Inga Moore facts for kids

Inga Moore (born 1945) is a talented Anglo-Australian author and illustrator. She is well-known for creating wonderful picture books for children. She has also brought classic stories to life with her beautiful drawings, including The Wind in the Willows and The Secret Garden.

About Inga Moore's Life

Inga Moore was born in Sussex, England, in 1945. When she was eight years old, her family moved to Australia. She went to school in Adelaide. Inga loved reading from a young age. She once shared that her favorite book at fourteen was The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides by James Boswell.

After finishing school, Inga worked at different jobs. She found her true calling after seeing Raymond Briggs’s book Father Christmas (1973). This book made her want to illustrate stories herself. She then started looking for work as an illustrator.

Early Books and Inspiration

One of her first books was Aktil’s Big Swim (1980). This story is about a brave mouse from Dover who decides to swim across the English Channel. The mouse doesn't realize how wide the channel really is!

In the early 1980s, Inga Moore moved back to England. She settled in Hampstead and kept working on picture books. Her famous book Six-Dinner Sid (1990) is about a clever cat. It took her six months to complete this illustrated children's book. Six-Dinner Sid won the Nestlé Smarties Book Prize in the under-five age group.

Finding a New Home and Inspiration

During a tough economic time in the early 1990s, Inga lost her flat. But this difficult event led to something good! She found a new apartment in a big, old house in a village in Gloucestershire. This house had a room with great light, perfect for her art studio.

The countryside around her new home was very inspiring. It was not far from the River Windrush. This beautiful area helped her create the illustrations for her edition of Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows. This book became a huge success, selling over a million copies!

Inga Moore has also illustrated other beloved children’s classics. These include The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett and The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde. As of 2010, Inga Moore was still living and working in Gloucestershire. She has even been reported to be working on a sequel to her version of The Wind in the Willows.

Books Written by Inga Moore

Inga Moore has written and illustrated many of her own books. Here are some of them:

• Aktil's Big Swim (Oxford University Press, 1980)
• Aktil's Rescue (Oxford University Press, 1982)
• The Vegetable Thieves (Andersen Press Ltd, 1983)
• A Big Day for Little Jack (1984)
• The Truffle Hunter (Andersen Press Ltd, 1985)
• Fifty Red Night-caps (Walker, 1988)
• Rose and the Nightingale (London: Andersen Press, 1988)
• The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (Prentice Hall, 1989)
• Six-Dinner Sid (Simon & Schuster, 1990)
• Oh, Little Jack (1992)
• The Little Apple Tree (1994)
• Six Dinner Sid: A Highland Adventure (2010)
• A House in the Woods (Candlewick Press, 2011)
• Captain Cat (Walker Books, 2012)
• Moose's Book Bus (Candlewick Press, 2021)

Illustrations for Other Authors' Works

Inga Moore has also lent her artistic talent to illustrate books by other famous authors. Here are some of the books she has illustrated:

• Prayers for Children, by Caroline Royds (Doubleday, 1989)
• Anne of Green Gables, by LM Montgomery (Henry Holth & Co, 1994)
• The Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame (Walker Books, 1999)
• The Reluctant Dragon, by Kenneth Grahame (2004)
• Dragons and Other Beasts, by Kenneth Grahame and E. Nesbit (2006)
• The Secret Garden, by Frances Hodgson Burnett (Walker Books, 2008)
• The Canterville Ghost, by Oscar Wilde