Favourite Picture Books of Writers and Illustrators ● Paeony Lewis

“What’s your favourite picture book?” Argh! That’s such a tricky question. Is it a favourite picture book to share with children? Or a favourite picture book you enjoy as an adult? 

 

Escaping to the country
to immerse ourselves in picture books

Recently, at a long weekend in the depths of the English Cotswolds, a collection of children’s picture book writers and illustrators shared their answers to this questionable question (and they couldn't pick their own books!). It’s a wonderful way to discover new picture books and see familiar ones with fresh eyes. So I thought I’d share their choices, even if I‘m staggered at some of the books chosen (ha ha, I won’t say which!).  

The discussions were originally recorded in my scruffy writing in my scruffy notebook. Apologies if I’ve misunderstood anyone and just contact me if you want anything changed. In general, I only included those who are published because although I mentioned I'd be writing a blog post, I didn't ask individuals and those who are published are more familiar with seeing all manner of stuff about themselves on the internet (even nonsense!).

Also look out for extra VIDEO LINKS. Later that weekend the talented Candy Gourlay grabbed some of us to talk about our choices on camera (we were totally unprepared – well I was!).

THE THREE PIGS by David Wiesner (Clarion Books 2001)
Chosen by guest speaker and author/illustrator, Adam Stower  + Video

The words and pictures come together to create something greater than the individual parts. It starts off lulling you into a sense of traditional security. Then the pig literally blows the pig right out of the visual frame of the story. There are speech bubbles followed by a wonderful word-free journey with a surprise at every turn.

GRUMPY FROG by Ed Vere (Puffin 2017 )
Chosen by author/illustrator Mike Brownlow  + Video

A new book which has been stylistically pared back. The lines are out of the ordinary and all unnecessary detail has been removed and the colours are particularly strong. The book removes or plays with the authorial voice and there’s a dialogue with the reader. 

Mike also sneaked in WE FOUND A HAT by Jon Klassen (Walker Books 2016) because the dialogue between the two characters appealed, and the ethical dilemma is told in a refreshing way.

THERE'S A PIG UP MY NOSE by John Dougherty & Laura Hughes (Egmont 2017)
Chosen by author Julie Fulton 

It's great fun though probably a bit of a 'Marmite' book (non-British readers: this means you'll either love it or hate it!). The trotter prints in the illustrations and the very matter-of-fact way the characters accept the doctor's diagnosis of a pig up the girl's nose add to the enjoyment. The oink repetition is fun to repeat by a child.

WATERLOO & TRAFALGAR by Olivier Tallec (Enchanted Lion Books 2012)
Chosen by guest speaker and publishing art director Zoë Tucker +  Video

Beautiful and unusual book that is wordless and relies on observational body language. Great characterisation. Adores the cover from a graphic designer's point of view.

CRY, HEART, BUT NEVER BREAK by Glenn Ringtved & Charlotte Pardi (Enchanted Lion Books 2016, originally published in Danish in 2001)

A popular choice and picked by two people, writer Alison and illustrator Rachel Tilda Wolf  + Video

A story within a story. It was the stunning illustrations that first attracted Rachel, and then she fell in love with Death - he has so much respect for everyone. It's such a strong moment when Death puts his hand over the coffee cup and says now is the time.

It was an emotional book for Alison too and she particularly empathised with the intertwining of sorrow and delight; who would enjoy the sun if it never rained?

ONE OF EACH by Mary Ann Hoberman & Marjorie Priceman (Little, Brown and Company, USA 2000)
Chosen by author/illustrator Bridget Marzo  +  Video (about another favourite: Caleb and Kate by William Steig, 1977)

The saturated colour is reminiscent of Matisse. The illustrations work well with the writing and there's a strong rhythm. Bridget enjoyed sharing it with her children who found it hilarious.


PARK IN THE DARK by Martin Waddell & Barbara Firth (new edition Walker Books 2002)
Chosen by illustrator John Shelley

An old favourite. John adores the illustrations but it's the poetic rhythm (not rhyming) of the words that pulls him into the night-time world of the toys. You simply can't stop reading it from beginning to end. A simple story told in a beautiful, poetic way.


HENRI'S WALK TO PARIS by Leonore Klein and illustrated by Saul Bass (originally published in 1962, this edition Universe Publishing, USA,  2012)
Chosen by illustrator Alyana Cazalet  + Video

One of many favourites, Alyana loves the work of American, Saul Bass. The illustrations are simple, patterned, and use space, colour and typography in an interesting way. Although the book is about Henri, we never see him, which works well. Plus Bass doesn't use cliched tourist images of Paris. For a book first published in 1962, it looks very contemporary.

