my blog 2008
January 16, 2008
A belated Happy New Year to all of you. Sorry for the long silence on this blog. I can’t even say I’ve been busy for a change. I went to Calgary to visit my family and friends for a couple of weeks. The vacation was more relaxing than I’d expected, not that I expected otherwise mind you, as we made few plans while there. We lazed about, slept, walked my parents dog and drank copious amounts of hot tea. Lovely!
Now I’m home and getting slowly back into the swing of things. There are about a million things to do. Boo Hoo Bird is almost finished (awaiting revisions from Scholastic); Me Hungry will be in stores in about three months; and I’m beginning work on future projects and reorganizing my studio.
And I’ll start this new year with a link to another great blog review for Grumpy Bird courtesy of Storytime Kids.
I’ll be back with a new sketch very soon. I promise. It’s been too long.
Welcome back.
January 17, 2008
At last! A new image on the blog. Sorry for the long wait folks. I’d planned on doing a clever drawing that summed up all the hopes and possibilities for the new year. It was going to be very clever and witty and would have bedazzled all of you. Then I drew a Panda standing in a garden and surveying its surroundings. Uh, here it is.
January 22, 2008
This first is a very last-minute event notice: I’m doing two readings/signings/presentations tomorrow (January 23rd) in Hamilton, Ontario. The first is at Niwasa Head Start Preschool at 10:00 a.m. The second will be at Stoney Creek Ontario Early Years Centre (33 Cromwell Crescent). That will be at 1:30 in the afternoon.
The second event is a lecture in London, Ontario on Saturday January 26th. The lecture is part of Family Literacy Day in London and will be held at the Public Library (it’s very close to the VIA station — sorry, I don’t have an address). I believe I’m on at 11:00 a.m. So, if you’re in the London, Ontario part of Canada, please drop by and say hello (and buy a book or two — hint, hint).
January 28, 2008
I don’t have too much to report at the moment. The appearances last week went very, very well though, and both in cities I’d not been to before which made it even more fun. The kids in Hamilton were great — all excellent listeners. Thanks for having me there!
And London was terrific. The event was well organized and the attendance seemed good. I gave my presentation in a new lecture theatre and did much of it from my computer (something I’ve never done before). I still did lots of drawing though.
Otherwise I got my first advance copy of ME HUNGRY! last week. The book looks amazing and I’m really excited about seeing it “out there”. Only three more months to go.
If you’re a librarian in Ontario I’ll be signing at the big OLA conference on Thursday, January 31st. I’ll be signing Grumpy Bird in the Scholastic area at 11:00 and ME HUNGRY! posters at the Penguin Canada booth at 2:30. Please drop by and say “hello” if you get a chance.
January 30, 2008
Cheryl Rainfield asked me for an interview ages ago. Due to scheduling issues (mine) we didn’t get around to it until very recently. But it turned out pretty well so please go and take a look if you get a chance. Among other things she asked about my process and has included some images of work in progress from Grumpy Bird. In my original story there was a squirrel, but we replaced him with Raccoon in the final book. Really, it was for the better.
February 5, 2008
This is how I imagined today would look. We’ve had mountains of snow and then today it was suddenly warm and we had tonnes of rain. Luckily it doesn’t exactly look like this today. Whew! We’re supposed to get another big winter storm tonight and tomorrow bringing more snow and ice. Weird. This is a drawing of me by the way. I look exactly like this!
February 14, 2008
I meant to post this news a few days ago but for a flurry of reasons I didn’t (can one use flurry that way? not sure, but I like it). I’ll be in Ottawa this weekend visiting friends and while there will do a Grumpy Bird signing at Kaleidescope Kids Books on Monday, February 18th at 10:00 in the morning. They are located Upstairs at 99 Fifth Avenue. It should be a fun event in a really great store. So if you’re in the Ottawa area and want something to do please drop by. I’ll be signing books and posters and drawing pictures for people. What better way to celebrate a new family holiday than with a book signing?
February 28, 2008
This is very exciting: the first review of ME HUNGRY! is in. And it’s very kind. Go take a look. Courtesy of Elizabeth Bird at Fuse #8 and School Library Journal. Thanks Betsy! You rock.
Also, if you’re interested, you can see a photo of Betsy on this blog holding a copy of Grumpy Bird.
Sorry for the lack of recent updates. I’ve been swamped! But life is good, work is progressing well and I’m going to Maui in a couple weeks. How sweet is that? Very. I’ll try and post a new sketch soon. I’ve also got some other goodies to share soon.
