ISBN: 978-1-912066-54-4
Published by Design for Today
Publishers website www.designfortoday.co.uk
My book review for the A.O.I. Blog can be found here.
HB ISBN: 978-1-5263-6323-7
PB ISBN: 978-1-5263-6321-3
E-book ISBN: 978-1-5263-6322-0
Published by Wren & Rook
Publishers website https://www.hachettechildrens.co.uk/
Neil Layton’s Agent’s website https://www.arenaillustration.com/artists/neal-layton/
Pitch
How do you communicate complex ideas and inter-related biological systems to young children? How do you convert ideas into long lasting actions? Author and illustrator Neal Layton accomplishes all of this in his new picture book. He understands that children love nature, they want to engage with ecology and
these passions can be harnessed for good. This book was inspired by Sir David Attenborough, who said: “No one will protect what they don’t care about, and no one will care about what they have never experienced.”
Review
The first part of his story acts to raise awareness in the reader. We find out the common terms used to describe our wild world and where they need to be applied. I liked how we are shown Biodiversity, the Web of life and how important the smallest organisms are to these systems for them to work optimally. The second part provides us with the means to make a difference. The most important point is to show what nations are doing to change things, the fact there is a global effort to improve matters. The powerful are acting and you can help them is the clear message that we are left with.
Layton’s illustrations are bold, sophisticated, loose, dynamic using bold colours and photo-collaged elements to good effect. He can transport us to a variety of locations and landscape types using humour and upbeat mark making. He can capture the essence of a creature without it having to be perfectly rendered. Things look a bit odd, but they are where they need to be 100%. His drawings aid his cause (I’d like to see his work on activity sheets as this I feel would add visual and creative energy to a set of instructions for children). The cover is dominated by a huge tree with the book title boldly displayed inside its corona. A young child sits next to an owl and a squirrel, they seem at peace. The back cover shows an urban scene which is an important factor as most human populations live in built-up areas. The end papers are striking in their depiction of a range of animal tracks that could disappear if we fail to act.
The final two pages of the story invite children to take part in protecting wildlife in 5 steps and, they are introduced to other children who are making a difference. The Glossary is a fine addition as there are words in the text that will be new to many. The content is backed up by scientific research and data from those who understand the natural world. At no time do Layton’s words appear preachy or extreme in the face of this crisis. He has provided us with the tools for gentle activism and it is up to us to do the right thing?
My review for Graham Carter's new picture book, 'The Story Thief' - hosted on the Association of illustrators review Blog here
My review for Adam Stower's new picture book, 'the day Fin Flooded the World' - hosted on the Arena Illustration website here.
My A.O.I. Book Review can be found here.
This picture work is published by Andersen Press.
Adam Stower's work can be found here.
Written & Illustrated by Neil Packer
ISBN: 978-1-4063-7922-8
Published by Walker Studio
A.O.I. Book Review can be found here.
Neil Packer’s Website http://www.neilpacker.co.uk/
Written by Chiara Mezzalama
Illustrated by Régis Lejonc
ISBN 978-1-911496-16-8
Published by Book Island
Reviewed by Karl Andy Foster
Publisher’s website https://www.bookisland.co.uk/products/the-garden-of-inside-outside?_pos=1&_sid=bf411036a&_ss=r
Illustrator’s website https://www.ricochet-jeunes.org/auteurs/regis-lejonc
This is a story that sets out its context carefully as the events that surround and impact upon our young protagonist Chiara requires sensitive handling. A memoir framed against a turbulent period in the history of the middle east evokes the author’s remembrances of things past.
With similarities to a propaganda poster the cover of this graphic novel shows two children linking hands in a beautiful garden. Above their heads and outside the inside is the image of the Ayatollah Khamenei in ominous red and black. The paper stock also adds to this quality. On some pages there is not the conventual linear story but instead images that could be self-contained and work in their own right.
Throughout the story at the top of the pages we see either the word OUTSIDE in red to indicate danger or INSIDE in green for the more peaceful moments. Towards the end both OUTSIDE and INSIDE are shown together once another child Massoud enters the garden. Through their interactions the children process the realities of the world outside. They shape their fears into adventures and shared values into friendship.
The illustrations in this book remind me of linocuts or wood block printing. The limited palette of green, blue, red, yellow with black outlines helps to reinforce this impression. From arches to decorative tile work, from illustrated carpets to lush vegetation gone wild the line work is fluid and flows well. The drawing style is a combination of the powerful details found in David B.’s work and the graphic boldness of Marjane Satrapi’s illustrations.