 WHEN FRANK WAS FOUR by Alison Lester (pb Allen & Unwin, 1997)
Chosen by author Cath Howe  + Video
 

This is a book about real children, to be shared with children. It creates lots of discussion and is not a narrative and breaks expectations of what works in a picture book. Cath likes the way all the children do one thing, whilst one child does something else, and Cath's children love it.


BAHAY KUBO illus by Hermes Alegre (Tahanan Books, 1993)
Chosen by author Candy Gourlay 

Not in English but we all understood what was happening. This is a traditional folk song that everyone knows in the Philippines. Candy adores the colours and illustrations and picked it because she's especially interested in books that show other countries and cultures that aren't familiar to European children.


Similarly, writer, Cathy, picked THE MOUSEHOLE CAT By Antonia Barber & Nicola Bayley (Walker Books, 1990) partly because it reflects her Cornish identity and life, her language and places. Also, she feels there's a place for longer picture book stories.

THE RED BOOK by Barbara Lehman (Houghton Mifflin, USA, 2004)
Chosen by author Juliet Clare Bell  + Video

A wordless picturebook, although for Clare the attraction is not in the illustrations. Instead it is about the 'whole thing' and the way the book makes her feel . The wordless story is about two lonely children who meet in an extraordinary way. It's a different form of storytelling.

Another book was chosen for the overall way it made the reader feel.  This time  it was an unusual (weird?!) book, THE BEAR WHO WANTED TO STAY A BEAR by Jörg Steiner & Jörg Muller (Swiss), originally published in English in 1977. Chosen by illustrator, Paul Morton, and you can find out more in this general video link.  Once again, for him it's not the pictures, or even the writing. Instead it's the feeling you get from the book. Despair with a little hope at the end.

After that book, if you want to cheer yourself up then listen to Gary Fabbi talk about Stickman in the video below.

STICKMAN by Julia Donaldson & Axel Scheffler (Alison Green Books 2008)
Chosen by writer, illustrator and filmaker, Gary Fabbi  +  Video
Gary loves reading this 'awesome' story to his children and says there are no other books like Stickman. It's a story about homecoming.

Time to squeeze in my book choices.

Like others, I brought along several books. There was Owl Babies by Martin Waddell and Patrick Benson - a reassuring tale about separation anxiety and a favourite to read to my young children. Plus This Is Not My Hat by Jon Klassen - I adore the illustration and simplicity of the expressive fish eyes, the deadpan language that says so much, and the childlike morals of the little fish who tries to justify the theft of the hat. However, we had to pick one book and my choice was...

VARMINTS by Helen Ward and Marc Craste (Templar Publishing, 2007, 2013)
Chosen by Paeony Lewis  + Video

I have two copies: an everyday secondhand copy and a signed hardback in a slipcase. Despite this I hadn't read Varmints in quite a while so if you listen to the video you'll be confused by my chaotic rambling (I panicked and didn't know what to say - which is daft as I can cope with radio interviews!).

Varmints is a slightly abstract tale about being subsumed by urbanisation and cutting ourselves off from nature. But all is not lost and it only takes one person to nurture a seed of hope that spreads change and the return of bees. The illustrations are unusual and atmospheric. Sometimes the text is hard to read, which is deliberate as the noise of industrialisation drowns out sound. Perhaps it's because my degree is in environmental sciences that this is a favourite?

Sadly there's not enough room for all the 'favourites', but here are a few more that other lovely writers and illustrators shared over the weekend.

The variety of 'favourites' is staggering. Many were new to me and I found some choices surprising. I think it shows that our personalities and experiences influence our preferences far more than sales hype or academic evaluations of what is 'good'. Plus there's often a difference between our personal favourites (as adults) and the ones we enjoyed sharing with children. For many, 'favourites' are fluid, so often new favourites replace old favourites. I'd love to hear your favourites.

Paeony Lewis
www.paeonylewis.com


PS The long weekend was organised by the SCBWI (Society of Children's Writers and Illustrators), a proactive group that encourages both published and aspiring writers and illustrators. Click picture book weekend for an excellent write-up of the event by Candy Gourlay.

What's your favourite children's book? • Jonathan Allen

One of the things that authors get asked on a fairly regular basis, usually while taking questions at school or bookshop visits, is "What's your favourite children's book?". This is a tricky question for a lot of authors and/or illustrators, but I have always had a clear favourite. And the winner is. . . (Cue the traditional 'Great British Bake Off' ten second annoying pause. . .) The Magic Pudding by Norman Lindsay.

