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Maria’s Island by Victoria Hislop ill. Gill Smith

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ACHUKA Book of the Day 22 Jun 2021

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A dramatic and moving story set in the same world as the international bestseller The Island from the celebrated novelist Victoria Hislop.

The absorbing story of the Cretan village of Plaka and the tiny, deserted island of Spinalonga – Greece’s former leper colony – is told to us by Maria Petrakis, one of the children in the original version of The Island. She tells us of the ancient and misunderstood disease of leprosy, exploring the themes of stigma, shame and the treatment of those who are different, which are as relevant for children as adults.

Gill Smith’s rich, full-colour illustrations will transport the reader to the timeless and beautiful Greek landscape and Mediterranean seascape.

Follow the illustrator on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gillsmithillustration/

A Q&A with Victoria Hislop all about the book, from CLPE.

 

A Sitting in St. James by Rita Williams-Garcia

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ACHUKA Book of the Day Mon 21 Jan 2021

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“Williams-Garcia’s meticulous research processes shout volumes about the importance of taking contemporary inspiration into the archives to unearth sorely needed truths as we continue to navigate questions of equity and justice for the descendants of enslaved people. A marathon masterpiece that shares a holistic portrait of U.S. history that must not be dismissed or forgotten.” KIRKUS
“In this sweeping, richly researched, and powerfully delivered tale of privilege and exploitation—often a difficult read—Williams-Garcia’s storytelling is magnificent; her voice honest and authentic.” Horn Book
“This provoking history unsparingly centers the brutalization of its Black characters, including manifold instances of beatings, sexual assault, and slurs. If the telling dramatizes harmful philosophies and queer pain, it also offers an unvarnished look at a slowly toppling power structure obsessed with artifice and tradition, hinting through a notably long-view lens that new generations may, slowly and not without suffering, move away from antiquated ideology.” Publishers Weekly

1860, Louisiana. After serving as mistress of Le Petit Cottage for more than six decades, Madame Sylvie Guilbert has decided, in spite of her family’s objections, to sit for a portrait. While Madame plots her last hurrah, stories that span generations—from the big house to out in the fields—of routine horrors, secrets buried as deep as the family fortune, and the tangled bonds of descendants and enslaved.

This astonishing novel from award-winning author Rita Williams-Garcia about the interwoven lives of those bound to a plantation in antebellum America is an epic masterwork—empathetic, brutal, and entirely human.

Here the author is talking about an earlier, middle-grade novel about a harmonica player, Clayton Byrd Goes Underground:

And some interesting reflections on the beginnings of her writing life/career:

Follow the author on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ritawilliamsgarcia/

Meet An Illustrator 24 – John Broadley

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self-portrait © John Broadley

This week, on Meet An Illustrator, we are featuring an artist currently shortlisted for the 2021 Klaus Flugge Prize. This highly important children’s book award, named after the founder of Andersen Press, is presented annually to the most promising and exciting newcomer to children’s picture book illustration.

John has been shortlisted for his illustrations to Booker Prize-shortlisted Mick Jackson’s While You’re Sleeping, an ACHUKA Book of the Day in October 2020. Jill Bennett said of this title, on her superb review blog RedReadingHub, “To open this book is like opening a gorgeous box full of jewels – each page is stunning – so too are the endpapers, the cover: the entire production in fact and to read it is like being shown around a gallery by a wise, gently spoken curator eager to open our eyes to how the world works.”

John may be a newcomer to children’s picture books but he is hardly a newcomer to illustration. Since 1996 he has produced limited editions of hand-made books, with print runs ranging from  5 to 80. In 2010 an edition of all his work to date was published as  John Broadley’s Books by Jonathan Cape Graphic Novels.

In 2018 he published ‘Early Struggles’, a signed and numbered 64-page edition of 102 copies. It came hand-bound in a choice of four colours with each copy including a hand-drawn original insert of a drawing of a budgie.

In 2012 John became the in-house illustrator for the London restaurant Quo Vadis where his drawings appear on dozens of daily changing menus, tablecloths, vouchers (see below) and online. His client list includes Fortnum & Mason, Liberty London, Berry Bros & Rudd, Phaidon, The Fine Cheese Co, New York Times, and Zuni Cafe San Francisco.

John’s work is currently being exhibited by Hey There Projects, a gallery in Joshua Tree, California. The exhibition, Lost Then Found, runs through to July 9.

John’s second children’s book collaboration with Mick Jackson, We’re Going Places, is published in September this year.

Jump to the end of the Q&A for a video of John explaining how he worked on While You’re Sleeping and a link to a Pavilion Books blog page giving more details of how the book was compiled and some of the challenges faced.

