P. J. Lynch

Patrick James Lynch (born 2 March 1962), known professionally as P. J. Lynch, is an Irish artist and illustrator of children's books. He won both the 1995 and 1997 Kate Greenaway Medals from the British Library Association, recognising the year's best children's book illustration by a British subject.

Born in Belfast, Lynch was the youngest of five children. He was interested in art from an early age, often choosing to spend his free periods during school in the art department. He recalls that Belfast in the 1970s was a "scary" place for a teenager, and he used drawing and reading as a "way of escaping for a while from the horrors that were happening around me in the real world." He attended the Brighton College of Art and departed in 1984 to begin working on children's books.

Lynch's first illustrated book was A Bag of Moonshine by Alan Garner (1986), a collection of folklore tales from England and Wales. For that work he won the Mother Goose Award, given to the "most exciting newcomer to British children's book illustration". Since then folklore—traditional stories, legends, and fairy tales—has been a recurring subject of his work.

The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey by Susan Wojciechowski, published by Walker Books in 1995, tells the story of a gloomy woodcutter who gradually recovers his ability to find joy in life. It proved to be very popular, with sales in the United States exceeding one million copies. Lynch's illustrations were lauded for their "exceptional range of texture and colour", and earned him both the Kate Greenaway Medal and the Christopher Medal. James Earl Jones recorded a Grammy-nominated reading and a movie based on the book was released in 2007.Jonathan Toomey is Lynch's work most widely held by WorldCat participating libraries.

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