Fabarooney Illustrations Everywhere!

It's been a fabarooney week for illustration! First off two Irish Illustrators Kevin Waldron and Chris Haughton were chosen as rising stars Book Trust Best New Illustrators Award 2011! Hurray! They are now going to spread the love as Picture Books Ambassadors. Anthony Browne has been everywhere this week telling everyone the good news too. There is a wonderful online gallery of the illustrators here.

The wonderful Polly Dunbar has been the BookTrust Writer in residence for the past 6 months. But she leaves today. I've really enjoyed looking at her doodles and mind noodling over the past few months. Polly has put together a yummy online book called Ideas Everywhere. Go see it's wonderful... Polly you make it look so easy :)

And there is a gorgeous slide tribute of the wonderful John Burningham on the Guardian. Oh what a fabarooney week!

Dr Noise can cure anything....

I am bopping around my studio to this clip that's up on the Booktrust site of Polly Dunbar's Penguin show. Long Nose is a Brighton based puppet company, they create inspiring, inventive,colourful and totally awesome puppet shows for the very young.

Ya gotta love these puppets! Lyrics for this song were written by Polly's mum Joyce, the music is written by musician Tom Gray of Gomez.

I so, so want them to come to Ireland!

Happy Birthday Walker Bear

Last week it was The Walker Bear's 30th Birthday Party. And what a wonderful night it was; writers, illustrators, book makers and book lovers had fun together in The Mary Ward House to celebrate.

David Lloyd said on the night

'For the best Children's Books look for the bear. That's what we say and keep on saying. And making the best books is what we've done, what we do and keep on doing, to the best of our ability. Thank you. Thank you all. Now have a splendid party.

Keep on with radiance into the future. Take another dip into the lake of story. Say, again. Again.
Shock your systems with extreme celebration. In every moment. Forever, as Sebastian showed us how. Goodnight.'

And what a great night it was. Thank you for the stories Mr Walker Bear. Happy Birthday.

Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

I came across this excellent blog that reviews children's books, it's a mine of information. The link below is a link to an interview with Polly Dunbar. I met Polly a few weeks ago when she was giving a talk as part of the CBI Summer School. If you don't have a copy of her book Penguin, run out and buy a copy now.
Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast
I'm off to Italy next Monday to Tuscany so I'm wrapping up loose strings this week. Starting with a review of the Summer Picture Books for the Irish Times. Its been fascinating, publishers are getting really creative with the marketing of their books: one book has a blog tour, another picture book has trailers on u tube!
The book worm above is an illustration that I did for the International Research Society for Children's Literature Summer Conference in 2006.