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top that publishing

Gobble, Gobble, Gobble from Top That! Publishings.

27th June 2011 by Jax Blunt Leave a Comment

I’ll be up front about this book – I don’t particularly like it. If I hadn’t been sent it to review, I doubt very much that we’d have it in the house. Which would be a shame, as Smallest wouldn’t have spent time sitting on the couch reading it to herself. Granted, the reading sounds something like “goddle, goddle, burble, nay, inder” instead of the words actually written on the pages, but hey, she’s only 18 months old.

I *can* sort of see why she likes it. It’s very simple – few words to a page, and lots of strong rhyme and repetition. There’s even a CD with the whole book on as a song (three verses with chorus), and suggested actions for singing along, which again, she likes rather more than I do.

The pictures are full of action and colour which goes down well with her, although oddly, she hasn’t identified the turkeys in the book as birds, possibly because of their lack of identifiable birdlike shape. She’s usually pretty hot on birds – her other favourite reading material here is the RSPB magazine, and all of that comes second to birdwatching live out of the full length windows at the end of the living room. The pictures do go well with the words (I won’t say story as this isn’t a story book as such, there’s no strong narrative) and the illustrations are a definite strength with plenty of things to pick out and discuss if you want to stray from the words on the page.

Perhaps I should be giving picture books like these two ratings. One from me and one from the target audience. I’d be giving this one 3 out of 5, while I think Smallest is going 4 – she seeks it out and offers it to ppl to read, which isn’t the treatment that all books get. I’d certainly be interested in looking at other books by these author/illustrator team on the strength of her reaction to this one.

Disclosure: I’m on the reviewer team for Top That! Publishing and I’m sent these books free to review. I’m also encouraged to send negative feedback back to the publishers so that they can improve books in later editions, which I think is a stormingly good idea, so this isn’t only about publicity for their books.

Adding this to the 100 book list now, and it comes in at 81. [Read more…] about Gobble, Gobble, Gobble from Top That! Publishings.

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Filed Under: 100 book challenge, review, the public face Tagged With: Gobble gobble gobble, top that publishing

FridayReadAlouds – Author Feature: Rebecca Elliott

4th March 2011 by Jax Blunt 1 Comment

A couple of things have come together recently to inspire this post, which I hope is going to be the first in a series. First of all, as part of my 100 books challenge, I was sent Cub’s First Winter by Rebecca Elliott, from Top That! Publishing. As a result, I found one BecElliott on twitter and got chatting.

Also on twitter, there’s a meme called FridayReads hosted by TheBookMaven. I got to thinking, wouldn’t it be cool to do a FridayReadAlouds – picture books, chapter books, books to share with families, books that need to be savoured.

So here you are, just squeaking in on a Friday, the inaugural FridayReadAlouds post, and I’m starting with an author feature on Rebecca Elliott. Rebecca has three picture books out atm, and more in the pipeline, and her books are absolutely luscious, the pictures just welcome you in and envelope you.

The stories are simple, but the use of language eloquent – I particularly like the narrative in Just Because, narrated by a little boy, about his very special big sister and her special chair. It’s a sensitively told story about a little girl with special needs and is a wonderful introduction for children who might not have come across this type of situation before.

Milo’s Pet Egg is beautiful too, though the story is not an unfamiliar one. I enjoyed the illustrations a lot, and I’m guessing Smallest did, as I had to read it three times in a row the first time I picked it up, and several times since too.

And so to the interview – as I had quite a few questions, I’m going to just give you a couple here, and finish the rest off next week. If you’ve any questions you’d liked to put to Rebecca, please stick them in the comments box.

Jax: How did you get into illustrating/ writing – was it a lifetime dream – did you want to do this as a little girl?

Rebecca: A recently unearthed school project entitled “All About Me’ which I created at the tender age of 6 has in it the not unpretentious line “When I grow up I want to be a writer and a artist”. I remember endlessly boring my long-suffering family with stories I had written about rabbits wearing flat caps and aliens flying around in suitcases. This ambition never truly died, although it did take some knocks along the way, and now, many years later, I find I have to pinch myself because it seems this long running daydream of mine is finally coming true.

It was by a rather scrappy route that I find myself here though – I’ve met many illustrators who, fresh out of their Illustration degree were picked up by a publisher at their final degree exhibition and go on immediately to big things in the picture book world. Not me though, my degree was in Philosophy. Why? Why not. And indeed it’s that kind of insightful clever reasoning that got me through the degree. Anyhoo, at University I also took some ‘wild’ courses in digital design, which in turn got me into designing the university magazine, which in turn got me into using Photoshop and Illustrator, which in turn got me into digital artwork. Soon enough I found that childhood ambition rising in me again and I spent hours and hours trawling the internet for advice on putting together a children’s book illustration portfolio.

