Jean-Jacques Sempé

Happy New Year to one and all! 

I had a lovely peaceful christmas break, but I'm sorry for the long radio silence. Before the year ended I spent a few weeks in Paris. The trip was very beautiful and full of great discoveries. A good friend came out to visit for the weekend, and we went to the free Sempé exhibition at Hôtel de Ville. It had over 300 original drawings, and we both thoroughly enjoyed it (see a video of the exhibition here).

If you aren't familiar with Sempé I encourage you to look out some of his books. I really enjoyed seeing his covers for The New Yorker, and his more experimental work, the sheer volume of work was astounding. It was also the first exhibition I've been to where the crowd were all smiling broadly, and laughing, as they walked around. 

I also wanted to share this excellent clip of the title credits for the Petit Nicolas film they made in 2009. The film is shot in live action, but they used the original Sempé drawings for the credits, in a very inventive way. Take a look! 

 

Otto out in the world

My newest book 'Otto the Book Bear' is out in America on January 31st next year, published by Disney-Hyperion. I've had my first two reviews through recently, this LOVELY review from Publisher's Weekly, and I've just heard that Otto has been given a Kirkus Star! This is very exciting, Kirkus are infamously tough critics, so I'm thrilled to have a great review from them here. 

You can also see Otto being read by Kym Marsh on CBeebies Bedtime Stories, next Friday 2nd December at 6.45pm! 

 

Live Twitter chat... Win a signed drawing!

I'll be doing a live Twitter chat this Friday 28th Oct at 1pm. If you have a question for me please tweet it to @TescoMagazine or @KatieCleminson and use the hashtag #kidsbookclub. There are copies of 'Otto' to win, and I'm going to give a signed drawing for the best question. 

Also, if you'd like to hear Caroline Quentin reading my book 'Otto', go here! 

Overtime

I'm working long hours trying to finish my book. All this overtime reminded me of something very beautiful that I hadn't yet shared on here... 

I was shown this animation during a lecture at Art School, and I hope to one day create something even a tenth as great as this. I wish there was a better quality version online, or that I could buy it somewhere...

Enjoy. 

 Ps. If you enjoyed that, here is another very beautiful animation. 

 


Viviane Schwarz is a Greenaway-shortlisted, Booktrust Best New Illustrator, Roald Dahl Funny Prize-nominated, Author/Illustrator genius. You will probably know her from her fantastic 'There Are Cats In This Book' series, and her new book with Alexis Deacon 'A Place to Call Home'. (if you follow her blog you will also know she has a graphic novel called 'The Sleepwalkers' coming out soon.)

I saw Viv earlier in the year at the London Book Fair, for a Best New Illustrators talk we were both part of, and we had a very interesting disussion about the future of digital books. I've spoken to a few people about this subject, but none so interesting as Viv. So I asked her if she would let me hold a little interview about it for my blog... This will be the first of a series, in which I will ask fellow illustrators for their opinion on a specific subject. I hope you enjoy reading this, I found it fascinating, do let me know your thoughts in the comments box. Thanks again Viv,for taking the time to do this! Click below to read the full interview  

 

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What Katie Has Been Doing....

Here's an update of things I've been up to now Otto has been relased onto the shelves. Firstly, I had a whole bunch of events to do when Otto was released in July. My absolute favourite were the two events I did at the Just Imagine Story Centre in Chelmsford, Essex. Just Imagine is the creation of Nikki Gamble, who is an expert on children's books, and knows everyone in the industry. My two events held there (one for adults, one for children) were just a joy. If you live anywhere in the area, it's definitely worth a visit. Nikki asked me to do an Otto window display for her shop, picture below of the large Otto I made for it. The hardest part of that day was climbing down into the window, in a dress, without showing Chelmsford more than I'd have liked to. Thankfully I managed it, although one man did walk past the window twice (which Nikki found very funny, ha!) 

I also went to Waterstone's Piccadilly to draw Otto on their chalkboards, I visited some schools, and held mask-making workshops at a couple of bookshops. It was a thrill to read Otto to children for the first time, and he proved very popular! In other Otto news, he was picked as Sunday Times Children's Book of the Week. I'm a Times reader, and so seeing little Otto in The Sunday Times made my heart pound with excitement! Otto also had a very lovely review on LibraryMice and over at Playing By the Book. I also picked my '8 books en route to becoming an illustrator' for Zoe at PBTB, you can read it here.

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Keep Our Secrets

The extraordinary McSweeney's have teamed up with Jordan Crane to create this innovative new children's book. There is much talk of how the publishing world will evolve at present, and here is yet another example that it's full of surprises. (And not always of the digital nature.)

 

                    

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore iPad App Trailer from Moonbot Studios on Vimeo.

 

If you haven't seen the Morris Lessmore app yet, you must watch the trailer above, it's beautifully made. 

Also, some very welcome news on The Bookseller that Channel 4 may be launching a children's book club. Fingers crossed it all goes ahead!