Surprising sharks

Nicola Davies

Nicola Davies, earlier known as Nick Davies, is a Welsh zoologist and writer and is the Children's Laureate for Wales 2025–2027. She is the author of more than 80 books for children and young people, picture books, non fiction poetry and fiction. Her work focuses mainly on biological science, nature and human relationships with the natural world but she has also written about refugees, war, grief and disability. Her work has been published in multiple languages around the world and adapted for the stage and animation. She was one of the original presenters of the BBC children's wildlife programme The Really Wild Show. Her books include Home, which was shortlisted for the Branford Boase Award, and Poo (2004), which was illustrated by Neal Layton, and was shortlisted for a Blue Peter Book Award in 2006; in the United States, the book is published as Poop: A Natural History of the Unmentionable. Her children's picture book The Promise illustrated by Laura Carlin won the Green Book Award in 2015 and was cited as one of the New York Times picture books of the year. It was made into an animated short film for the BBC TINY illustrated by Emily Sutton won the Subaru AAAS prize for best science book in its age category. https://www.sbfprize.org/tiny-creatures The YA eco fantasy ‘Skrimsli’ won the children and young people's category of Wales Book of the Year in 2024 https://fireflypress.co.uk/blog/tiger-sea-captain-skrimsli-wins-wales-book-of-the-year-in-a-night-to-remember/ Choose Love a poetry collection highlighting the refugee experience was shortlisted for the YOTO Carniege Medal for writing in 2024 https://carnegies.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Choose_Love_Shortlist_Pack1.pdf