Jon Klassen is back!

Today is the first exciting day of the Jon Klassen This Is Not My Hat global blog tour, visiting eight brilliant blogs over the next ten days. Stay tuned for a series of reviews, competitions and exclusive insider interviews, as bloggers dive below the surface and uncover the truth behind the making of Klassen's latest wry tale of crime and punishment...

Follow the tour

8th October: Playing by the Book

9th October: 100 Scope Notes

10th October: My Best Friends Are Books

11th October: Elizabeth O. Dulernba

12th October: Wahm-Bam!

15th October: Lost in the Library

16th October: My Little Bookcase

17th October: A Year of Reading 

Not your hat?

To celebrate the launch This Is Not My Hat, we're challenging readers to take a photo of themselves wearing somebody else's hat and to share it with us, either by emailing it to us at marketing@walker.co.uk with Not My Hat as the subject line, or by Tweeting it to us @WalkerBooksUK using the hashtag #notmyhat. The best picture will WIN a This Is Not My Hat goody bag, including a signed copy of the book, plus a gorgeous poster, postcards, stickers and an exclusive This Is Not My Hat baseball cap, all in a stylish tote bag! Competition ends on 31st October. Terms and conditions.

Finding your place

This month we are really excited to be publishing Oliver, the debut picture book from Icelandic author/illustrator Birgitta Sif. Beautifully illustrated and lovingly told, Oliver is a story about being different and finding your place. Birgitta tells Picture Book Picnic about her journey to becoming an illustrator and how writing Oliver helped her find her own place...

When I started working on Oliver, I was studying for my Masters degree at Cambridge School of Art. I loved my time there! And the program was something I didn't know I'd been missing till I found it (and the many people I came to love and cherish during my time there). Finally, I was surrounded by friends who liked the same things and talked the same language as me, projects and mentors who interested me beyond anything I'd ever been apart of before! Having always felt a bit different, I'd finally found a place and people who were a bit different, too (in the same way as me). One time, we were all sitting around, and I realized we were discussing different types of erasers (how silly!). But it was quite funny. And I remember looking around and I knew I had found friends for life. It was also the same time I met Thor, my partner, and things seemed to click right together, as if I'd always known him. I think life can be amazing like that, stumbling across something you didn’t even know you needed. I had finally found my home. In many ways, Thor is my Olivia.  

 

I spend a lot of time sketching and doodling. And in one of those doodles, Oliver came about. Since this is my first book, I don’t really have a method yet. But for Oliver, I began by making thumbnails on little pieces of paper that I had cut out. Then shifted them around like a jigsaw puzzle, often redrawing and redrawing and doodling again until it came together to form the story I had in my head. I tried to leave some room from the sketch stage to the final art, to allow for things to happen while I recreate to make the final artwork. It’s important to me that the drawings are still hand drawn. Once I have the final drawing drawn, I scan it in and add colour in Photoshop. This means lot of layers. A LOT of layers, hundreds and hundreds  I’m rubbish at watercolour, and Photoshop is the way I found works for me for now. It probably takes me longer to do the colouring in Photoshop, but I like how I can change the colour of something if I change my mind. And sometimes deciding if a couch should be yellow or blue or purple or green, takes too much time.. OH there are endless possibilities of colours. However, with watercolour there is usually just one option for me.. muddy brown ;)  

My journey with Oliver was long and hard but it was the most exciting thing in my professional career so far. I worked with such talented people at Walker Books who helped me so much. I have learned a lot and am so excited to start working on my next project. Oliver is a big part of my life and I hope that you will love him as much as I do.

Birgitta lives in London with her partner Thor and her beautiful new baby Soley. 

Buy your copy of Oliver here.

Could you write the perfect bedtime story?

Walker Books, Mumsnet and Gransnet have just launched a competition to find the best children’s bedtime stories written by parents and grandparents. The ten winning entries will be published by Walker Books in The Mumsnet Book of Bedtime Stories. 



Together with Mumsnet, the UK’s busiest website for parents, and sister website Gransnet, Walker have launched a nationwide competition to find the ten best bedtime stories for publication in the Mumsnet Book of Bedtime Stories slated for release in October 2013. 

The judging panel, led by Children’s Writer and former Children’s Laureate Michael Rosen, will compile a shortlist of twenty stories that will be made available online for Mumsnet and Gransnet users to vote for their favourites. The final ten winning authors will be announced on 18 February 2013, Each will win £500 and their story will be illustrated and published in the Mumsnet Book of Bedtime Stories published by Walker Books.
 

The illustrated gift book will be aimed at the under sevens and the judging panel will be looking for fresh voices, original contemporary ideas and, most important of all, stories that children will love.

 
To find out how to enter the competition, visit Mumsnet or Gransnet. 
 

Happy writing!

Oh No, George! shortlisted for Roald Dahl Funny Prize

The shortlist for the fantastic Roald Dahl Funny Prize, which is celebrating its fifth birthday this year, was announced yesterday. And... we're ecstatic to announce that our very own Chris Haughton is on the shortlist for his whimsical tale of George, the hapless dog who just can't behave! Well done to Chris (and to George!) You can see the full list of shortlisted books on the Booktrust website.

If you haven't read Oh No, George! before, why not watch the trailer for it just to the right of this blog post? And if you have read it, tell us if you'll be rooting for it to win the Prize! 



The Roald Dahl prize aims to promote laughter and humour as a feel-good factor when reading, to draw attention to funny books as readable and enjoyable books and to reward authors and illustrators who write and illustrate books using humour. Visit the Booktrust website to read what some of the judges, including broadcaster and comedian Mel Giedroyc and We're Going on a Bear Hunt author Michael Rosen, had to say about the shortlisted entries.



