Britta Teckentrup

About Author

ReadingZone caught up with author and illustrator Britta Teckentrupp to find out about her powerful new picture book, We Are All One.

Britta Teckentrup is a fine artist and an award winning illustrator and author; she has created more than 80 children's picture books which have been published in 20 countries. Her fine art work has been frequently exhibited in London and at art fairs all over the world.

Britta was born in Hamburg, but moved to London in 1988 to study illustration and fine art at St Martin's College and the Royal College of Art. After 17 years in the UK, Britta now lives and works in Berlin with her Scottish husband, son Vincent and their old cat, Oskar.

Interview

April 2026

Britta Teckentrup fosters unity and a love of nature with her new picture book, We Are All One

'We are raindrops in sunlight
And the rivers that flow.
We are winds blowing hard
And all things that grow.'

In We Are All One, Britta Teckentrup's message of unity, hope and our interdependence on nature shines through. The simple rhyming text holds a powerful message, that we are all responsible for caring for our planet, which will speak to very young children as well as adults.

ReadingZone caught up with author and illustrator Britta Teckentrup to find out more about We Are All One, her love of nature and the themes she explores through her stories, and how her picture books are created.

Q&A with Britta Teckentrupp: Encouraging unity, hope and a love of nature in We Are All One

"In a world that seems so divided I wanted to convey a message of unity and hope. We can only achieve things
if we work together, and have to remember that we are all part of nature . . . We are all connected."

1. Hello Britta, thank you for joining us on ReadingZone to talk about your new picture book, We Are All One. Can you tell us how you first became an author and illustrator, and what kinds of books you enjoy creating? Is there any one book that has stood out for you during your career?

I studied illustration and Fine Art Printmaking at St. Martins and the Royal College of Art, and illustrated my first picture book Coyote Makes Man, written by James Sage, in 1993 after being approached by a publisher at my BA degree show - I was very lucky. I thought that I wasn't very good at writing back then - but the same publisher also encouraged me to write my own texts. I am forever grateful to her.

I love to create picture books around the themes of nature and emotions. It is difficult to pick a book that stands out - but maybe The Memory Tree, which I wrote after my grandmother died. I helped me to deal with my loss.

2. What inspired your new book, We Are All One, and its message of unity?

I can't always trace my inspiration exactly - but I think that it started with a verse that I had written down: We are clouds in a storm and the waves of the sea. We are the grass in a field and the leaves of a tree. I started to add more and more lines to the poem and it started to become clearer to me what I wanted to say.

In a world that seems so divided I wanted to convey a message of unity and hope. We can only achieve things if we work together and have to remember that we are all part of nature and have to look after our beautiful planet. We are all connected. Earth welcomes a multitude of living beings and all of them deserve our respect, attention, care and awe. We are not just observers of nature - we are nature.

Illustrations from We Are All One by Britta Teckentrup

3. Do your stories respond to current issues in the world? How important is it for you as an author to give children positive messages in your picture books?

Yes - my books are often a response to current issues in the world. It is not always a conscious decision and happens quite intuitively. Ending on a positive and hopeful note is very important to me. We can only change things for the better with hope and courage. Most of my books talk about the need of connection and community.

4. Your stories often emphasise humanity's oneness with nature. Do you feel that stories like We Are All One can help encourage young children to see the world differently as they grow up?

I feel that children as well as adults can sometimes feel a little disconnected from nature (and people) in our modern, digital society. Children have got such a natural sense of wonder, awe and curiosity for nature and it is so important to nurture that curiosity all the way to adulthood. I think that staying connected to nature brings so much happiness and also makes us feel responsible for looking after and caring for our planet in such uncertain times.

5. How do you create your picture books and what is the writing process like for you?

It varies from book to book. Some books start with the images and others with the text. For We Are All One I wrote the poem first. Working on a poem is a little bit like working on a collage. I write down text snippets/verses/rhymes and play around with the words until everything fits and feels just right - it is quite intuitive.

6. The illustrations in We Are All One are created with collage work, layering and cut-throughs - it's your distinctive style, but how did this first develop?

I work in digital collage these days, scanning in hand-printed textured papers and developing the artwork in Photoshop. All of my early books were created in analogue collages without the use of computers. I used oil paint on newsprint and tiny nail scissors to cut out the characters back then. I remember that the tiny bits of paper used to drive me crazy at times :) The cut-throughs are a speciality of Little Tiger Books and I get a lot of help from their team developing them.

7. Can you talk about the pacing of the story through We Are All One, and how you use the illustrations and cut throughs to deliver the message of togetherness?

The poem is quite minimal, I think. Every sentence in the poem starts with the words 'We' or 'We are' (set in in bold type) to give a feel of unity, and describes two different aspects of nature. For example: 'We are raindrops in sunlight And the rivers that flow. We are winds blowing hard And all things that grow'. The poem then moves on to talk about how we all move and communicate before it zooms out to show the whole earth from space with all its glorious flora and fauna.

The message of togetherness is also mirrored in the design of the book. The die-cuts are used to emphasize the word 'We' and help to connect all of the pages and their different landscapes. Flying leaves make their way throughout the book starting on the front endpapers all the way to the final spread . . .

8. Do you have a favourite spread. We love the cover and final spread - indeed the final page would make a lovely poster for schools!

The final spread is my favourite spread as well. I love the zoomed-out view of Earth from space and that we can see the huge variety of living beings walking our planet.

9. Do you have other picture books planned? What are you working on currently, and where do you do most of your writing and illustration work?

I work from my studio at home. Home is a flat in Berlin. There will be more books in the Little Tiger die-cut series - but I can't say too much at this stage, I am afraid.

10. How often do you manage to get out into nature yourself? What are your favourite landscapes, and where do you go when you're looking for inspiration?

I grew up very close to nature - we lived opposite a forest - but I always chose to live in big cities for some reason - first in London and now in Berlin. Berlin and most big cities are full wildlife though. I feed crows and jays from my balcony and see foxes in my street at night. When I go to the park I can see bats flying through the night. Nature is everywhere and all around us.

My favourite landscapes are forests and the sea - but don't go there often enough. For some reason I get most inspired when I am sitting on a train or lying in the bath - but inspiration can hit me anytime and everywhere.

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