This is a delightful story about friendship in unusual circumstances. Based on the biographical events of the author’s life and set during a time of revolution and war, it is the precious moments that cement our personalities and create the myths of our early years. At the end of this story there is a moment that reminds me of a line from A. E. Housman’s ‘A Shropshire Lad.’
“That is the land of lost content, I see it shining plain,
The happy highways where I went
And cannot come again.”
This graphic novel is proof that it is necessary to relive your past and to share this with others.
9th March 2020
Written by Anna Castagnoli
Illustrated by Carll Cneut
ISBN 978-1-911496-14-4
Published by Book Island
Reviewed by Karl Andy Foster
Publisher’s website https://www.bookisland.co.uk/products/the-golden-cage?_pos=1&_sid=51334d043&_ss=r
Illustrator’s website https://blog.picturebookmakers.com/post/162038451911/carll-cneut
Review
The title of this oversized picture book is worth remembering as you read through the sumptuous illustrations and sensitively delivered text. The golden cover is composed of birds of every exotic variety with a conscious nod by the artist to the bird illustrations of Edward Lear, John James Audubon and the legendary Brian Wildsmith. The Emperor’s sullen daughter is the only sour note within this image. She is a great foil to the avian magnificence surrounding her.
The Emperor’s daughter referred to here as the Bloody Princess demonstrates how she got this moniker every chance that she gets. She is an obsessive brooding child who know no boundaries. Her lurid dreams lead her to demand that her servants bring her extraordinary bird after extraordinary bird! Her servants dare not disappoint her and sometimes they don’t return at all. For a book aimed at children aged 6 plus the story is firmly in the mold of a dark European fairytale.
Carll Cneut is an artist who possesses a masterful range in his painting and drawing approaches. He has designed each spread with the precision of a graphic designer (the typography also works as image in some cases) and the bravura of an expressionist painter. In addition to the cover his notable spreads include the pin board of birds that contain one of ‘Big Bird’ from the TV show Sesame Street, the one with the 101 numerals in yellow positioned across the pages, the red flower image where the skulls begin to appear for the first time, the final servant surrounded by the empty bird cages and the green page where the final servant finally delivers the talking bird to the Princess.
This tale of the Bloody Princess leaves us wondering what will happen next as the imagery gives way to written pages that raise more questions than they answer. This is a complex picture book that will draw out the curiosity of children and adults too as the illustration and the writing work on multiple levels. There is enough here to have one return to its pages time after time.
7th March 2020
Written and Illustrated by Sara Lundberg
ISBN 978-1-911496-15-1
Published by Book Island
Reviewed by Karl Andy Foster
Publisher’s website https://www.bookisland.co.uk/collections/books/products/the-bird-within-me
Sara Lundberg’s website http://saralundberg.se/
Review
Who gets to decide the fate of a young girl in a pale blue dress with a pale blue clay bird model in her hands?
This hardback book cover shows a figure sitting in a tree in full leaf. The colours are burnished in saturated greens with a pop of pale blue. This pale blue is Berta’s dress and this colour is central to the narrative. Berta is day dreaming the dream of someone afflicted by creativity. The image is expressively handled in a lose but generous painting style.
Writer and Artist Sara Lundberg’s story takes place on a farm in the spare landscape of rural Sweden in the 1920’s and is inspired by the paintings, letters and diaries of the artist Berta Hansson. It begins when Berta is young and standing at a crossroads in her life. Our hero has to decide whether to stay or go. This is a tale about family loyalties and the conflicts inherent in the inevitable break with tradition when we wish to assert our independence.
Berta forms birds from pale blue clay that she finds in a gully near her home. This pale blue clay and the gallery of works in her mother’s bedroom are laden with symbolism. The whole story is subtle and beautiful with formal compositions and controlled brushstrokes. Trees are sensitively handled they are like the chorus watching over the events and vital spaces where Berta finds the room “to be” and for creativity to find her. Lundberg paintings are imbued with a rich melancholy that evokes a time that is frozen in aspic and reminds me of the monumental work of my former tutors, Alan Young and Charles Shearer. It’s as if she has seen their work and created a fabulous hybrid. There is also a quietude in some of the the scenes that are reminiscent of the more pared back paintings by Leonora Carrington.
It is often said that an artist begins their journey to maturity when they have to deal with loss and personal trauma, Berta’s Mother’s illness is the catalyst here. In addition, the vision seen through the doctor’s window (if you can see it, you can be it) and the doctor’s advice (someone has to give you permission to try) are pivotal in the future direction of Berta’s life.