March 4, 2008
A grade two teacher recently posted this “review” of Grumpy Bird on youtube. She had her class tell their favourite parts of the book. My favourite is the girl who liked Fox because he’s part of the dog family and is cute.
March 6, 2008
This is nice: I’ve been nominated for the Amelia Frances Howard-Gibbon Award for outstanding children’s book illustration for Grumpy Bird! The award is presented by the Canadian Association of Children’s Librarians. The winner will be announced on May 22nd in Vancouver. It’s a great list and includes Melanie Watt, Robert Bateman (I never thought my name would ever, not in a million years, appear in the same sentence as Robert Bateman — but there you go!), and the uber amazing Wallace Edwards. I’m going to chuckle over the Bateman thing for hours, his animal drawings could not possibly be more opposite from mine. Ha! He’s mighty good though.
March 10, 2008
I’m not sure if this one is on-line or not. Here it is, just in case. I hope Kirkus doesn’t mind!:
ME HUNGRY!
Author: Tankard, Jeremy
Review Date: MARCH 01, 2008
Publisher:Candlewick
Pages: 40
Price (hardback): $15.99
Publication Date: 4/1/2008 0:00:00
ISBN: 978-0-7636-3360-8
ISBN (hardback): 978-0-7636-3360-8
Category: CHILDREN’S
“Me hungry!” whines a Stone Age lad. “Me busy!” answer both of his annoyed parents. “Me hunt!” he proclaims. But that doesn’t work out either, as all the animals he meets are uncooperative or downright scary. Finally he (literally) runs into a mammoth who’s willing to lift him into an apple tree. “You just right!” the boy declares. “We friends!” Tankard illustrates this pithy text with similarly simple views of a tousled, jug-eared child clad in skins and sneakers, posing amid piles of rocks with a placid, curly-tusked behemoth. There’s a Chris Raschka feel to both the art and the episode, and younger children will also enjoy the boy’s smart two-word (no, not those two) response when his club-wielding Dad at last calls him home for dinner. You buy! (Picture book. 4-6)
March 10, 2008
I think this one is pretty self explanatory. It’s a falling panda bear.
March 27, 2008
Just a quick note to say that I’m back. I was away for a little while there — in San Francisco and Maui of all places!!!! How nice is that? It was lovely.
While I was away my info@jeremytankard.com address seemed to have an “issue” and, as a result, I did not receive any emails for the time that I was away. So… if you’re reading this and if you tried emailing me and I never responded PLEASE TRY AGAIN because I probably never received it. More soon.
April 2, 2008
There’s a new interview over at 7 Impossible Things Before Breakfast. Jules is starting a regular (hopefully) series of interviews with illustrators whose work she enjoys and this is the first one! I think it turned out really well and she asked some really great questions. Go and take a look for yourself. She’s even posted a couple photos of my studio — in case you were ever curious.
April 3, 2008
I can’t believe I forgot to post this when it first appeared. Actually I can, I was super-duper busy finishing Boo Hoo Bird and getting ready for a vacation. Anyway, let me correct my earlier omission by posting it now. Go and read it. I remembered it because of the 7 Impossible Things interview yesterday.
April 3, 2008
I just got final confirmation on this so can share it with you: I’ll be at Books of Wonder in New York City on Saturday April 26th from noon ‘til two in the afternoon. I’ll be reading Me Hungry!, answering questions and signing books. If you’re in the New York area please drop by and join in the fun. I believe there will be another author or two doing the same event.
There will also be a launch in Toronto but I haven’t got final information yet. Keep your eyes on this blog in the next couple of weeks for more information.
April 3, 2008
A fox walking in his forest. I like the photo of the tree in the background combined with the drawing of the branch and the digitally painted leaves.
April 4, 2008
Another award nomination for Grumpy Bird! I’ve been nominated in the Children’s Illustrator of the Year category of Canadian Booksellers Association Libris Awards. I’m up against Melanie Watt and Wallace Edwards again. Do I stand a chance? I doubt it. But we’ll see. We’ll see. The winner will be announced at Book Expo Canada on June 15th.
