Althea Braithwaite, best known the author and illustrator of the Desmond the Dinosaur books and the Talk It Over/Talking It Through series, died on August 27, the Guardian reported. She was 80.
Braithwaite wrote more than 200 books--often just using her first name--and was also a publisher, printer and bookseller. The Desmond the Dinosaur series included Desmond and the Monsters (1975) and Desmond and the Stranger (1979). Some of the stories were adapted for TV.
The Talk It Over series, later updated and reissued as Talking It Through, was an example of her focus: "Lively, uncondescending and information rich, these non-fiction books covered familiar subjects such as fire engines and nature," the Guardian wrote. "Based on her premise that everyone copes better with the unexpected if they know something about it beforehand--and well-researched, with Althea taking notice of the opinions of both children and subject specialists--the books were designed to help children navigate new or difficult situations."
And her illustrations were "bold in line and colour. Her style of writing and illustrating was simple and direct and had a ready magnetism for children."
She also headed Polyhedron printers, and created Dinosaur Publications to publish her own books, which she eventually sold to Collins. For a time, she co-owned a mobile children's bookshop. Later in life, she took up painting, "starting initially with painting furniture and then painting on glass before acquiring a kiln and working on fused glass works."