Richard Smythe author page

Richard Smythe biography

Richard Smythe is a British picture-book author and illustrator. He completed a master’s degree in illustration at the University of Hertfordshire in 2010 and has worked with publishers including Faber & Faber, Little Tiger, Walker Books and Simon & Schuster.

His illustration credits include Claire Freedman’s Beep Beep Beep Time for Sleep!, Maudie Powell-Tuck’s The Messy Book and Martin Jenkins’s Fox in the Night. For Faber & Faber, he illustrated Katie Blackburn’s Dozy Bear and the Secret of Sleep and Dozy Bear and the Secret of Food. He has also collaborated with Linda Joy Singleton on the picture books Crane & Crane and Sun & Son.

Smythe wrote and illustrated Toad Has Talent, published by Frances Lincoln Children’s Books in 2017. Set beside a frozen woodland pond, the story follows a toad who hides from the animals’ annual talent contest until an accident on the ice reveals an unexpected ability.

His collaborations with Tim McCanna include Watersong and Dinosong. Told largely through onomatopoeia, Watersong follows a fox seeking shelter as a rainstorm gathers force. Published in 2017 by Paula Wiseman Books and Beach Lane Books, it was selected as a New York Public Library Best Book for Kids and an NCTE Notable Poetry Book.

Richard Smythe teaching resources

• Simon & Schuster UK’s Watersong page provides an official book trailer and a downloadable activity-sheet PDF for Tim McCanna and Richard Smythe’s picture book. The page specifies ages 4-8 and links the book to sounds, weather and science and nature.
• Linda Joy Singleton’s downloadable activities page includes PDFs for two books illustrated by Richard Smythe: Crane & Crane activities, a homonym challenge, a colouring sheet, construction-crane hand signals and a bookmark, plus a Sun & Son homonym-story worksheet and nature scavenger hunt.
• LitLinks’ Crane & Crane lesson provides guidance for extending the 27-word picture book into a 30-60-minute interactive read-aloud, movement and sound prompts, and a structured Grades 3-5 homonym lesson with a learning target, five teaching steps, a performance task and success criteria.
• Linda Joy Singleton’s Get Kids Moving with Crane & Crane video presents a short follow-along movement exercise using the actions and language from the picture book illustrated by Richard Smythe.
• Simon & Schuster’s official Watersong book trailer presents Tim McCanna’s onomatopoeic text alongside Richard Smythe’s illustrations of a fox travelling through a rainstorm and wetland environment.