Bradford teacher June Norris-Green could have Bongo the Armadillo to thank for her introduction into the world of book illustration.

June, a teacher at Farnham Primary School in Great Horton, approached her friend Steve Way, a children's author, to see if he needed an illustrator for his books.

He immediately took her up on the offer and the creative pair have since had two books published.

Hillary's Yorkshire Adventure, commissioned and published by Kirklees School Effectiveness Service, has been distributed free to all Kirklees schools, and is also available for sale to other schools across Yorkshire.

Bongo the Armadillo - about an armadillo that drinks a lot of tea - has also been funded and published by the pair.

This is the first time that June, of Lane End in Thornton, has illustrated a book.

"This is something I'd always wanted to do and I just happened to ask Steve if he would like any of his books illustrating. I was delighted when he said yes," she said.

"Bongo the Armadillo features a series of stories about the same character and is aimed at eight and nine year olds. I drew two pictures for each one and they took about two hours each to do."

June - who has been to art college - said she had drawn pictures for children in her class, but had never done any commercial drawing.

After Steve had written the words for each story, the pair then discussed how the characters would look. After the Easter holidays, June hopes to take the books into school to see what the children think of them.

"I've enjoyed illustrating this and certainly hope to carry on doing this in the future," said June. "Steve already has another couple of short stories in the pipeline, and I would like to be involved again."

A bookshop in Leeds has already snapped up copies of Bongo the Armadillo and June is hoping a Bradford shop may also follow suit.

The Government-funded Maths 2000 project has also been in touch with Steve, who is a private maths, English and science tutor. It is interested in using his maths-based stories and June's illustrations, on its website.