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Toucan Can!

by Juliette MacIver & Sarah Davis, illustrator

Gecko Press USA        2014

978-1-877467-53-0

Age 3 to 7      32 pages

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“Toucan Can Do Lots of Things! Toucan Dances! Toucan Sings! Toucan Bangs a Frying Pan! Can You Do What Toucan Can?  A tongue-twisting, ludicrous rhyme full of escalating hilarity and off-the-wall characters. It will have you tripping and flipping and dancing and singing.”

If Toucan can, YOU can!

Opening

“Toucan can do lots of things!”

Review

What can you do? Toucan can do many things and might have toddlers showing off what they can do, too. Toucan and his group of goofy animal friends will have you and your child laughing. The rhyming text works in all but three couplets, where the beat goes bonk. Otherwise, the lines will roll off your tongue until your tongue is twisted. All this tongue-tying will add to the fun. With a couple run-throughs, you can have those lines sounding like Toucan can read, because Toucan Can!

The illustrations have a high-end coloring book look, but with child-like coloring; meaning, as example, the purple of Toucan’s not very big bottom blotches beyond the border. Characters and background images consistently bleed. The illustrator’s technique or a printing problem? Curious and not wanting to criticize something I didn’t understand, I asked the illustrator. Here is what she wrote,

“The bleed is deliberate – for this book I wanted to find a style of working that was really loose and energetic, and the opposite of neat and precise. I hand painted tissue and then laid torn chunks of it down, then did the linework and detail on top. The idea with letting the colour bleed out around the edges is that there’s so much life and movement in the text that it can’t be contained. Toucan is such an irrepressible character that I didn’t want to colour him inside the lines – he needed some chaos.”

Every character, on every spread, is moving. “Happy Chaos” is a good description of the spreads, as the animals swing from trees, twirl, and dance. An exception to the merriment is a joey in mama’s pouch. I fear Toucan might have awakened the joey from its snug pouch. It takes only a minute—one spread—to soften the joey’s slanted eyebrows and rolled up fists. Mama’s energy is still passing to her baby.

The text is fun to read a-loud and young children will enjoy hearing all Toucan can do. When asked if “you” can do what Toucan can, young children will be out of their seat bopping about, jumping, skipping, and singing, but mainly dancing. All the animals love to dance and they all dance with exuberance. Very contagious.

Originally published by Gecko Press in New Zealand, Lerner Publishing Group brings Toucan Can to the US and Canada. Toucan Can has hilarious images, interactive suggestions to keep young kids moving and laughing. The rhyming text and tongue twisters will keep the reader—mom or dad—determined to get it right, making Toucan Can a book young kids will have no trouble getting their parents to read over and over.

TOUCAN CAN! Text copyright © 2013 by Juliette MacIver. Illustrations copyright © 2013 by Sarah Davis. Reproduce by permission of the publisher, Gecko Press USA, Wellington, NZ.

Buy Toucan Can! at Amazon—B&N—Lerner Pub. Gr.—your local bookstore.

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Learn more about Toucan Can! HERE.

Meet the author, Juliette MacIver, at her facebook:   https://www.facebook.com/pages/Juliette-MacIver-Author/509684365718086

Meet the illustrator, Sarah Davis, at her website:   http://sarah-davis.org/

“For more curiously good books visit” Gecko Press:   http://www.geckopress.co.nz/

an imprint of Gecko Press Ltd.

distributed by Lerner Publishing Group:  https://www.lernerbooks.com/

Also by Juliette MacIver

The Frog Who Lost His Underpants

Little Witch Walker Stories

Also by Sarah Davis

The Fierce Little Woman and the Wicked Pirate

The Bicycle

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The buzz is mega with some of Australia and New Zealand’s most loved authors and illustrators as delegates – Sarah Davis, Libby Hathon, Stephen Axelson, Corinne Fenton, Claire Saxby, Mark Greenwood, Dianne Wolfer, Sally Murphy, James Foley, Meredith Costain ….. and more ….

and then there’s Frane Lessac fighting off crocodiles to get from fremantle WA to Sydney!!!!!

Look out for the brilliant creators of  Looking for Alibrandi and Jellico Road;  Diary of a Wombat;Star Girl and Boy Versus Beast

Guess who they are?

Melina Marchetta

Bruce Whatley

Louise Park

And there’s more – Australia’s best publishers and editors from most publishing houses

And there’s more – US Senior editor from Roaring Brook (Pan MacMillan) USA

And there’s more – some of the best of Australia and New Zealand’s illustrators in the Illustrator Showcase

And there’s more – launches, illustrator’s duel, Christmas Press limited edition prizes; and there more …. and then the SCBWI BAND – dinner party sing along with the fabulous Meredith Costain, James Foley on the guitar with Scott Chambers and Chris Cheng

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The post Gorge yourself on authors, illustrators, kids’ books industry ~ SCBWI Conference at The Hughenden appeared first on Susanne Gervay's Blog.

Cool, cool, cool – they danced, joked, wore fluffy hats, made the audiences laugh and cry and go … awwww …

SCBWI authors & illustrators were fantastic wowing the crowds at Black Cat Book Café Brisbane; The Little Bookroom Melbourne; and The Children’s Bookshop Beecroft in Sydney.

It’s INSIDE STORY and on the 1st weekend of every November from now on!

