February 3, 2012
poke poke
Could it be…?
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February 1, 2012 Another Piggy Bunny ReviewAnother Piggy Bunny review, this time from Daily Kos. And it’s a good one too. January 26, 2012 Grumpy Bird fan movieSome 6th and 7th grade students at Elmwood School produced this wonderful “fan” video of Grumpy Bird. I really enjoyed it. I hope you do too. It made my day. January 18, 2012 Starred Review for PIGGY BUNNYPiggy Bunny, my book with Rachel Vail, just got its first review. It will appear in the Bulletin for the Center of Children’s Books in their February issue. What a great start for this book! Vail, Rachel Piggy Bunny; illus. by Jeremy Tankard. Feiwel, 2012 [32p] ISBN 978-0-312-64988-3 $14.99 Reviewed from galleys R* 5-7 yrs “All the other piglets wanted to be pigs when they grew up. Liam wanted to be the Easter Bunny.” That’s a peculiar and lofty ambition for anybody, let alone a young pig, and Liam’s perplexed immediate family tries to point him toward pragmatism (“‘You are a piglet,’ said Liam’s big sister. ‘Deal with it’”). It’s Liam’s grandparents who heroically defend his dream (“They just have the imagination of a kumquat, the lot of them,” sniffs his grandmother), rustle him up a bunny suit (“We will order one on the Internet”), and see him through to the fulfillment of his fantasy. Vail’s high-spirited and highly comedic text just begs for a whole-souled readaloud with rich vocal characterization that’ll make the most of both the humor and the touches of poignancy (“This is the kind of problem,” sighs Liam, “that is called heartbreaking”). It’s a hilariously absurd story about a pig, but it’s also a cheerful championing of the kind of role play for which “pretend” seems a dismissive term and which sees little kids wearing their superhero capes to the supermarket; even beyond that, it’s a subtle reassurance about finding workable ways to explore a dream or an identity that may seem initially impossible. Tankard, author-illustrator of Grumpy Bird (BCCB 3/07), employs thickly solid yet fluid brushstrokes in figures that have a touch of Japanese graphic flavor in their streamlined cuteness; digital color makes the piglets a luscious pink that stands out against gently patterned tone-on-tone backgrounds in stripes and spots. This will be an enjoyably loopy and stealthily reassuring readaloud any time of the year, and it would make a terrifically offbeat Easter entry. Oink. DS January 18, 2012 Run like your life depends on it!Well, it’s been a little while since I updated the bunny story. So, finally, here is a new instalment. And, for those of you following this little drawing exercise, you’ll be happy to know that I’ve got a couple more coming in the coming days. Enjoy! 
January 17, 2012 Piggy Bunny videoI made this short video about PIGGY BUNNY, my book with Rachel Vail. Available everywhere books are sold at the end of February, 2012. November 14, 2011 Contest LunchI haven’t posted anything here in a little while. Sorry folks! I enjoyed lunch on Saturday with the winners of the Toronto Public Library’s “Save Our Libraries” contest. We had lunch at the Queen Mother Cafe (on Queen Street in Toronto). I love the Queen Mother, the food is good and the ambience is always lively. Despite lunch running a bit later than we’d anticipated we still managed the second part of our afternoon without too big a hiccup. Us authors had been asked to choose a Toronto destination that was significant to us and give our winners a tour. I chose the Osbourne Collection at the Lillian H Smith library. Largely because it’s something that I’ve always wanted to see for myself. The tour was great. We had a librarian show us some of the prize items from the collection including: books from the 1600’s, books owned by Princess Victoria, books signed by JK Rowling. It was cool. The winners, all kids around the age of ten, loved seeing the historical items and talking with the librarian about rare and unique children’s books. So in an hour we got to see the history of English language children’s books! It was inspiring. And to top it off it was nice to see my own books represented in the collection. We finished with a little tour and sneak-peek at some of my own upcoming projects and talked about how illustrations and stories get put together. And, since this whole contest was about drawing attention to our libraries, it was doubly nice to see a different side of the library — namely the importance of archiving historical works and seeing how it puts todays books into perspective. So, go and visit your library today and think about where all these amazing books come from. |
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