Thanks for talking to Boomerang Books, Claire Smith. You’re the marketing assistant at Walker Books, Australia, and you’re going to share your Christmas picks with us. But first let’s find out about you and some books you’ve been working with. Walker Books (based in Sydney) is known for its children’s and YA books. Which do […]
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By: [email protected],
on 11/24/2014
Blog: Perpetually Adolescent (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: marketing, Author Interviews, Tana French, Walker Books, Spark, Bob Graham, Jon Klassen, eleanor catton, Gillian Flynn, A Bus Called Heaven, This is Not My Hat, Gone Girl, Book Reviews - Childrens and Young Adult, Joy Lawn, Rachael Craw, children's and YA fiction, Koala Awards, The Luminaries, Add a tag
By: Jerry Beck,
on 11/10/2014
Blog: Cartoon Brew (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Coraline, Jon Klassen, Kung Fu Panda, Windy Day, I Want My Hat Back, This Is Not My Hat, Artist of the Day, ATAP, Spotlight Stories, Buggy Night, Add a tag
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By: Dianne Hofmeyr,
on 7/1/2014
Blog: An Awfully Big Blog Adventure (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: illustration, picture books, Dianne Hofmeyr, Jon Klassen, This is not my hat, picture book judging, the Kate Greenaway 2014, Add a tag
The blurb on the back cover of the darkly comic book and daring book – THIS IS NOT MY HAT – is its simple premise.
The first line:
This hat is not mine. I just stole it… is a startling and daring line for openers in a picture book. Tension on the first page. Solid black page on left with a tiny fish wearing a hat and stark black print on a white page to the right. Even the simple black dot of the fish’s eye suggests apprehension.
How can an artist get tension in a single black dot inside a white orb? But if your name happens to be Jon Klassen anything is possible. And when the little fish announces about the big fish that... 
The Greenaway is judged very differently to the Carnegie. It’s not about writers but about artists and outstanding artistic quality and about satisfying a visual experience which leaves a lasting impression. I went back to the guidelines to be sure. http://www.carnegiegreenaway.org.uk/greenaway/award_criteria.php
Apart from the aesthetic qualities, the illustrations must offer the reader either new experiences, or reflect pre-existing experiences. And it should also work at different levels for different readers. The artistic style of the design has also to be integral to the book… cover, endpaper, title page, font, spacing, format, shape and size… often decisions made by an art director but hopefully with the illustrator’s input. And if there is text, there should be synergy between the text and the illustration.
I found the idea of the text being optional, interesting, because of course there is always text for a picture book whether it appears printed or not. It works in the same way that a film can’t exist without a screenplay.
Interestingly I went back to the past 10 years of Greenaway winners – names that include Chris Riddell, Emily Gravett (twice), Mini Grey, Catherine Rayner, Freya Blackwood, Graham Baker Smith, Jim Kay, Levi Penfold and of course now the brilliant Jon Klassen. And out of 10 books only two had separate writers. Perhaps I’ve cheated a bit as I haven’t counted Chris Riddell’s 2004 win with Gulliver’s Travels, having a separate writer because of it being an adaptation Martin Jenkins please forgive me... as a writer I know adaptations are never just adaptions but intricately written, almost new stories.
Even if we bring the figure up to 7 out of 10 as being illustrator written, the balance is still tipped. Does this mean that judges are finding picture books written and illustrated by the same person, to be stronger and more worthy of a Kate Greenaway? Is there more synergy? More artistic merit? Is the book more seamless… more acceptable… more exciting?
So where does this leave the picture book writer? If we only write but don’t illustrate, are we a breed that will be done away with soon? Is this a wordless ending for us?
By: Aline Pereira,
on 1/28/2013
Blog: PaperTigers (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Newbery Medal, Eventful World, Langston Hughes, Katherine Applegate, Bryan Collier, David Diaz, Gary D. Schmidt, Pura Belpré Award, Caldecott Medal, Coretta Scott King Book Awards, I, Too, Benjamin Alire Saenz, Andrea Davis Pinkney, Brian Pinkney, The One and Only Ivan, Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, This is Not My Hat, 2013 ALA Youth Media Awards results, 75th anniversary Caldecott celebrations, Am America, Hand in Hand: Ten Black Men Who Changed America, John Klassen, Martín de Porres: The Rose in the Desert, Add a tag
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By: [email protected],
on 11/24/2014
Blog: Perpetually Adolescent (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: marketing, Author Interviews, Tana French, Walker Books, Spark, Bob Graham, Jon Klassen, eleanor catton, Gillian Flynn, A Bus Called Heaven, This is Not My Hat, Gone Girl, Book Reviews - Childrens and Young Adult, Joy Lawn, Rachael Craw, children's and YA fiction, Koala Awards, The Luminaries, Add a tag
By: Jerry Beck,
on 11/10/2014
Blog: Cartoon Brew (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Coraline, Jon Klassen, Kung Fu Panda, Windy Day, I Want My Hat Back, This Is Not My Hat, Artist of the Day, ATAP, Spotlight Stories, Buggy Night, Add a tag
By: Dianne Hofmeyr,
on 7/1/2014
Blog: An Awfully Big Blog Adventure (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: illustration, picture books, Dianne Hofmeyr, Jon Klassen, This is not my hat, picture book judging, the Kate Greenaway 2014, Add a tag
The winners of the 2014 Carnegie, Kevin Brooks, and the Kate Greenaway, Jon Klassen, are both crowned, adding to a list of illustrious writers and illustrators. Recently C. J. Bushby wrote about how we judge quality in children’s novels and analysed the criteria for judging the Carnegie. Today's blog focuses on how we judge picture books in the Greenaway.
