Gift-Wrapped Characters Christmas Quiz

When I was a child, part of the excitement of the run-up to Christmas was shaking, squeezing and even sniffing the gift-wrapped presents beneath our Christmas tree in an attempt to deduce what was inside. For this year's Christmas quiz, I've gift-wrapped 10 picture book characters. Since shaking, squeezing and sniffing are not options, you'll have to work out who they are from their outlines alone. How many can you identify?

Click on each image to reveal the answer

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How did you do?

10	All present and correct: Your picture book character recognition skills are exemplary!
7–9	Gifted: You know your Seuss from your Scheffler.
4–6	Some contents missing: Not bad, but perhaps you should add a few picture book classics to your Christmas list.
1–3	A bad wrap: You need to brush up on your picture book knowledge.

After five years writing for Picture Book Den, this is my last post as a Den member (although I may return for the occasional guest post).  I've enjoyed being part of the team, but it's time for me to move on and focus on other commitments. Thanks to everyone at the Den for their support and friendship over the last few years and thanks to all the Den readers that have shared or commented on my posts.

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Jonathan Emmett's delightfully dark Christmas picture book The Santa Trap, illustrated by Poly Bernatene, is available in a UK paperback print-on-demand edition from Hatchling Books and a US Hardback edition from Peachtree Publishers. 

Find out more about Jonathan and his books at his Scribble Street web site or his blog. You can also follow Jonathan on Facebook and Twitter @scribblestreet.

See all of Jonathan's posts for Picture Book Den.

Missing Vowels Christmas Picture Book Puzzler • Jonathan Emmett

Following on from previous Christmas Quizzes in 2015 and 2016, here's another set of picture book puzzles for you to solve. This year I've taken my inspiration from the "Missing Vowels" round of BBC quiz show Only Connect. For those unfamiliar with the show, I've taken the titles of ten classic picture books, removed all of the vowels and punctuation marks and changed the spaces between the words. For example, THE GRUFFALO might be changed into THG RF FL.

How many ‘disemvowelled’ book titles can you recognise? Click on each image to reveal the answer. To make things more Christmassy – there's a festive theme to the even-numbered titles.

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How did you do?

10	O for outstanding: Your knowledge of picture book titles is exemplary!
7–9	A for advanced: A good effort. You know your Child from your Chichester Clark.
4–6	I for intermediate: Not bad, but perhaps you should add a few picture book classics to your Christmas list.
1–3	U for ungraded: A disappointingly Gruffa-low score. You need to brush up on your picture book knowledge.

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Jonathan Emmett's sparkling seasonal story Diamond in the Snow, illustrated by Vanessa Cabban, has just been re-published in a new edition from Walker Books.

Find out more about Jonathan and his books at his Scribble Street web site or his blog. You can also follow Jonathan on Facebook and Twitter @scribblestreet.

See all of Jonathan's posts for Picture Book Den.

Eyes-Only Advent Picture Book Quiz • Jonathan Emmett

December is here again! So, following on from last year's quiz I thought I'd test your picture book knowledge with another Advent-calendar-like picture book challenge.

When I first started out in children's books, I was illustrating as well as writing. One of the pieces of advice my first agent, Gina Pollinger, gave me at our very first meeting was to study the work of successful illustrators and – in particular – how they drew their characters' eyes. "It's important to get the eyes right," she told me, "if you don't, the character won't come alive and children will not believe in them." Although I never really made it as an illustrator, this is still an excellent piece of advice to any budding picture book illustrator.

So, for this year's quiz, how many of these classic picture book characters can you recognise from the eyes peeping out from the Christmas tree foliage below? Click on each image to reveal the answer. To make things a little more festive – there's a common theme to the even-numbered images.

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How did you do?

10/10	Eagle-eyed: Brilliant! You have 20/20 picture book vision.
7-9/10	An attentive pupil: A good effort. You know your Blake from your Briggs.
4-6/10	Not bad looking: But perhaps you should add some new reading glasses to your Christmas list.
1-3/10	Blinking awful: Are you sure you had your own eyes open?

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Follow the fiendishly funny exploits of evil-eyed über-brat Bradley Bartleby in Jonathan Emmett's Christmas picture book, The Santa Trap, illustrated by Poly Bernatene and published by Macmillan Children's Books.

Find out more about Jonathan and his books at his Scribble Street web site or his blog. You can also follow Jonathan on Facebook and Twitter @scribblestreet.

See all of Jonathan's posts for Picture Book Den.

Christmas Picture Book Quiz

Christmas in the Emmett household is a time of treasure hunts, puzzles and quizzes.  So I thought I'd bring a little picture-book-based "quizzy-fun-fun" (to use a phrase coined by my son) to this blog.

Here are ten classic picture book covers that, by the magic of Photoshop, have been turned into stained glass windows. Can you guess the title of each book? Click on each image to reveal the answer.

Here's a really easy one to get you started.

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And here's a particularly festive one to finish up with!

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How did you do?

