Category: Ages 6–8
With lots of kids attending the launch of The Last Viking Returns on 10 September 2014 I decided to get creative. Book launches can be notoriously dull, especially when author and illustrator speeches consist mostly of thanking everyone who gave birth to them or helped create the book or once said something kind about them […]
Before their most recent collaboration, award-winning creators Norman Jorgensen and James Foley released a fun picture book about a little boy who outwits local bullies by channelling his inner Viking. The Last Viking was its name and Knut was its hero. Find out where all that pillaging began by listening to this reading of […]
Author Norman Jorgensen’s research notes on inspiring Viking women.
Chris Nixon is the illustrator of the internationally renowned Jake series and Crocodile Cake but he’s so much more than that. He’s building a CV that includes public art, video direction and commercial illustration. Here are some notes about how he approaches each project and a video of Chris at work.
The final cover is in! Catch the first glimpse of The Last Viking Returns by Norman Jorgensen, in this amazing time lapse video by illustrator James Foley.
In which countries will the Jake series be published? As many as possible! So far it has appeared, or is scheduled to appear, in countries where French is spoken as well as India, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam. There’s also been interest from China, Germany, Greece, Philippines and Serbia.
Cheryl Kickett-Tucker’s slightly spooky children’s book Barlay! has an important message for young kids.
Sally Morgan edited the Waarda series and created the books’ distinctive front covers. Now she has written her own book for the series called The Magic Fair .
Award-winning author, Norman Jorgensen, and illustrator James Foley are exposing the pain and the triumph of creating and publishing a picture book on their new blog http://knutthelastviking.wordpress.com/ .
Students at Rosalie Primary School teamed up with illustrator Chris Nixon and Emerging Arts Professional Kiri Falls to create a series of book trailers based on Fremantle Press books.
With foreign rights sales to Hachette in France and Scholastic in India, the popular Jake series is on the cusp of going global.
How far back does your interest in picture books stretch? I went to an exhibition of artwork from a picture book when I was in Year 2 at primary school. I loved seeing all of the artwork displayed. We spent a lot of time that year making our own picture books: planning them on huge […]
Where did the inspiration for your story come from? My inspiration for Beach Sports Car came from two sources – my childhood memories of Useless Loop and the inventiveness of my father.
Where did the inspiration for Shadow come from? Pat: We thought, if you were a young child who had moved towns and were lonely, wouldn’t it be good to have a secret creature to keep you company and protect you? Shadow is a friendly protective creature who loves Lilli and her mother and nanna. He […]
Bawoo Stories author May O’Brien has won the 2009 Deadly Award for Outstanding Achievement in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island Education.
How did you become interested in becoming an illustrator? I was always interested. For as long as I can remember I’ve been into drawing. My mum enrolled me in art classes when I was five or six, and that was it, really. I did oil painting and went sketching outdoors, that kind of thing. When […]
Western Australian illustrator Moira Court was one of six artists shortlisted for the Crichton Award for First-time Illustrators on Tuesday 31 March.