April 20, 2008
Another award nomination! Is this crazy or what? I’m up for the Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children’s Book Award. Two awards will be given, one for picture books and one for young adult or middle reader books. The award recognizes both writing and illustration in Canadian children’s literature. Guess who I’m up against this time? That’s right, Wallace Edwards and Melanie Watt again. And the other books look amazing too. The winner will apparently be announced on May 6th. The picture book nominees are:
The Aunts Come Marching by Bill Richardson, illustrated by Cynthia Nugent (Raincoast Books)
The Boy From the Sun, written and illustrated by Duncan Weller (Simply Read Books)
Grumpy Bird, written and illustrated by Jeremy Tankard (Scholastic Canada)
The Painted Circus: P.T. Vermin Presents a Mesmerizing Menagerie of Trickery and Illusion Guaranteed to Beguile and Bamboozle the Beholder, written and illustrated by Wallace Edwards (Kids Can Press)
Scaredy Squirrel Makes a Friend, written and illustrated by Melanie Watt (Kids Can Press)
April 22, 2008
Today is the official release day for ME HUNGRY! So… I strongly encourage all of you, dear blog readers, to head to your favourite book shop and purchase a copy. And if they don’t have a copy tell them it’s a great book and they should carry it. It’s also Earth Day so you could walk or ride your bike to the book store.
Happy ME HUNGRY day!!!
And Happy EARTH DAY!!!
April 22, 2008
This is an ultra rare (for me anyway) pencil sketch of one of my characters. I don’t know why I don’t draw with pencil more often, this one turned out just right. I’ve struggled for years with drawing my characters in profile. My drawing “style” favours frontal views of characters, or sometimes even three quarter views, but never profiles. Now I’m finding that I have to draw then in profile sometimes. This is one of them.
April 24, 2008
I would like to take a quick second to remind you of a couple upcoming events. They are:
Signing and reading at Books of Wonder in New York City. Saturday, April 26th from noon until 2 p.m. Books of Wonder is located at 18 West 18th Street. Signing and book launch at ten feet tall here in Toronto. Tuesday, April 29th from 5:30 to 9:30 (or later perhaps). 1381 Danforth Ave. Signing, sketching and presentations on FREE COMIC BOOK DAY!!!! Saturday, May 3rd from noon to 5 p.m. There’s more info here, but you’ll have to scroll down a little way to read it. The Beguiling throws a great Free Comic Book Day event every year. This year they’re doing two events: one at the store and one at Palmerston Library (560 Palmerston Ave). The latter is where I’ll be, along with Michael Cho and Steven Manale.
May 2, 2008
I held a launch party for Me Hungry! on Tuesday night (April 29th). The event was a lot of fun and, as far as I can tell, everyone had a great time. There were a lot more kids this year than last. But that’s okay, we get along with kids. I signed lots of books, ate a good dinner and drank some ginger ale. The event was held at ten feet tall, my favourite local watering hole. And feeding hole (is that a real expression? not sure — I guess it is now!). These two photos were taken by my friend Drazen Kozjan. He took them while I drew a woolly mammoth in his copy of Me Hungry! He’s a fine illustrator and you should definitely check out his work. He has a new book hitting stores very soon (Julia Gillian by Alison McGhee). I drew very large pictures in peoples books this year. Perhaps after having so little space in Grumpy Bird to sign and doodle it’s hard to hold back and do little pictures. So why hold back at all?
May 9, 2008
I just returned from a Literacy Conference in Saskatoon (on the Canadian prairies). I spoke with about 2000 kids over two days and did a few digital drawing demonstrations. Over the next few weeks I think I might upload some of them to this blog. This first one is one of my favourites. To save time I did my drawings on the computer instead of drawing on paper and scanning them. This allowed for very quick pictures that could be moved straight from Painter to Photoshop very easily. I hope you enjoy them. More about the conference soon.
May 15, 2008
Oh, man! It’s been too long since I last wrote an entry here. I’ve been busy though. Since the Toronto launch of ME HUNGRY! I’ve been working hard on my next book (actually I’ve been working on it for half a year, but only occasionally), and spent some time in Saskatoon at the Literacy for Life Conference.
I recently did an interview for BookPage magazine. Each month they interview an author/illustrator and have them hand-write/illustrate their interview. It’s a really cool way of doing an interview and the end result is lots of fun. The hardest part was figuring out what to leave out — I wanted to write and draw a lot more than they gave room for! It’s in the May issue of BookPage if you’re interested. They also just uploaded the interview to their website so I can now share it with you! Go take a look.