10/10	Picture book perfect! Congratulations. You're obviously a picture book devotee.
7-9/10	Pretty good. You know your Sendak from your Scheffler.
4-6/10	Not bad, but perhaps you should add a few picture book classics to your Christmas list.
1-3/10	That's an appallingly Gruffa-low score. You need to brush up on your picture book knowledge.

One last window before you go. Can you guess the message that's hidden below? Click the image to reveal the answer.

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Jonathan Emmett's latest picture book is Fast and Furry Racers: The Silver Serpent Cup illustrated by Ed Eaves and published by Oxford University Press.

Find out more about Jonathan and his books at his Scribble Street web site or his blog. You can also follow Jonathan on Facebook and Twitter @scribblestreet.

See all of Jonathan's posts for Picture Book Den.

The Magic of Christmas by Garry Parsons (Guest blog)

We’re delighted to welcome this month’s guest blogger, Garry Parsons, who is an award-winning picture book illustrator. Garry discusses capturing the essence of Christmas and make-believe, from the Toenail Fairy to Father Christmas.

My five year-old son believes in Father Christmas and the Tooth Fairy unequivocally 
and without question. 

from The Tooth Fairy’s Christmas by Peter Bently and Garry Parsons

He is yet to lose a tooth himself but I know when the time comes that he will take it on board wholeheartedly. I know this because aside from mentioning Father Christmas all year round he has also taken on the existence of the Toenail Fairy, invented by his parents to ease his aversion to having his toenails cut. For my part, the presence of the Toenail Fairy amounts to creeping into his room after dark with a head torch and nail clippers and hoping he doesn’t wake after the first ‘click’. The Toenail Fairy gives a Malteser per toenail, not cash, in case you were wondering, and being concerned not to stain the bed sheets with chocolate, leaves the Maltesers in a bowl next to the bed. But for my son, there is no reason to doubt that the Toenail Fairy exists.

from The Tooth Fairy’s Christmas by Peter Bently and Garry Parsons

I can’t remember the moment Father Christmas ceased to be real for me as a child, but I do remember the magic that surrounded him when I did believe. I’m sure having an elder brother accelerates Santa’s demise for younger siblings, but it’s my wish for my son that his belief in Father Christmas continues as long as possible. 

For that reason I will do what I can to gently perpetuate his presence. But what I’ve noticed as I’ve become older is that I’ve fallen back in love with the idea of magic myself. As if the mystery and magic of the world has had a resurgence inside me.

I often find myself rushing to the window to witness a rainbow or a pink sunset or an orange moon or adding up symbols I’ve seen as I walk down the street, piecing together moments or words or images which somehow start to shape some other language inside me, giving me a warm sense of wonder that some other world is operating just outside of the everyday normality that we are all so used to. As Freddie Mercury would say, “It’s a kinda magic.”

Rainbow over Reykjavik, Iceland

Each year my family spends two weeks in Iceland. My son and I were trying to recall just how many rainbows we saw on a certain day the year before and came to the agreement that whilst walking from the Hallgrímskirkja to Perlan in Reykjavik, a distance of 1.8km, we saw seven separate rainbows. My son has inherited my enthusiasm for ‘collecting’ rainbows and we like to think Iceland is the rainbow capital of the world. Without doubt, Iceland is a magical place, especially if you can travel, even a short distance, away from the main city. Its climate, strange landscapes, rapidly changing weather and dancing aurora give it a magic that gets under your skin.

Ice chunks at Jökulsárlón, glacial river lagoon, Iceland

This morning in Reykjavik we woke up to a blanket of snow outside. “Is it Christmas?” my son asked. “No,” I answered, “it’s October.” But in some ways he was right, the magic was there, just outside the window. So when I was invited to work on a Christmas picture book, I knew it was this elusive element that I wanted to attempt to capture, the Christmas spirit, the seasonal essence, the magic of Christmas, and to do so in acrylic. I had the challenge of depicting our beloved Father Christmas as a credible, caring, warm guardian of children. 

As well as wanting him to be witty and charming, I also needed him to have a little of the quality of magic about him. Consequently, Christmas in my studio stretched from September until early March.

from The Tooth Fairy’s Christmas by Peter Bently and Gary Parsons

So this year I’m excited. Not only have I had another chance to explore Iceland (and I have another son to share Iceland and Christmas with), but also my love for the notion of magic continues, be it rainbows or Santa, and somehow that convinces me that picture books really can do magic.  

Continuing the festive theme, Garry is also the illustrator of The Dinosaur That Pooped Christmas by Tom Fletcher & Dougie Poynter and Daisy and the Trouble with Christmas by Kes Gray.

Garry Parsons is the award-winning illustrator of many books, including There's An Ouch In My Pouch by Jeanne Willis, the best selling The Dinosaur that Pooped... series by Tom Fletcher and Dougie Poynter, George’s Secret Key to the Universe by Lucy and Stephen Hawking and Billy’s Bucket by Kes Gray. Visit him at GarryParsons.co.uk. Follow him on twitter @icandrawdinos

The Tooth Fairy’s Christmas by Peter Bently and illustrated by Garry Parsons (Hodder Children’s Books).