Born in Richmond, illustrator Ashley Spires studied photography and book making at Emily Carr College of Art and Design. Her hand-made books have appeared in exhibits and she makes finger puppets for sale.
Her collage-style illustrations first appeared in Peter Kuitenbrouwer's Our Song: The Story of "O Canada", The Canadian National Anthem (Lobster Press, 2004, $19.95). Later she supplied illustrations for My Mom Loves Me More Than Sushi (Second Story Press, 2006) by Filomena Gomes.
In Binky: License to Scratch, the space team is alarmed when they discover their humans are going away without them! In a constantly worsening situation, the "pet hotel" turns out to be the vet, and the evil Professor Tuffy, an ex-space pet, is on-site. With no one else up to the task, it's up to Binky to stop Tuffy and her terrifying experiments.
Having lived in Toronto and Saskatoon, Spires now resides in Ladner.
You don't have to look very far to find ambitiously earnest parents who are eliminating play from the child's agenda. Overscheduled Andrew (Tundra $19.99) Ashley Spires is about a chickadee whose calendar is so full of classes and lessons and self-improvement activities that he has precious little time for fun. Sanity prevails. He eliminates most of his obligations and makes time for friendship and distractions.
BOOKS:
A Bloom of Friendship: The Story of the Canadian Tulip Festival (2007)
Ella's Umbrellas (2010)
Binky: License to Scratch (Kids Can Press 2013) $16.95 978-1-55453-963-5
The Most Magnificent Thing (Kids Can Press 2014) $16.95 978-1-55453-704-4
Spare Dog Parts (Orca 2016) text by Alison Hughes 978-1-4598-0704-4 $19.95
Fluffy Strikes Back (Kids Can Press 2016) 978-1-771138-127-7 $16.95
Over-Scheduled Andrew (Tundra 2016) $19.99 978-1-77049-484-8
Mae and June and the Wonder Wheerl (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 2017) $21.99 978-0-544630635
Fairy Science (Tundra 2019) $21.99 978-0-7352-6425-0
[BCBW 2019] "Kidlit"
Her collage-style illustrations first appeared in Peter Kuitenbrouwer's Our Song: The Story of "O Canada", The Canadian National Anthem (Lobster Press, 2004, $19.95). Later she supplied illustrations for My Mom Loves Me More Than Sushi (Second Story Press, 2006) by Filomena Gomes.
In Binky: License to Scratch, the space team is alarmed when they discover their humans are going away without them! In a constantly worsening situation, the "pet hotel" turns out to be the vet, and the evil Professor Tuffy, an ex-space pet, is on-site. With no one else up to the task, it's up to Binky to stop Tuffy and her terrifying experiments.
Having lived in Toronto and Saskatoon, Spires now resides in Ladner.
You don't have to look very far to find ambitiously earnest parents who are eliminating play from the child's agenda. Overscheduled Andrew (Tundra $19.99) Ashley Spires is about a chickadee whose calendar is so full of classes and lessons and self-improvement activities that he has precious little time for fun. Sanity prevails. He eliminates most of his obligations and makes time for friendship and distractions.
BOOKS:
A Bloom of Friendship: The Story of the Canadian Tulip Festival (2007)
Ella's Umbrellas (2010)
Binky: License to Scratch (Kids Can Press 2013) $16.95 978-1-55453-963-5
The Most Magnificent Thing (Kids Can Press 2014) $16.95 978-1-55453-704-4
Spare Dog Parts (Orca 2016) text by Alison Hughes 978-1-4598-0704-4 $19.95
Fluffy Strikes Back (Kids Can Press 2016) 978-1-771138-127-7 $16.95
Over-Scheduled Andrew (Tundra 2016) $19.99 978-1-77049-484-8
Mae and June and the Wonder Wheerl (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 2017) $21.99 978-0-544630635
Fairy Science (Tundra 2019) $21.99 978-0-7352-6425-0
[BCBW 2019] "Kidlit"
Articles: 1 Article for this author
Nominated for Ella’s Umbrellas
BC Book Prizes (2010)
Ella has every umbrella under the rainbow from aquamarine to jellybean green. Her umbrellas fill up the entire house. Aunt Stella from Katmandu is coming to visit and Ella's mom demands that Ella get rid of her umbrellas. But Ella wants to keep her precious possessions. Brought to life through rhythmic text and watercolor illustrations, this is the perfect book to cheer anyone up on a drizzly day. Jennifer Lloyd is a kindergarten teacher in Blainville, Quebec, and is the author of One Winter Night and Looking for Loons. Ashley Spires is the illustrator of A Bloom of Friendship: The Story of the Canadian Tulip Festival, which was nominated for the Silver Birch Award, the Hackmatack Children's Choice Award and the 2007 Red Cedar Award.
BC Book Prizes catalogue