Debbie Ridpath Ohi's Blog, page 75

#BookADay: A HITCH AT THE FAIRMONT by Jim Averbeck, illustrated by Nick Bertozzi

#BookADay: A HITCH AT THE FAIRMONT by Jim Averbeck, with very cool chapter heading comic illustrations by Nick Bertozzi. Fun and satisfying read with some great twists, and I loved the fact that young Jack is an artist.  



Advice for new illustrators and writers from Jim Averbeck from his interview on Kidlit411.com:



"Grow a thick skin. Get great teachers. Challenge yourself. Value yourself. Put all of your heart into each story, but don’t put all of your heart into only one story. Surround yourself with creative people. And if you can manage to get hold of a trust fund, do so." :-)

Synopsis: "An intrepid boy teams up with Alfred Hitchcock himself in this rollicking mystery rife with action, adventure, intrigue, and all the flavor of film noir.

After the mysterious death of his mother, eleven-year-old Jack Fair is whisked away to San Francisco's swanky Fairmont Hotel by his wicked Aunt Edith. There, he seems doomed to a life of fetching chocolates for his aunt and her pet chinchilla. Until one night, when Aunt Edith disappears, and the only clue is a ransom note written... in chocolate?

Suddenly, Jack finds himself all alone on a quest to discover who kidnapped Aunt Edith and what happened to his mother. Alone, that is, until he meets an unlikely accomplice: Alfred Hitchcock himself! The two embark on a madcap journey full of hidden doorways, secret societies, cryptic clues, sinister villains, and cinematic flair."

More about the author: http://www.jimaverbeckbooks.com/

More about the illustrator: http://nickbertozzi.com/

More about the book on the S&S site: http://books.simonandschuster.com/Hitch-at-the-Fairmont/Jim-Averbeck/9781442494473

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Find out more about Donalyn Miller's Book-A-Day Challenge on the Nerdy Book Club site, and you can read archives of my #BookADay posts.

 

 

Comic: The Leaf

#BookADay: WE WERE LIARS by E. Lockhart

Just finished WE WERE LIARS by Emily Lockhart. Totally lives up to the hype, I have to say. 

It's a novel I definitely want to reread (if you've read the novel yourself, you know why).

In hunting down interviews with the author, I was intrigued by the fact that Emily rewrote the novel multiple times as well as reorganizing "over and over." This hard work clearly paid off.

What I loved most: the voice. I only had to read a sample excerpt to be hooked, and immediately bought the book for my Kindle.

You can find out more about E. Lockhart and her work at EmilyLockhart.com. If you're on Twitter, you should follow @elockhart -- she sometimes posts about her writing process, too.

More about We Were Liars on the Penguin Random House site.

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Find out more about Donalyn Miller's Book-A-Day Challenge on the Nerdy Book Club site, and you can read archives of my #BookADay posts.

To fellow Canucks: Happy Canadian Thanksgiving Weekend!

Colby Sharp, Judy Blume and Green Kangaroos

Above: I love teacher Colby Sharp's enthusiasm for reading and how he shares it with his students. "READING IS AWESOME!"

Thanks to Colby for letting me use his classroom as photo reference for some of the illustrations I did for the Judy Blume chapter books. He and my teacher friend Allison Durno were kind enough to share reference photos with me during the process.

Here's how my illustration for pg 7 of THE ONE IN THE MIDDLE IS THE GREEN KANGAROO (Atheneum/Simon & Schuster, 2014) began:

Then it became this:

Then I referred to a couple of stills from a short video that Colby sent me:

Video still courtesy Colby Sharp, reposted with permission.Video still courtesy Colby Sharp, reposted with permission.

and the illustration became this:

Then Simon & Schuster art director Lauren Rille worked her magic and here's the final page layout:

In thanks for the photo ref, I put Colby in the auditorium crowd near the end of the book:

So fun!

Anyway, do check out Colby's SharpRead blog and the Nerdy Book Club, which he co-founded.

Read more about how Simon & Schuster's Lauren Rille and I created a new look for Judy Blume classics at the Nerdy Book Club.

To find out more about the Judy Blume books I illustrated, see my Illustrating Judy Blume page. I'll also be talking about the process during a panel discussion at the INSPIRE! Toronto Book Fair on Sunday, November 16th on the Spark Stage at 1 pm.

Comic: The Scrabble Addict

Inspired by my friend John Chew. :-)

I revamped the old comic to use updated art as an excuse to play around with my new Alex Dukal cartoonist brushes. Wasn't sure if that meant I needed to update the copyright notice or not...?

Book I Read: GO, SHAPES, GO! by Denise Fleming

 

I just bought GO, SHAPES, GO!, a gorgeously illustrated early concept book with such a *fun* story, and it launched TODAY. I've been a fan of Denise Fleming's work ever since I saw Denise demonstrate her pulp painting process at the SCBWI Illustrator Intensives a few years ago.

You can find out more about Denise and her wonderful picture books at: Denisefleming.com (she also offers free READ posters for download!)

More about GO, SHAPES, GO! (including review excerpts) on the Simon & Schuster website.

Comic: "First Things First"

Writers and illustrators: don't get so caught up in promotion and marketing that you forget to CREATE.

Libraries Inspire: October is Canadian Library Month!

Happy Canadian Library Month!

Happy National Punctuation Day!

 

 

Yes, it's National Punctuation Day!