Mike Smith author page

Mike Smith biography

Mike Smith is a UK author-illustrator best known for the fold-out picture books The Hundred Decker Bus and The Hundred Decker Rocket. A graduate of the MA Children’s Book Illustration course at Cambridge School of Art, Anglia Ruskin University, he creates detail-rich scenes designed for shared reading and classroom use.

The Hundred Decker Bus was his debut picture book, first published in 2013. It follows a bored bus driver whose route grows ever taller as more passengers – and entire activities – are stacked onto the vehicle, culminating in a giant fold-out finale. Smith extended the concept with The Hundred Decker Rocket, a space adventure featuring inventor Ivy and her dog Eddie, reissued in 2021.

Smith cites classic cartoonists and storytellers among his influences and works primarily with Pan Macmillan on his children’s list. His books emphasise bold composition, visual jokes and cumulative detail that reward re-reading with young audiences.

He won the Macmillan Prize for Children’s Picture Book Illustration in 2010.