The School Magazine NSW is cool, cool, cool too – caught with the creative team in Sydney -bringing the best stories, fiction and non fiction and art to the kids of Australia since 1916!

Loved dropping in on Alan Edwards the editor, Sue Murray the deputy editor who’s also a writer and playwrite and the team.

The post Inside Story to School Magazine ~How Cool R Kids writers & Illustrators? appeared first on Susanne Gervay's Blog.

Across the world on the 1st weekend in November, SCBWI kids’ authors & illustrators and specialist bookshops are giving the INSIDE STORY of our books.

When?  2nd November

Time: 2 p.m. at  Black Cat Bookshop Paddington(Sydney);

3 p.m. The Little Book Room Melbourne;

10 am Black Cat Bookshop Paddington (Brisbane).

The celebrity authors & illustrators are performing, signing, enjoying fun, food and company.

There’s champagne at the Children’s Bookshop Beecroft too.

Come along and see Sarah Davis, Serena Geddes, Pamel Rushby, Krista Bell, Hazel Edwards ….. heaps of authors & illustrators.

I’ll be the MC in Sydney

Angela Sunde is the MC  in Brisbane

Corinne Fenton is the MC in Melbourne.

Love to see you there.

The post INSIDE STORY: Authors & Illustrators, bookshops across the World appeared first on Susanne Gervay's Blog.

Patron: Professor Marie Bashir, CV AVO Governor of NSW

The President and Committee of The Children’s Book Council (CBCA) NSW Branch cordially invite

EVERYONE who loves Reading to

The unveiling of the exciting new look CBCA NSW, with

A SCBWI Author-Illustrator Showcase

with Serena Geddes, Nathan Luff, Susanne Gervay, Sue Whiting and Sarah Davis

followed by the AGM  & Gourmet Afternoon Tea Celebration.

Date: Saturday 22^nd September 2012

Time: 2pm for 2:15pm sharp start

Where: NSW Writers’ Centre

Callan Park, Balmain Road, Rozelle NSW 2040

2  for 2.15 p.m. Saturday 12^th September

(ACCEPTANCES ONLY PLEASE)

Email: [email protected]

please place ‘AGM’ in the subject line

The set up, which I thought would only take an hour, stretched to all morning. Coordinating the set up of an exhibition this size with so many ‘exhibitors’ had Michelle Richards, the Brisbane Central Library’s exhibition coordinator, running a million directions at once, advising as to ‘how [it was something new to a lot of us], finding stands and  suggesting modes of  display, and generally guiding us all through to ‘VOILA!’ – one  fascinating and very varied exhibition!

But there was more – not just the glass cases to set up, but hanging around to do the hanging!  this was not as straightforward as it sounds. We had to somehow attach our paintings to fine dangling wires and – here’s the worst part GET THEM TO SIT $#@*# STRAIGHT!

Click to view slideshow.Books are created from the imagination and inspiration of authors and the insightful vision of illustrators. They are then crafted. The authorial crafting may be right brain with a touch of editing or slow and laborious left brain plotting. For an illustrator, it may be  inspiration flowing like rivers from brush or  stylus or it may be  storybook or dummy creation then rethinks, scrap some ideas, adapt others. Eventually, a book emerges that is then ‘ready for submission’. These days, that may mean  adding animation and audio to make the book a digital production for app developers like  Utales or Flying Books, or for YA, formatting it for Kindle or Nook e-publishers. It may mean self publishing on Createspace  or Lightningsource, Smashwords or Lulu.  Or it will mean the long road via submission to traditional publishers.

If the latter is chosen, the publisher will often require more editing, changes and perhaps more changes. My own book, started under contract to one publisher, was already well underway with the inimitable Sarah Davis as illustrator. We were having a ball creating our book. Then our publisher was taken over and the new publisher wanted  to  institute changes. At first, the major change – ‘get rid of the dead bird’ – seemed straight forward. Then we realised  the book needed the bird but, to keep it, we had to  make some big adjustments. An injured bird can’t just disappear in a children’s book, it has to get better and be released, which, in our picture book, meant its story  had to be woven into the fabric of the main story seamlessly. No problem, a few days and Sarah and I had nailed it! As book creators, you have to be flexible and, especially if going the traditional publisher route, you can’t be too precious about your creation.

SO! This exhibition is about the journey numbers of wonderful children’s and YA books took from creation to  bookshelf! Each book has a different creation story to reveal - something the public doesn’t see, it’s behind the scenes. Now the reader can take a peek backstage, behind the scenes to how it all came together!

THE SET UP

Setting up was not straight forward. The spaces has to be utilised to best advantage and the  items displayed needed to be seen from as many angles as possible given I had a two shelf rectangular glass case.  I didn’t end up using everything I brought with me. It would have been too cluttered. Last minute inclusion, bulldog clips, proved life-savers! They held the  photographic prints in place.

I had never ‘hung’ a painting before at an exhibition and that proved ‘interesting. Sarah Davis sent up her wonderful original painting via kindly courier, Peter Taylor, but it was unframed. I had no time to find a frame. Fortunately, I had one around the house that was  a good match colour-wise though not quite the  perfect size.

Given my exhibit was about my close collaboration with Sarah, the items displayed needed to reflect the two minds working together to make a new creative whole – our book! Sources of inspiration, stages in text change, changes in images, cover and trivia relating to the characters, objects and places in the book all combined to make a successful ( I hope you agree) exhibit!

THE LAUNCH