Matt Hunt's picture book quest, How to Find a Yeti

About Author

Explore Matt Hunt's hilarious new picture book, How to Find a Yeti, and a small boy's quest to find this mythical creature.

Matt grew up in the historical county of Worcestershire, England, and studied Fine Art at the Birmingham School of Art, before developing his love for children's illustration. Matt works in mixed media - paint, pens, crayons, and digital - and loves to create new and interesting characters and write stories for them.

He now lives in his home town of Redditch with his wife, spending busy days drawing from his home studio. He's influenced by old movies, classic illustration, cartoons and books.

www.instagram.com/matthunt matthuntillustration.com

Interview

November 2025

Explore Matt Hunt's hilarious picture book quest, How to Find a Yeti (Nosy Crow)

A young boy is obsessed with yetis and is convinced that a yeti lives in the woods behind his house. But in his quest to find the creature, the yeti - and the reader - are one step ahead . . . ReadingZone finds out more about How to Find a Yeti in this month's Q&A with author and illustrator Matt Hunt.

Review: "A fun-filled, engaging read, How to Find a Yeti also offers so many possibilities for play, art activities and learning!" Extract

How to Find a Yeti Activities

Actions: As the little boy hunts high and low and looks to left and right, encourage children to join in with these actions, perhaps taking the chance to reinforce directional language or prepositions. They could look in front and behind, under and over, above and below etc.

Create a Map: Children could create their own yeti search maps, and set out on a yeti hunt of their own, developing imaginative play based around the story. Sue Wilsher, teacher

Pack for a Yeti Hunt: Draw a backpack with all the thing you would take on a yeti hunt. Would you take your favourite scarf, pants, toy, flask, book? What does it look like? What would you take for your picnic? Would you take a companion with you, your pet gerbil or maybe your best friend? Matt Hunt

Q&A with Matt Hunt

"The idea for the story really started to form once I had a drawing of the yeti and boy together."

1. Hello Matt, thank you for joining us on ReadingZone. Can you tell us how you became a picture book creator, and the kinds of books you enjoy creating?

Well, I studied art and university and after I graduated I found myself becoming more and more interested in illustration, slowly building a portfolio of characters and narrative work. I don't think I knew at the time that I wanted to make picture books it was more just creating work that I liked and seeing what I could do with it. Then I was lucky enough to find a brilliant agent.

2. What happens in your new picture book, How to Find a Yeti?

It's about a boy who's absolutely convinced a yeti lives in the forest behind his house. He's a bit of a self proclaimed yeti expert and wants to be the first person to ever find one!

3. What inspired this quest-style 'yeti hunt' in this story? Is it drawn from your own childhood dreams of finding a mythical beast?

It came about through drawing the yeti himself. I can't quite remember what drew me to drawing the him, but I really liked how gruff but friendly he looked. The idea for the story really started to form once I had a drawing of the yeti and boy together.

4. How do you bring out the boy's obsessiveness in finding a yeti at the start of the story?

At the beginning of the story the boy describes how much of a yeti fan he is, this was really fun to write. He says how many yeti books he's borrowed from the library and show off his 1:16 scale yeti cardboard cutout. I like to add details in the background too, like books and yeti drawings the boys made.

5. This is very much a story where the words tell the reader one thing and the pictures another, how do you develop this through How to Find a Yeti?

The story is narrated by the boy. So as the reader we get to be in on the yeti hunt too, but unlike the boy we can actually see what's going on!

6. Can you talk about illustrating this picture book, how you developed the style of illustration and the contrasting settings and landscapes?

I feel like my illustrations are a combination of a few things that I enjoy. I like using traditional media, so the artwork in the book is made mainly with pencil and pastels. But I also enjoy adding elements of collage from photographs or magazines.

7. Why did you decide to make the Yeti so huge? Did it make the perspectives, and hiding him, a little tricky?

I thought it would make the whole premise much more funny if the yeti was really big! Also it would be a very cool skill for the yeti to have, to be able to blend in with his environment, despite being huge.

Hopefully it will be a fun moment each time they get a glimpse of the yeti, and seeing those big purple yeti feet for the first time!

8. Are you working on other picture books currently?

Yes! I'm working on a nice variety of books at the moment. One where gravity has been turned off, another with a naughty bee, and I'm writing my next author/illustrated book too.

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