Jeremy Tankard

Rabbit Goes to Town

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 22:42:42 -0500

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.

Me Hungry at PlanetEsme

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 11:46:15 -0500

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.

Me Hungry at Parenting dot com

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 16:04:55 -0500

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!!!!

Married

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 10:11:38 -0500

Heather and I just got married.

Grumpy Bird plug from NBA

Sun, 08 Jun 2008 11:03:49 -0500

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!

Star Review

Sun, 08 Jun 2008 10:56:27 -0500

Toronto Star reviewer Deirdre Baker gave ME HUNGRY! a very nice review today. It can be found online here. Thanks very much Deirdre!

Girl Profile

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 10:44:25 -0500

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.

Me Hungry -- Horn Book review

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 11:14:05 -0500

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.

Me Hungry videos here

Fri, 30 May 2008 10:54:07 -0500

Okay, looks like I've figured out the video posting thing (actually I didn't figure it out at all, my friend Jos figured it out for me -- he's amazing). So, here are the ME HUNGRY! videos for your enjoyment. And no, I didn't do any of the animation myself. But they're really cute!

Me Hungry videos

Sun, 25 May 2008 21:02:35 -0500

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.

Babble pick of the week

Fri, 23 May 2008 22:40:09 -0500

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!

Grumpy Bird top five pick

Fri, 23 May 2008 22:36:39 -0500

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.

BookPage Interview

Thu, 15 May 2008 21:30:39 -0500

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.

Fox in the City

Fri, 09 May 2008 13:55:39 -0500

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.

Me Hungry launch party

Fri, 02 May 2008 13:58:09 -0500

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?