May 23, 2008
Here’s a nice acknowledgment: ME HUNGRY is the featured book of the week at Babble.com this week. How nice is that? They’ve also posted one of the animated book trailers on the site.
ME HUNGRY also got a little nod from the delightful Patricia Storms (whom I just about typed as Sue Storm — how nerdy am I?).
Also a very brief review in the Liverpool Echo in the UK. Nice to get an overseas review!
May 23, 2008
Grumpy Bird made the top five list of baby and children’s books over at the Baby Buy Products website. Go take a look, he’s in excellent company.
I’ll also be doing a little write-up, hopefully, of the recent Blue Spruce Awards ceremony. I didn’t win, but got an honourable mention.
May 25, 2008
Seeing as Betsy over at School Library Journal just did a post about book trailers I think this might be the perfect time to upload the two ME HUNGRY! trailers to this website for your viewing pleasure. However, my initial attempts to upload them did not work. So for now go and check out Betsy’s blog and enjoy them there. I’ll get them uploaded here as soon as I can figure out how.
June 2, 2008
Me Hungry! got this terrific review from the Horn Book Magazine. Pretty nice, yes?
Jeremy Tankard Me Hungry!; illus. by the author
40 pp. Candlewick 4/08 ISBN 978-0-7636-3360-8 $15.99 g
(Preschool, Primary)
It would take a heart of stone not to be charmed by the cartoonish Stone Age characters and dialogue in this picture book. “Me hungry,” a cave-boy complains to his father. ‘Me busy,” Dad gruffly replies as he focuses on cracking open a peanut with his club. Mom, weighed down with a bunch of cave-babies, has the same response. So what’s a peckish and resourceful cave-boy to do? “Me hunt!” His prehistoric prey doesn’t cooperate, however, and as the young hunter beats a hasty retreat from a mean saber-tooth tiger, he runs smack into a huge, imposing woolly mammoth. This might signal the end for less-fortunate cave-boys, but in a happy turn of events, it’s the beginning of a great partnership; “You just right!” says the boy, as his new pal helps him pick an out-of-reach apple. Also just right are Tankard’s uncluttered, brightly colored illustrations for the simple story, which is told entirely in cave-speak. The bold ink-and-digital compositions feature the same deft use of line and surprising background hues as in the author-illustrator’s first book, Grumpy Bird (rev. 7/07); here, however, there’s a lot less detail, befitting the blunt text and broad humor. Me like — and so will hunter-gatherers of all ages (and epochs). K.F.
June 4, 2008
This is another image from my lectures at the Literacy for Life Conference in Saskatoon. Since drawing my figures in profile is my new party trick I did a few of them at the conference during my demonstrations. This one turned out particularly well. The background is a photo of some graffiti I saw in Vancouver a few years ago. If you saw Princess Mononoke (the Miyazaki film) you might remember those little tree spirits with the strangely rotating heads. Someone spray painted one of them on this wall. It was a pretty cool piece of graffiti and I’ve been dying to use it ever since — not that you can see much of it in this picture I suppose. Oh well. The green around the bottom was painted in Photoshop.
June 8, 2008
This is awesome: Boston Celtics guard Rajon Rondo was seen reading Grumpy Bird to a group of kids the other day at the Blackstone Community Center in the South End of Boston. The article, in the Boston Herald, says a star-studded cast was on-hand to open a new computer lab and reading room. Check out the photo of Rondo with my book!
June 8, 2008
Toronto Star reviewer Deirdre Baker gave ME HUNGRY! a very nice review today. It can be found online here. Thanks very much Deirdre!
June 16, 2008
Me Hungry! is the daily fave over at Parenting.com. I’m very lucky to have my book singled out like this. What an honour!
And speaking of honours: I was not honoured with a Libris Award last night. Oh well. Melanie Watt took home the prize for best illustrator of the year (and best author — lucky her!). Well deserved I say. Go Melanie Go!!!!
June 16, 2008
Heather and I just got married.
June 30, 2008
There’s a nice little review of Me Hungry! over at PlanetEsme.com. She mentions some other caveman related things of interest including Stig of the Dump, illustrated by the great Edward Ardizzone. But perhaps most entertainingly has a caveman clip from the 1949 film, “On the Town”. Hilarious.
July 10, 2008
This is another drawing from the Saskatoon Literacy for Life Conference that I attended in early May. I really like how this one turned out. I salvaged a very old drawing from a trip to New York almost ten years ago for the cityscape in the background.
|
©2007