The Spring? (by Liza Gardner Walsh) Down East Books Toby by Hazel Mitchell Candlewick Press (see more HERE)
Exhibitions Cats in Hats Exhibition, Dr Suess Museum, Springfield, MA Boyd's Place Illustration Exhibit, Bangor ME Bronze Medal, Illustration West, Society of Illustrator's Los Angeles Brick House Museum,Kennebunk, ME Coduit Arts Centre, MA 'Process of the Picture Book' Rivertree Arts, Kennebunk ME Freeport Library, ME Warwick Museum Art, RI Pittsfield Library, ME Freeport Library, ME Bangor Children's Museum, ME
All images, text, photographs and ideas represented on this website are copyright of the artist Hazel Mitchell and may not be reproduced, copied or used in any way without written permission of the artist.
