The Tap Dancing Pigeon of Covent Garden

Hi Chaps

The Tap Dancing Pigeon of Covent Garden, a lovely book that I illustrated has now been published!
Pick up your copy now to read about bravery, passion and our beautiful planet!
It's written by Serena Hassan, see more of her here -
 (www.serenahassan.co.uk)
and has had a few nice reviews here -
https://katestutter.com/2019/08/30/the-tap-dancing-pigeon-of-covent-garden-serena-hassan/

http://thesyders.blogspot.com/2019/08/the-tap-dancing-pigeon-of-covent-garden.html

It was great fun to illustrate, with various spreads of London and Covent Garden and I'm pleased with how it's come out.
Here are a couple of bits of it.

Terrific Toddlers

Hi Chaps,

I recently illustrated a set of three books for Toddlers called Terrific Toddlers, written by Carol Zeavin, Rhona Silverbush and published by Magination Press
They are about a diverse group of toddlers who are learning to share with each other, deal with hurt, and to say goodbye.
The books use simple language and are reflective of children’s realities, based on an understanding of the developmental level of young toddlers.
This series is the first to handle the topics in carefully researched, developmentally appropriate ways for toddlers, and is affiliated with the American Psychological Association
I'm really pleased to have been involved with such worthwhile books.
They were very interesting to illustrate, and I also think the designers did a fab job with the design of them :)
Here are a few illustrations

The Tiger Who Came To Tea Exhibition

Hi Chaps,

I went to Acorn Bank National Trust House at the weekend and there I saw the lovely 'A Tiger Came To Tea' 50th Anniversary Exhibition set up by Seven Stories.
It was a very nice little exhibition, including some rough sketches and old drawings by Judith Kerr, and also facsimiles of some of the actual artwork, which was very interesting.
It's always informative and inspiring to see artists' workings, and also interesting looking back to the pre-digital age.

And, one of the best things was the giant cuddly Tiger, very nicely capturing the look of the illustrations.

If it comes near you it's worth a look :)

2018 GANYC Apple Award in Outstanding Achievement in Fiction NYC Book Writing

Hi Chaps,

Well, I've got some fun news, The Knish War on Rivington Street picture book, written by Joanne Oppenheim, published by Albert Whitman, and illustrated by me, has actually won the the 2018 GANYC Apple Award in Outstanding Achievement in Fiction NYC Book Writing!!

There was a ceremony at the SVA Theater in New York on 12th March where the winners were announced.
Here are all the winners in full, the Knish War was amongst some very good company.

https://mailchi.mp/ganyc/ganyc-apple-award-winners-announced-nkoieszu0d 

And here's a photo of the actual proper glass trophy with my name inscribed along with Joanne Oppenheim, the author :)

So, now I think I'm officially allowed to wear a waistcoat, smoke a pipe and describe myself as an award winning illustrator :)

Secret Book

Hi Chaps,

Well, I've been working on something a bit secret recently, I'll let you know more once the book's out, but it's a very nice book, for a good cause, with a couple of fun characters.
As a bit of a teaser, I can show yoiu a rough sketch from the early stages, that I was pleased with, but that wasn't used in the final book.

It gives a bit of a hint, though I'd be very surprised if anyone guesses what it actually is :)

I Spy

Hi Chaps,

Happy New Year everybody.
And as a celebration, I thought I'd do something a bit fun and participatory.

So, as it's been a few months since 'Small Blue and the Deep Dark Night' came out, I thought I might do a little 'I Spy' quiz.

This is a quiz for people who have a copy of 'Small Blue', or access to a copy, say at a library or something.
But if you look through the book, there is something that appears on every spread where the lights are on.
Bit of a clue, it's a certain coloured toy, but see if you can spot it.

It's a sort of sub-plot I put in, if you can call it a sub plot.
Just sort of something to spot and look out for as you're reading.

But have a careful look through, see what you can spot, and I'll do a post next week with the answer, with pictures.

New York Times Book Review

Hi Chaps,

Well, "Small Blue and the Deep Dark Night" has been reviewed again, and this time in a real life actual paper that you can hold in your hand, which is cool.
Yesterday, 19th October, it was reviewed in the Book Review Section of the Sunday edition of the New York Times.
They say "It's a winning approach to fear of the dark: lots of physical closeness, a few flights of imagination, and a gentle dash of cold, hard logic."
See a scan of the review below, it also featured a section of the goblins spread, further down the page.

Just a small spot, but I do feel chuffed :)

Small Blue review

Hi Chaps,

There have been a bunch of really nice reviews of Small Blue and the Deep Dark Night on various blogs.
I've put a couple of them up on my website, but I thought I'd gather a bunch of them here.

A lovely review, and there was a give-away too, at the Good Reads With Ronna Blog here

A very nice review indeed at Jen Robinson's Book Page Blog here.

Another very nice review at the Books For Kids Blog here
You'll have to scroll down for this one, it was posted on the 6th Sept.

And a nice short review at the Feed A Reader Blog here.
This blog seems to be run by Kirkwood Public Library.
I checked the catalogue, and Small Blue is checked out at the moment :)