As a child, what were the first illustrations you remember admiring? 

I used to copy photos from horror film books, things like Nosferatu & Dr Caligari – still do it today to some extent.

Who/what inspired you when you were young?

The Tolkein drawings in the Hobbit. I probably didn’t think the drawings were very good but they had a weirdness which was different to anything else that I would have seen at that time.

Who inspires you today?

When I’m producing my own, self-published books, which are not led by a commission, I sometimes put a David Lynch interview on and get motivated by his thoughts on generating ideas.

Did you study art/illustration?

I studied illustration at Liverpool Polytechnic in the late 80s/early 90s. Before that, a Foundation Course at Huddersfield Technical College [now Kirklees College], which was one of the best years of my life.

What is your favourite artist tool/product?

A dip pen and a bottle of ink.

Where do you buy your art supplies?

As I work almost exclusively in black and white, before adding colour digitally, my supplies are basic. I get pads of A4 lined paper which I glue together to make larger sheets to draw on. I buy Chinese ink and Rotring ink online and decant them 50/50 into a smaller bottle. All of my pens and rulers that I use, as well as old ledger books etc, come from second hand dealers. I also have a lot of Letraset sheets which I scan in and use as collage elements, these are hard to find and can be quite expensive but you occasionally find a job lot on ebay that’s affordable.

What software/apps do you use?

Only Photoshop. I taught myself how to use it as at the time I was at college there was only one computer for the whole department. I only know how to perform the tasks which I need for my work, which are quite basic ones.

What was your first commission?

In 1991 I was a winner in a competition run by Elle magazine and Paperchase to design a horoscope image. I had two designs chosen to be made into cards and then got a commission to do the horoscope page for the magazine itself. I gave up illustrating in 1996 as it wasn’t going well. I came back into it after a collection of the self-published books was published by Jonathan Cape in 2010, called “John Broadley’s Books”.

What are you working on at the moment?

I’m coming to the end of a long-running project to illustrate for the restaurant in a soon-to-be-opened redeveloped hotel in Oxford. The restaurant is named ‘The Alice’ after Oxford University tutor Lewis Carroll’s famous book, and also incorporated into the drawings are nods to a famous resident of the hotel, Osbert Lancaster, as well as the architecture and character of Oxford itself.

Twitter or Instagram? Instagram

Coffee or tea? Coffee

 Dog or cat? Dog

Grape or grain? Cider!

Sunrise or sunset? Both

What do you listen to when you are working?  I’m trying to restrict music for when I’m not working, so when I am at the desk it’s often a stream of voices. I have a cache of radio plays which I listen to again and again, such as adaptations of all the Raymond Chandler Philip Marlowe novels, Vincent Price’s ‘Price of Fear’ programme, Sherlock Holmes radio plays from the 40s etc.

Where can we follow you on social media?

My instagram is @john.broadley.77

 

BEHIND THE SCENES WITH ILLUSTRATOR JOHN BROADLEY

 

This is a regular weekend feature, publishing every Saturday.

 

My Dad by Susan Quinn ill. Marina Ruiz

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“Ruiz illustrates in semitranslucent layers of color, offering shifting, seasonally appropriate color palettes. Particularly effective are reflections of the child’s imagination, such as a spread of father and child imagining “lots of pirate ships/ sailing in the bath,” amid a fluid spread of blue-green waves and miniature boats.” Publishers Weekly

A beautifully illustrated, stereotype-busting celebration of all the everyday things one child’s dad does to make him so wonderfully, daddish-ly awesome! From baking cookies and gardening to playing make-believe and watching the sunset, a child reveals all the simple yet wonderful things he loves to do with his dad.

With lyrical rhyming text and gentle illustrations, this is a joyous celebration of fatherhood which creates a special reading experience between child and father.

Marina Ruiz is a Spanish illustrator based in Cambridge, UK. She studied Fine Arts in Madrid then moved to the UK to study at the Cambridge School of Art where she graduated with a Distinction in an MA in Children’s Book Illustration. Marina creates small narratives in her images, creating genuine warmth in the interactions between her characters across every page.
Follow Marina on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mandarina_ruiz/

Middletown by Sarah Moon

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“The book’s tone is sharp and insightful but never judgmental, and the characters’ voices are distinctive and realistic. Moon offers up powerful and positive life lessons wrapped in an engaging, tender, and satisfying story.” Horn Book
“A moving and memorable glimpse into one endearing middle schooler’s life.” KIRKUS

Thirteen-year-old Eli likes baggy clothes, baseball caps, and one girl in particular. Her seventeen-year-old sister Anna is more traditionally feminine; she loves boys and staying out late. They are sisters, and they are also the only family each can count on. Their dad has long been out of the picture, and their mom lives at the mercy of her next drink. When their mom lands herself in enforced rehab, Anna and Eli are left to fend for themselves. With no legal guardian to keep them out of foster care, they take matters into their own hands: Anna masquerades as Aunt Lisa, and together she and Eli hoard whatever money they can find. But their plans begin to unravel as quickly as they were made, and they are always way too close to getting caught.

