Meet the shortlist 2025: Mariesa Dulak and Rebecca Cobb

And last up from our shortlist is a tigery tale from the minds (And pencil) of Mariesa Dulak and Rebecca Cobb - the thoroughtly delightful There’s a Tiger on the Train.

Mariesa Dulak was born in Yorkshire of dual heritage (Barbadian/White British). Her Dad taught her how to hold a cricket bat, prune roses and master long division while her Mum fed her a nutritious diet of Fairy tales, Pam Ayres and Yorkshire puddings. A love of bookish things led to a degree in English literature, an MA in Children's Literature and a career in publishing. The GEA helped Mariesa turn her scribbles into stories – she now writes picture books about identity and family life. Mariesa is a Primary School Librarian and lives with her family in West London.

Rebecca Cobb grew up surrounded by coloured pencils, felt pens, wax crayons, poster paints and pieces of paper. She now works as a picture book illustrator and writer. As well as illustrating her own books, she has also illustrated works by authors, including Julia Donaldson, Helen Dunmore, Richard Curtis, Nicola Davies and Katherine Woodfine. In 2013, Rebecca won the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize for Picture Books with her book Lunchtime, and she has been shortlisted for the prestigious CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal three times.

Mariesa’s Q&A answers:

My preferred channel is Instagram and I'm @mariesadulak on Instagram, Bluesky and Threads (I am no longer on Twitter).

Who or what do you think the boy’s favourite picture book character would be, and why?

I think the little boy in the story would relate to Shirley in Come away from the water, Shirley by John Burningham and CJ in Last Stop on Market Street by Matt De La Pena and Christian Robinson. Both these books feature child characters who see things differently because of the way the adult in their world responds to them. In the first book Shirley makes the most of a trip to the beach by inventing a world of pirate ships and buried treasure when her parents are too preoccupied to engage with her. And in the second book, CJ’s nana shows him how to ‘find beautiful’ in the city as they take the bus help out at a soup kitchen. Both these picture books have glorious illustrations too.

How did you come up with the idea for writing this story?

This book was inspired by my own experience of working full time with a young family and finding it hard to get the balance right. One day I was trying to push my daughter on a swing AND deal with some urgent work emails and my daughter got very, very cross. But not with me… with my phone! After that day I tried to be more in the moment.  I stopped taking my phone to the park and made a vow to spend more non-screen time with each of my children every day. I’m not perfect but like most parents I do my best! The Dad in my story wants to spend time with his son too - he’s just distracted by the pressures of modern life. It takes a mobile-free moment for him to realise that he’s missing out on the things that really matter – being there for his son and making memories with him.  

What is your favourite picture book of all time, and who would you read it with?

This question is SO difficult. I simply can’t choose just one. The picture book that I remember reading when I was a child is Dogger by Shirley Hughes. Hughes captures the relationship between siblings and the anguish of losing a favourite toy perfectly. And then the picture book I remember sharing with my children again and again when they were little was You Choose by Pippa Goodhart and Nick Sharratt. The whole family would snuggle up on the bed and make up stories together using the prompts and illustrations from the pages. I love how as the children grew and their interests and choices changed, the book seemed to grow with them!  And lastly, one of the many picture books that I’ve enjoyed reading recently is If All the World Were by the amazing Joseph Coelho. I’d share all these books with my son and daughter – they are both in their teens now, but you are never too old to share a picture book!

Rebecca’s Q&A answers

My social media names are Instagram @rebecca_a_cobb and Bluesky @rebeccacobb . I will try my best to send a doodle soon and here are my answers to the questions:

Who or what do you think the boy’s favourite picture book character would be, and why?

I think that he would really like Bernard, from 'Not Now Bernard' by David McKee and also the little girl in 'Gorilla' by Anthony Browne because as well as these both being amazing picture books, I think he would identify with these characters as they both have busy parents and they wish they would pay them more attention! I think that he'd also love 'Up High' by Matt Hunt for the opposite reason in that the Dad in that book is very attentive to his little boy and it is a lovely depiction of their close relationship and how they notice and enjoy everything around them.

How did you decide what the characters would look like? (Rebecca)

I always think it is the sign of brilliant writing when you can easily imagine what a character looks like as you are reading a story and when I read Mariesa's story 'There's A Tiger On The Train' I could straight away picture in my mind all the chaos of the train journey - with those cheeky piglets and their mum, the beach ready crocodiles with their buckets and spades, the hippos with their picnic hamper and cups of tea and of course the bright orange, top-hat-wearing tiger, reading his comic. The tricky thing was then trying to get the pictures in my mind down onto paper so I had to do lots of drawing to get them as close as possible to what I had imagined. I loved the colours of the choice of animals that Mariesa had written about so instead of giving them clothes to wear which I felt would cover them up and hide them a bit too much, I chose to leave them mostly as they were without anything on except for perhaps just one or two accessories. For the boy and the dad characters I was led by Mariesa who gave me notes on who they were which was really helpful. I also spent a lot of time working out how the train would look too and what pattern should be on the seats because that felt like an important part of this book as well. I actually built a little cardboard model of the train carriage to help me draw it and plan how each page would look.

What is your favourite picture book of all time, and who would you read it with?

That is extremely hard to choose and I don't think I could say just one book because I think my answer changes all the time but right now I'm going to say 'Bathe the Cat' by Alice B. McGinty and David Roberts and I would choose to read it with my two daughters. We love this book and read it together all the time and it never stops being funny. I love how much it makes us laugh, it is visually stunning because David Roberts' illustrations are absolutely beautiful and it is very clever how it lets the reader in on the secret of the cat shuffling the to-do list around without the other characters noticing.