I was bought this book as a child, at the age where I was reading by myself, can't remember what age that was but I'm guessing 7-8 ish. . . Anyway, the copy I got was a paperback re-issue from the 1960's. Those of you anywhere near my age will no doubt remember the dubious quality of children's paperbacks of that era. The cheaper ones anyway. The pages would begin to fall out owing to the glue used in the binding being rubbish. Armada books were a prime culprit, Enid Blyton and Biggles books etc. But I digress. The copy I had suffered the same deterioration as the aforementioned paperbacks, with the addition of the pages going prematurely yellow. But despite this, The Magic Pudding enchanted me.

Now, a bit of history and biography etc. -

"The Magic Pudding is said to have been written to settle an argument: a friend of Lindsay's said that children like to read about fairies, while Lindsay asserted that they would rather read about food and fighting."

A wise man ;-)

And a significant artist of his time. Which was around 1900 onwards. At this point I would be expected to show examples of his work and wax lyrical about his artistic abilities, but as his subject matter was unashamedly and unremittingly erotic in nature, this isn't the place to do that. Google him when the kids are in bed or something.
He was a superb draughtsman. His line work was kind of Beardsley meets Vargas, with Beardsley being the line and Vargas the subject matter. His painting style was looser for the most part and his subject matter exotic in a sort of Theda Bara, Hollywood vamp, faux persian, fantasy style if that makes sense.

He was Australian, and lived in an interesting and scandalous domestic situation somewhere in the outback with several artist's models. See the film 'Sirens' for further information ;-) (and if you like Elle McPherson. . .)

Though his work was almost exclusively About the female form etc, he did do several recruitment posters in World War One. I can share a couple of those.

The bottom one is a good link to his illustrations for The Magic Pudding, featuring, as it does, various indigenous Australian wildlife.

So what's it about? - Briefly, in case any of you are unfortunate enough not to have come across this book and want a quick précis. Though, like most books, what it's about is so much more than the plot and characters doing this and that. . .
The Magic Pudding in the title is just that. A cut-and-come-again pudding that can take several pudding flavours and has the ability to reconstitute itself completely no matter how many slices are consumed. It's name is Albert, it can talk, and has serious attitude. A neatly attired koala, name of Bunyip Bluegum meets Albert and his co-owners Bill Barnacle - a bewhiskered sailor, and Sam Sawnoff - a penguin, on his travels in the bush and joins up with them. There are two rascally puddin' thieves lurking around, continually scheming to purloin the pudding. There is much singing, puddin' thief conflict and general rumbustuousness along the way. . .

There is also, social satire, acute observation and great dialogue. And best of all, wonderful drawings, done in that totally assured style that only someone absolutely at ease with figure drawing can achieve.

I'm going to cheat and paste my review from the Goodeads website, as it sums up what I love about this book, and it would be silly to just rephrase it to pretend I'd only just written it. And I'm lazy.

"I love this book. It was my favourite when I was a kid and it is still my favourite kid's book. I didn't know it was Australian when I was six or whenever it was I first read it, although the animals were all Australian and it was set in Australia. I didn't locate it anywhere geographically. It was book. The rules are different ;-) Books happen in 'Bookspace'. But now, I have to mentally transpose the dialogue into an Aussie accent, which is fun, and gives such bits of dialogue as "I'll take and bounce a gibber off yer crust!" a reason for being so exotic sounding. I find Bunyip Bluegum's restraint and verbose pomposity ( in a nice way ) so English that he has to have an English accent. Sorry. The drawings are superb. The malevolent pudding, the self important windbag of a rooster, the devious Puddin' Thieves, the bandicoot, ( "Take me melon, but spare me life!" ), Great Uncle Wattleberry bounding and plunging, ah. . . a brilliant artist enjoying himself! He dismissed his book as "Just a bit of piffle" which is disingenuous to put it mildly. Sorry mate, but it was the best thing you ever did. You disagree? Well be careful, don't speak too loud or I might just take and bounce a gibber off yer crust."

It is regarded as a classic in Australia, and I assume the rest of the English speaking World at least, though reviewers on Amazon tut-tut at the violence. . . But then they would, wouldn't they?

More recently -

"An animated feature-length film adaption was released in 2000, with John Cleese voicing the title role, Hugo Weaving as Bill, Geoffrey Rush as Bunyip, and Sam Neill as Sam. It deviated heavily from Lindsay's book, was critically derided, and was not a financial success."

I refuse to post a picture of the film poster or of any still from same as it is loathsome and just wrong. Though of course I haven't seen it. . . ;-)

Thanks for indulging me in this hastily written and not entirely picture book related digression.
What's your favourite children's book?