Eli and Anna have each become used to telling lies as a means of survival but, as they navigate a world without their mother, they must learn how to accept help and let other people in.

Read an interview between author and editor…

Arthur A. Levine founded Levine Querido in April 2019, after a 23-year tenure as the President and Publisher of Arthur A. Levine Books, an imprint of Scholastic. He founded Arthur A. Levine Books in 1996, coming over from Knopf Books for Young Readers where he had been Editor in Chief.

Panic by Lauren Oliver

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ACHUKA Book of the Day 16 Jun 2021

TIE-IN [of a 2014 title] TO THE MAJOR NEW AMAZON PRIME SERIES

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“The only thing more terrifying than the game itself is not getting the chance to play it.” KIRKUS
“Out of all my books, I wanted to explore it on TV because I loved the community and the town and the opportunity to explore different storylines, which I didn’t have space for in the book.” Lauren Oliver, VARIETY [2021]
“Oliver brings a high-concept, high-stakes conceit to Main Street USA, and the result is as uncomfortable as it is thrilling.” Publishers Weekly

Panic began as so many things do in Carp, a poor town of twelve thousand people in the middle of nowhere: because it was summer, and there was nothing else to do. Heather never thought she would compete in panic, a legendary game played by graduating seniors, where the stakes are high and the payoff is even higher. She’d never thought of herself as fearless, the kind of person who would fight to stand out. But when she finds something, and someone, to fight for, she will discover that she is braver than she ever thought.
Dodge has never been afraid of panic. His secret will fuel him, and get him all the way through the game; he’s sure of it. But what he doesn’t know is that he’s not the only one with a secret. Everyone has something to play for. For Heather and Dodge, the game will bring new alliances, unexpected revelations, and the possibility of first love for each of them-and the knowledge that sometimes the very things we fear are those we need the most.

Oliver is a 2012 E.B. White Read-Aloud Award nominee for her middle-grade novel Liesl & Po, as well as author of the middle-grade fantasy novel The Spindlers and the New York Times bestselling Curiosity House series, co-written with H.C. Chester. Her newest middle-grade novel, The Magnificent Monsters of Cedar Street, was published February 11, 2020 by Harper Children’s book division; it was a Junior Library Guild selection and garnered three pre-publication starred reviews. She has written one novel for adults, Rooms, a Los Angeles Times bestseller.

Follow Lauren Oliver on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lauren_oliver_books/

Twitch by M. G. Leonard

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ACHUKA Book of the Day 15 Jun 2021
Times Children’s Book of the Week 5 Jun 2021

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“…an absolute triumph. The perfect blend of mystery and adventure, a winning hero with an eye for ornithological facts and a heart as big as the countryside, plus a cracking whipsmart plot, I think this is M. G. Leonard’s best book yet.” Christopher Edge
“Right from the opening tense episode in which twelve-year-old Twitch successfully intervenes to prevent a group of lads from hurting a pigeon, this pacey adventure story immediately grabs your attention and ensures you’re already rooting for a boy who prefers the company of birds to most humans.” BfK 5 STAR review

From the internationally bestselling author of Beetle Boy and the Adventures on Trains series, comes the first book in The Twitchers, a brand new mystery adventure series celebrating friendship, bravery and the incredible world of birds, starring a birdwatching detective called Twitch!

Can a birdwatcher outwit an escaped convict?

Twitch has three pet chickens, four pigeons, swallows nesting in his bedroom and a passion for birdwatching. On the first day of the summer holidays, he arrives at his secret hide to find police everywhere: a convicted robber has broken out of prison and is hiding in Aves Wood. Can Twitch use his talents for birdwatching to hunt for the dangerous prisoner and find the missing loot?

50 Ways to Score a Goal and Other Football Poems by Brian Bilston

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ACHUKA Book of the Day 14 Jun 2021
Times Children’s Book of the Week 29 May 2021

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“This anthology for kids is funny, clever and very readable, whether you’re a parent reciting it out loud or an emerging or accomplished reader.” The Times

Brian Bilston’s first collection for children.

50 Ways to Score a Goal and Other Football Poems shows Brian Bilston’s genuine love for the beautiful game, whether it is a kick about in the back garden, a Sunday match in the park or watching your team winning the cup. There are poems about everything from training to match day, after match analysis, honest football chants and half-time satsumas. Includes chants, ballads, puns, acrostics and shape poems. This is a must for football fans of all ages.

