Ingo Siegner was born in 1965 in Hanover and grew up in nearby Großburgwedel. Today he lives in Hanover. After an apprenticeship at a savings bank, Ingo Siegner studied History and French for a time while working at a travel agency in Hanover. As a child minder he invented stories of “the most preposterous kind”, as he says himself. He began to write them down and taught himself how to draw “because pictures made the stories look better”.
In 2002 Ingo Siegner published “The little dragon Coconut – a read-aloud picture book”. Today he numbers among the most successful German-language children’s book authors and illustrators. The series featuring the little fiery dragon has been sold a million times over, and Coconut’s friends Matilda the Porcupine and Oscar the Greedy Dragon have delighted children all around the world. To honour his work in early childhood language and reading promotion, Ingo Siegner was awarded the Lower Saxony First Class Cross of Merit in 2021. Standing before an audience, Siegner likes to combine his talent for storytelling with drawing: “Ingo Siegner’s readings are like living cinema,” according to the jury of the German Booksellers’ Association, which selected him in 2012 as reading artist of the year.
To “The little dragon Coconut – a read-aloud picture book” from Ingo Siegner
Photo: © Isabella Grubert, Random House