Picture book My Mummy is a Unicorn, illustrated by Kim Fleming is out now!

The very sparkly picture book My Mummy is a Unicorn, illustrated by Kim Fleming and published by Scholastic Australia is out now! Read our interview with Kim, below.

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Kim writes:

“My Mummy is a Unicorn was so much fun to work on from start to finish.

I get to draw a dragon? A mermaid? A tickle monster!? Total dream project!

Plus it celebrates all of the amazing, creative, caring things that mothers do for their children every day, so what could be better than that? It’s a perfect Mother’s Day book!”

My Mummy is a Unicorn, illustrated by Kim Fleming, published by Scholastic Australia.

From the publisher:

“Join in the fun as mother and child use their imaginations to create a magical day full of fantastical adventures.”

Q: How did this book come about?

A: The publisher saw this personal piece of mine (below), which prompted them to commission me. I do love adding magic realism to my illustrations, and Unicorn is certainly full of that, so it was a great match!

Q: What did you love about this project?

A: In this story, the main character imagines their mother as all sorts of different magical creatures. I absolutely loved that I got to bring that sense of wonder to the page–illustrating a dragon, a robot, a genie, and imagining each of their fantastical environments.

I also loved adding in little details not in the text, such as the purple swath of hair the mother character has in each personification, or the main character’s sidekick mouse friend.

Q: What medium do you use for your illustrations?

A: I use a hybrid traditional-digital workflow.

I hand paint watercolor textures, and hand-carve rubber stamps which I use to make patterns. I scan all of these in and assemble them digitally in Photoshop.

I was really happy with how these illustrations turned out!

Above: The watercolor texture became the spotlight behind the main character in the illustration below.

Right: The stars and rainbow stamps became patterns on the child’s shirt and overalls, and the loopy repeated stamps formed the pattern on the ballerina’s bodice.

Q: Anything else you would like to add?

A: Yes, the cover is embossed with sparkles! Can I put in lots of smiley emojis here? And I just wanted to thank the team at Scholastic who were so amazing to work with.

Thanks Kim!

My Mummy is a Unicorn released March 1st, 2023 in Australia, and will hopefully be available worldwide soon. It is available for purchase here.