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.
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.
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 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 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 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.
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.
©2007