There is an Afterword by Alexandra Sundqvist the cultural journalist that delves into the real-life biography of the artist Berta Hansson. This was good to see as it features photographs and examples of her artworks which adds more validity to the story. Reflecting on this further I was left haunted by an old popular song:
Que sera sera
Whatever will be will be
The future's not ours to see
Que sera sera
What will be will be
Que sera sera
7th July 2020
Written & Illustrated by Sydney Smith
ISBN: 978-1-4063-8840-4
Published by Walker Books
Reviewed by Karl Andy Foster
Publishers website http://www.walker.co.uk/Small-in-the-City-9781406388404.aspx
Sydney Smith https://www.sydneydraws.ca
Pitch
This is something special. Sydney Smith’s narrative power is his ability to immerse the reader into the world and concerns of a small child. His spare economical prose and exquisite artwork propels you towards a startling destination. This is an honest and credible story that after drawing you in leaves you satisfied, perhaps with one or two tears in your eyes.
Review
In this hard cover picture book there are some lovely observations visual and textual. The initial four panels with the silhouettes and blurred streets convey the sense of unease. A child roams around the city encountering a range of scenarios and offers advice that may or may not be of comfort to a stranger.
Sydney Smith’s carefully constructed pages are a mixture of full spreads and panels. Of note is the double page spread when the child leaves the bus and makes their way into the throng of the crowds. In addition, the words “I know what it’s like to be small in the city” or “The streets are always busy. It can make your brain feel like there’s too much stuff in it.” I particularly enjoyed “Alleys can be good shortcuts. But don’t go down this alley it’s too dark.” We are completely involved with the concerns of our young protagonist.
The grid lines of buildings, walk ways and street furniture create a web suggesting a trap for the uninitiated. There is a stunning picture of the child’s reflection fractured by the arrangements of the mirror tiles on a building façade. We soon realise that this advice is not aimed at the reader but at something far more important. The revelation at the end of the picture book came as a surprise for me but I did start to get an inkling of what was to come.
Sydney Smith has created a classic that will make a big impression on readers with a story that though simple is imbued with a graphic fluidity combined with a visual dexterity that few can match. This for me is reminiscent of Ezra Jack Keats’ atmospheric The Snowy Day when I read it for the first time. The artwork nods in a knowing direction towards Dave McKean’s ‘Cages’ and ‘The Savage.’ The use of a subtle and sophisticated palette suffused with interpretive impressionistic inky marks and charcoal lines is thrilling.
If this picture book and his 2017 Kate Greenaway Medal winning collaboration ‘Town Is by the Sea’ written by Joanne Schwartz is anything to go by Sydney Smith is on his way to great significance. When you are small in the city you can still have the biggest heart of all.
08 October 2019
Written & Illustrated by Graham Carter
ISBN: 978 178344 745 9
Published by Anderson Press
Reviewed by Karl Andy Foster
Publishers website https://www.andersenpress.co.uk
Graham Carter Website http://www.graham-carter.co.uk
Graham Carter’s Agent’s Website http://arenaillustration.com/portfolios/graham-carter
Pitch
Otto Blotter is a fearless explorer whose curiosity takes him far and wide. As for his family they are obsessed with bird watching and rarely leave their house that has been converted into an enormous Hide. They haven’t much time for our hero not when there are beautiful birds that need spotting. One day while out adventuring Otto makes a discovery that changes his life forever.
Review
Otto goes on an adventure that ranges across a fully formed environment habituated in places by mostly passive human characters, he is the exception. This highly detailed illustrated book alive with textures and vibrant imagery is from the hand of artist and printmaker Graham Carter. The main excitement comes from his spectacular bird illustrations. The vivid colour and dynamic shapes helps to drive the narrative and grabs our attention.
Otto discovers and ‘rescues’ a tiny bird that he secretly feeds and comforts. A bond builds between them but as time goes by the bird becomes enormous. Just when Otto thinks his secret is about to be revealed the bird decides to display its unusual and delightful powers.
The energy in this book shines out from the artwork as Carter uses every square centimetre of the pages to reveal new surprises and give the story depth. The digital paintings are quite dark with the colours being very sophisticated for the intended age group however the palette selection comes into its own once the bird’s final special power is on display.
The cover of this hardback book uses varnish and embossing to make a tactile statement. The bird at the centre of the cover is subtle and stylized into the shape of an arched window. A window that leads to indigo end papers that give us some clues as to what the story is about. The narrative gives me the sense that this is only the beginning. I would really like to see a series about the Blotter family and their unusual location.
19 August 2019
