Stargazers, Skyscrapers and Extraordinary Sausages

by Claudia Boldt

Henrietta is definitely not short on ambition. She’s going to start by being the world’s first ice-cream-making, sky-scraper-climbing lighthouse keeper. Unfortunately her dog Frank never seems to think about anything but sausages, and what’s worse he keeps getting sausages jumbled up in all her daydreams! Exasperated, the pair wonder if they’ll ever find anything in common…

Claudia Boldt’s bold style of illustration combines unusual angles, nostalgic prints, and childlike handwriting to recreate the surreal imaginings of her characters. This affectionate tale celebrates both the wanderlust of our ambitions and the power of food to unite us all. A fun read for anyone who loves ice-cream, sausages or, ideally, both!

Publisher: Child's Play

Claudia Boldt

Claudia Boldt was born in Germany but now lives in London. She attended the Glasgow School of Art, and then Kingston University, London, where she graduated with her Masters in Illustration in 2007 - the same year she founded Cloud Cuckoo Studio with fellow illustrator Katharina Koall in London's East End.

Already with two books to her name, UUGGHH! and Star Gazers, Skyscrapers & Extraordinary Sausages (both Child’s Play), Claudia loves to write and illustrate fun and slightly absurd comedies for four-year-olds, which are as equally entertaining for adults.

Cloud Cuckoo Studio clients include The Savoy Hotel and Waterstone's Books Quarterly. Claudia's work has been exhibited in London, Zürich and Berlin and has been selected to show at the illustrators exhibition in Bologna.

She received a Booktrust Best New Illustrators Award in 2011.

Illustration Technique

Claudia studied product and graphic design and started illustrating during her Illustration MA at Kingston where she started her first picture book, Star Gazers. She began with screen printing and linocuts as she liked the texture but couldn’t get the effect she wanted.

She then found a way to combine indian inks and line drawing by scanning them into the computer and building up the layers like a collage in Photoshop and adding colour. She said that you can try things out on the computer more easily but likes the edges of her drawings to be natural so doesn’t cut them out on the computer. She often has 20 versions of an illustration after this process and has to decide on which is the best one.

Claudia Boldt