Congratulations once again to Chris! 

Hold on to your hats!

When a tiny fish shoots into view wearing a round blue top hat (which happens to fit him perfectly), trouble could be following close behind. So it’s a good thing that enormous fish won’t wake up. And even if he does, it’s not as though he’ll ever know what happened…will he?

Yes, you've guessed it - the wait is almost over for This Is Not My Hat, the brand new picture book by award-winning author and illustrator Jon Klassen! If you’re as excited as we are about this tiny fish in a blue bowler hat, then take a glimpse of what’s to come in this quirky trailer made by Jon Klassen himself.







 



Be the first to read This Is Not My Hat and pre-order your copy here.

Stay tuned next month for an exclusive guest blog post by Jon Klassen about the making of the book...

Available 9 October 2012.

Illustrating Anna's World

Illustrator Lauren Tobia transports us to amazing Africa, sharing with us her inspiration for illustrating the beautiful world of Anna Hibiscus.

Hello My name is Lauren and I have the fun of illustrating the world of Anna Hibiscus. Anna Hibiscus lives in amazing Africa with her extended family in a compound in a large African city. The stories are written by Atinuke (who is pretty amazing herself) I have had the fun of listening to her storytelling! My “job” is to read all about Anna’s adventures, lean back in my chair and imagine! Atinuke’s stories take me to Anna’s special world in a busy African city (a bit like Lagos) full of people, taxis, scooters, shops and market stalls. Inside all this commotion is a large leafy compound where her mother and father, grandfather and aunties and uncles live and right in the middle most importantly is Anna’s mango tree. 

I have been illustrating Anna’s world for a few years now and have had loads of fun imagining Amazing Anna her family and the city she lives in. This is an early drawing of Anna’s city, it eventually became the endpapers for the book as a sort of map so that I could explain the beautiful craziness of the city she lives in.

I have a bit of an admission to make …I have never been
to this part of Africa! Atinuke comes from Nigeria so at the beginning I
thought I should do a bit of reading and found quite a lot of
inspiration from watching Nigerian pop videos and an awful lot of
imagining. Atinuke herself was also always useful for odd questions
about clothes or whether the road should have a pavement or not! But
most of it was done chewing my pencil and just staring out of the
window. 

Illustrating a book is a bit of a team effort and between me and the talented team at Walker Books who questioned me, made suggestions and had many conversations over a slice of cake and mug of tea! It must be said a lot of the tea and cake was also eaten in my studio where I sketched the pictures on big sheets of layout paper and much scribbling. My studio is in the front bedroom in my house and I can look out at what’s going on in the street, the antics of the seagulls and the occasional hot air balloon that floats by. I share my studio with my two Jack Russell’s Tilly and Poppy who when they are not barking or running after each other sleep in a box of blankets behind me. 

I draw the images in pencil so I can be as free as I can and then rub out the bits that don’t work so well or add other drawings on the computer. They eventually end up as sometimes one drawing and sometimes a huge collage of pictures that work together to make a page. I use layers of colour on the computer to build up the finished artwork and send it all by magic (or the internet ) to Julie at Walker who works her designer spells and hurrah! Anna Hibiscus is a picture book…I hope you like it! 

Join the amazing world of Anna Hibiscus with these free downloadable activity sheets.

Get your hand on a copy of the beautiful Anna Hibiscus' Song by Atinuke and Lauren Tobia here.

A Picnic in the Sky

Over the past 10 days, we’ve enjoyed a marathon of picnics taking place all over the country, each with it's own twist. There's been creative cooking, stacks of story-telling, and a range of fun-packed activities from paper boat racing to butterfly searching. As we come to the end of the Picture Book Picnic blog tour, the team at Walker Books decided to finish up with our very own picnic, on the roof of Walker Towers! 

Overlooking sunny Vauxhall on a slightly blustery day (and by blustery, I mean we spent a good amount of time chasing plastic cups!), we set up our urban picnic with some make-shift grass, a bag full of sandwiches, a gingham rug and lots of picture books. No teddy bear’s picnic is complete without a teddy bear (or three!), so we couldn’t resist having a few special guests at our picnic, including Maisy, Nutbrown Hare and of course the lovely Walker Bear himself. Wally also made a surprise appearance – see if you can spot him!  

 

After tucking in to a feast of bear biscuits, yummy sandwiches and a scrumptious selection of fruit, it was time for Walker Bear to read us a few stories. We all gathered round and listened to George Flies South by Simon James. This beautifully illustrated picture book is about George, a brave little bird who loses his nest but eventually finds his wings. In the story, an enormous gust of
wind blows George's nest out of the tree, launching him on a journey through the city, under bridges, over buildings and into the unknown.  This inspirational story is great for little children who are learning to do something for the first time, and perfect for reading outside, where there were plenty of birds to spot blowing around in the wind!

 

We then read A Walk in London by Salvatore Rubbino, and had fun spotting some London landmarks from our rooftop spot, including the Shard and the London Eye.

Our Marketing Manager couldn’t make it to the rooftop picnic, so instead she organised her very own Picture Book Picnic with her friends and family in the park. Everyone tucked into a yummy selection of picture books including Oh No, George! by Chris Haughton, and had lots of fun  with butterfly face-painting and colouring-in activity sheets.

Join in the fun and hold your very own picture book picnic this summer with our free downloadable picnic pack and a great selection of free activity sheets. Happy picnicking, from the team at Walker!