WARNING: Grandma’s Gone Bonkers is an excellent standalone addition to B. Ware’s existing Words of WARNING collection, encouraging young children to be inquisitive and empathise with their grandparents. It features eye-catching illustrations by thirteen-year-old Bristol-based illustrator Theo Jarvis, who met the author during a school visit and who uses drawing as an outlet for his autism and ADHD.
Author B. Ware recently met with Theo to show him the final cover in print, and took the opportunity to ask him a few questions about his thoughts and feelings on his illustrations.
How does it feel seeing your illustrations on the cover in the flesh for the first time?
Amazing! It’s exactly how I pictured it.
What did you enjoy about drawing the cover for WARNING: Grandma’s Gone Bonkers?
I enjoyed the process of B. Ware giving me the characters or items from the book and then I would come up with the drawing of how I saw it in my mind!
How did it compare to illustrating the cover of her second book WARNING: May Contain Dragons?
I found drawing this cover more challenging because there was more focus on one character and I wanted to get Grandma just right – so she was the right amount of mischievous and fun, whilst being in the right position for the text on the cover.
Which was your favourite part of the new cover?
Whilst I really liked drawing Grandma, B. Ware asked me to draw a headmaster that had a ‘touch’ of vampire – at first, I gave him a pointy nose but then I didn’t want to give too much away about his vampire-ness. Instead, I gave him a neat, sharp hairline and pointy collar and upright posture, with a small fang slipping out of his mouth. So I think that was one of my favourite bits to draw.
How do you translate the ideas from B. Ware onto paper?
Sometimes, I imagine a real life version of the idea and then what would be a variation in a cartoon form, which I find easy to draw.
What are your other favourite things to draw?
I’ve always loved drawing sharks because of their streamline shape and trying to get their movement onto paper but also I enjoy drawing Transformers, Warhammer characters, my dogs and caricatures.
Would you be interested in illustrating future covers?
Definitely!
WARNING: Grandma’s Gone Bonkers will be published on 24th February 2026. The book is available to pre-order now from all good bookshops.
Waterstones | Amazon | Bookshop.org
Between 14th-17th October get 25% off the RRP on Waterstones when you enter the code OCTOBER25 at checkout.