A fish has stolen a hat.
And he’ll probably get away with it.
Probably.
Without getting further than the murky end papers, the reader knows something untoward might happen in the dark depths of this book, where the text clearly doesn’t coincide with what’s happening in the pictures. This hat is not mine. I just stole it… is a startling and daring line for openers in a picture book. Tension on the first page. Solid black page on left with a tiny fish wearing a hat and stark black print on a white page to the right. Even the simple black dot of the fish’s eye suggests apprehension.
How can an artist get tension in a single black dot inside a white orb? But if your name happens to be Jon Klassen anything is possible. And when the little fish announces about the big fish that...
the reader is already saying... uh oh! And when a crab gestures one way and his eyes look another, the reader already knows the crab is a traitor, because that's the brilliance of Jon Klassen.
Apart from the aesthetic qualities, the illustrations must offer the reader either new experiences, or reflect pre-existing experiences. And it should also work at different levels for different readers. The artistic style of the design has also to be integral to the book… cover, endpaper, title page, font, spacing, format, shape and size… often decisions made by an art director but hopefully with the illustrator’s input. And if there is text, there should be synergy between the text and the illustration.
I found the idea of the text being optional, interesting, because of course there is always text for a picture book whether it appears printed or not. It works in the same way that a film can’t exist without a screenplay.
Interestingly I went back to the past 10 years of Greenaway winners – names that include Chris Riddell, Emily Gravett (twice), Mini Grey, Catherine Rayner, Freya Blackwood, Graham Baker Smith, Jim Kay, Levi Penfold and of course now the brilliant Jon Klassen. And out of 10 books only two had separate writers. Perhaps I’ve cheated a bit as I haven’t counted Chris Riddell’s 2004 win with Gulliver’s Travels, having a separate writer because of it being an adaptation Martin Jenkins please forgive me... as a writer I know adaptations are never just adaptions but intricately written, almost new stories.
Even if we bring the figure up to 7 out of 10 as being illustrator written, the balance is still tipped. Does this mean that judges are finding picture books written and illustrated by the same person, to be stronger and more worthy of a Kate Greenaway? Is there more synergy? More artistic merit? Is the book more seamless… more acceptable… more exciting?
So where does this leave the picture book writer? If we only write but don’t illustrate, are we a breed that will be done away with soon? Is this a wordless ending for us?
Dianne Hofmeyr's latest picture book, Zeraffa Giraffa was illustrated by Jane Ray and published by Frances Lincoln
BOOKS FOR KEEPS 5 Star review – ‘A fairytale that just happens to be true. Each spread is a delight, a chapter in itself, with so much to read, observe and wonder at. A very special book indeed.’
0 Comments on WHO WEARS THE HAT? – Dianne Hofmeyr as of 7/2/2014 1:43:00 AM
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By: Aline Pereira,
on 1/28/2013
Blog: PaperTigers (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Newbery Medal, Eventful World, Langston Hughes, Katherine Applegate, Bryan Collier, David Diaz, Gary D. Schmidt, Pura Belpré Award, Caldecott Medal, Coretta Scott King Book Awards, I, Too, Benjamin Alire Saenz, Andrea Davis Pinkney, Brian Pinkney, The One and Only Ivan, Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, This is Not My Hat, 2013 ALA Youth Media Awards results, 75th anniversary Caldecott celebrations, Am America, Hand in Hand: Ten Black Men Who Changed America, John Klassen, Martín de Porres: The Rose in the Desert, Add a tag
Earlier today the American Library Association announced the 2013 Youth Media Awards Winners. Click here to read the press release.
Highlights include:
John Newbery Medal Winner (for the most outstanding contribution to children’s literature):
The One and Only Ivan written by Katherine Applegate (HarperCollins Children’s Books, 2012)
Randolph Caldecott Medal Winner (for the most distinguished American picture book for children):
This Is Not My Hat, illustrated and written by Jon Klassen (Candlewick Press, 2012).
Coretta Scott King (Author) Book Award Winner (recognizing an African American author of outstanding books for children and young adults):
Hand in Hand: Ten Black Men Who Changed America, written by Andrea Davis Pinkney, illustrated by Brian Pinkney (Disney/Jump at the Sun Books, 2012).
Coretta Scott King (Illustrator) Book Award Winner (recognizing an African American illustrator of outstanding books for children and young adults):
I, Too, Am America, illustrated by Bryan Collier, written by Langston Hughes (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2012)
Pura Belpré (Author) Award Winner (honoring a Latino writer whose children’s books best portray, affirm and celebrate the Latino cultural experience):
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, written by Benjamin Alire Sáenz, (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2012)
Pura Belpré (Illustrator) Award Winner (honoring a Latino illustrator whose children’s books best portray, affirm and celebrate the Latino cultural experience):
Martín de Porres: The Rose in the Desert, illustrated by David Diaz, written by Gary D. Schmidt (Clarion Books, 2012)
0 Comments on ALA Youth Media Awards Have Been Announced! as of 1/28/2013 3:10:00 PM
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