Meet An Illustrator 23 – Yuval Zommer

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self-portrait © Yuval Zommer

The twenty-third subject of Meet An Illustrator is Yuval Zommer, best known for his award-winning Big Book Of… series published by Thames & Hudson and sold in countries world-wide. The latest title, The Big Book of Belonging, publishes in September this year [2021].

He also produces a seasonal series for OUP that includes titles such as A Thing Called Snow (a previous ACHUKA Book of the Day) and The Tree That’s Meant To Be, a Sunday Times Book of the Year.

He only began publishing illustrated books for children in 2014, after a career as a creative director, but has already built up an impressive list of titles.

In addition to The Big Book of Belonging mentioned above, we can also look forward to publication of The Lights That Dance In The Night, coming from OUP in October.

Yuval will be participating in The Children’s Bookshow, Warwick Arts Centre, this November.

As a child, what were the first illustrations you remember admiring? 

I used to sketch all of my dogs—every dog we ever had became a model for my life drawings. I had no idea that decades on I would still be drawing animals!

Who/what inspired you when you were young?

My grandparents had books from the ‘World of Art’ series, about the great masters, popular at the time. As a child, I thought of these titles as picture books with every painting telling a story. I particularly remember trying to imagine what Gauguin, Rousseau and Monet were trying to tell.

Who inspires you today?

I discovered Brian Wildsmith relatively late—I love his flair and use of colour! Particularly his work from the 60’S and 70’s. I feel privileged and honoured to be published by Oxford University Press who, decades apart, published his pioneering work. I also find children’s art very inspiring and fresh! My readers are very creative and often send work inspired by my Big Books.

Did you study art/illustration?

MA illustration at the Royal College of Art, some time ago.

What is your favourite artist tool/product?

It changes, but I am enjoying the immediacy of liquid chalk markers which I use to draw on bookshops’ windows. Except more of, in the run up to Xmas.

Where do you buy your art supplies?

Usually Cass Art but whenever I get to travel abroad I always try to source local bookshops and art shops!

What software/apps do you use?

I use Photoshop mainly, and an extra large Wacom tablet to draw on with a stylus pen.

What was your first commission?

My first published picture book was The Big Blue Thing On The Hill and it set the tone for future things! I am forever grateful to Amanda Wood the then editor for seeing the potential in what was still a concept with just a few drawings.

What are you working on at the moment?

I am working on a large format book to do with Nature Art which I am very excited about. I very much support the idea that ‘Every Child Is An Artist’ and that’s all I can say for now.

Twitter or Instagram? Both—for different reasons, and for different communities.

Coffee or tea? Too much coffee.

 Dog or cat? Dogs, dogs, dogs!

Grape or grain? Grain—Scottish and undiluted, maybe a few ice cubes.

Sunrise or sunset? Sunrises give me energy for the day when working on projects. Sunsets on holidays.

What do you listen to when you are working?  I like ‘abstract’ noises such as the Italian staff from the restaurant opposite having their kitchen breaks, the hum of the buses from near by, the birds who have made the derelict building near me their home. I live in a very urban setting!

Where can we follow you on social media?

I’m pretty much daily on Instagram: @yuvalzommer
And you can follow me on Twitter: @yuvalzommer

This is a regular weekend feature, publishing every Saturday.

 

School Librarian Of The Year

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Kristabelle Williams of Addey & Stanhope School, a voluntary aided state secondary in inner South East London, has been awarded the honour of School Librarian of the Year 2020/21 by the School Library Association (SLA).

Kristabelle is the school’s Learning Resource Centre Manager and received the award at the SLA’s online course on Leading School Libraries yesterday (11th June) after being announced as one of five librarians on the SLA’s 2020/21 Honour List last year. The final stage of the judging, in which a panel of experienced school librarians visit all the candidates in their workplaces, was delayed until earlier this year due to the pandemic.

Kristabelle runs her library single-handed and ensured its services continued during the pandemic by including books in lockdown care packages for families. She used BookTrust’s Bookbuzz programme and the Free Books Campaign to encourage book ownership.

She said in a recent article for Books for Keeps magazine: “Whether young people read or not is often due to cost, access and content… in a pandemic where the public faces further unemployment and child poverty crises, book gifting has, is and will continue to be an important part of what our school does.”

The award citation noted how Kristabelle used her experience of the pandemic to implement positive changes when school reopened—for example, by retaining a click-and-collect loan system and continuing remote community building.

ACHUKA sends Kristabelle warm congratulations.
You can follow her on Twitter: https://twitter.com/libthroughthis