I graduated and started working in an excruciatingly dull office job which served to fuel my ambition to break out of the bland and into the world of children’s illustration. So I continued to work on my digital illustration style and sent off various book ideas and samples to publishers. When I look back at these embarrassingly inept samples now it’s so very very painful – not to mention inexplicable that I considered them publishable. The publishers I sent them to, of course, shared my current opinion that they were, at best, laughable excuses of incompetent daubings and I have a file full of rejection letters to prove it. But I didn’t give up and slowly my samples got a little better and eventually some work for a couple of mass-market publishers came trickling in.

Luckily I’m married to an extremely supportive husband and a year after graduating I gave up the dull office job and went full-time freelance. I meandered along for some time with my mass-market work but it was without doubt my partnership with the then fledgeling Bright Agency a couple of years later that finally gave my career the push it so desperately needed. With their help I worked and worked on my style and eventually gave up the digital illustration in favour of getting down and dirty with some real paints.I’ve been illustrating books now for around 9 years but my true ambition of writing the books as well as illustrating them only became a reality last year when three of my books were published in August – Just Because, Cub’s First Winter and Milo’s Pet Egg. I have two more coming out in May/June this year and more in the pipe line. I am one extremely fortunate lady.

Jax: Were you good at art at school?

Rebecca:I’ve always loved art – as did my two siblings although it’s a little inexplicable because neither of my parents were at all arty. And because I drew all the time, in school and out, I guess I was pretty good at it. My artwork at GCSE level was quite strange though, when my parents walked in to the final exhibition show the teacher sidled up to them and said, ‘Just look for the weird pictures’ – and sure enough amongst the gentle paintings of flowers and sparrows were my disturbing offerings involving tree-like hands growing out the ground holding bulging eyeballs. I clearly have issues.

It’s amazing how many people I meet now who tell me they used to love art at school but haven’t done it in years – and I never understand why. Don’t let the kids have all the fun – if you loved art at school chances are you still would now so go pick up a paintbrush, do that potato print, make something out of a toilet roll. Go on, you know you want to.

***

And it’s me again. That’s fabulous advice to end with for this week, whether you loved art at school or outside of it 🙂 I’m going to leave the interview here for now, but please, I’d love to know what you think of Rebecca’s work, and of this series, and most of all, I’d love to know what you’re reading aloud to your children. Please let me know – comments box, via twitter, or on your own blogs, and drop me a link.

small print – affiliate links in this post are assigned to the 100 book challenge fundraising account. And if I can track down where we’re up to, I’ll add these two books to the list! ETA These are books 72 and 73 🙂

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Filed Under: 100 book challenge, It's where it is Tagged With: 100 book challenge, 100books, Cub's First Winter, FridayReadAlouds, Just Because, Milo's Pet Egg, Rebecca Elliott, top that publishing

And still they came #100books

31st January 2011 by Jax Blunt Leave a Comment

Few more reviews that the kids finished off earlier.

Big reviewed There’s A Pharaoh In Our Bath! – her third Jeremy Strong of the week I think. And I took a look at the fourth Astral Legacies book, The Elephants’ Call, as sent to us by Top That Publishing.

Small read and reviewed The Great Space Race which he seems to have liked. Not that there seems to have been much he hasn’t liked to be honest 😉

Book 57, 58 and 59 of 100. [Read more…] about And still they came #100books

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Filed Under: 100 book challenge, Big, Small steps Tagged With: 100BookChallenge, Astral Legacies, Build a library, charity, Gordon Volke, Jeremy Strong, top that publishing

When I Dream of ABC #100Books

24th January 2011 by Jax Blunt Leave a Comment

This book was sent free of charge by Top That! Publishing to support the 100 Books Challenge.

Yet another lusciously illustrated picture book, this time a quirky ABC with some very unexpected entries. I don’t recall ever reading an ABC that included vampires before! At least X doesn’t stand for Xylophone in this version – instead it marks the spot where pirates bury their treasure. Pirate, Vampires, Fairies, Mermaids – the book is littered with fantastic beings that may take a little explaining to the more literal minded children about. Nevertheless this is a fun read, and like I said already, the pictures are very beautiful.

Book 22 of 100. [Read more…] about When I Dream of ABC #100Books

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Filed Under: 100 book challenge, It's where it is Tagged With: 100BookChallenge, 100books, Build a library, charity, Henry Fisher, top that publishing

Cub's First Winter #100books

24th January 2011 by Jax Blunt Leave a Comment

Cub’s First Winter by Rebecca Elliott was sent free of charge by the publishers Top That! Publishing to support our 100 Books Challenge.

This is a lusciously illustrated storybook about winter, which has a mother fox explaining the season to her curious cub as they enjoy a last forest walk on the first day of winter. There are kind of two strands to each page – one is a question and answer between the foxes, and the other is a description of the weather, from the first snowflake falling, through to the snow getting deeper and deeper. There is even a moment of mild peril when we wonder if they will make it safely back through the white wintry landscape to their warm den.

I love the illustrations in this book, although they don’t seem to have held my toddler daughter’s attention in the same way as some simpler books. I would guess that this book would suit a slightly older child, perhaps around 3 or 4, who is beginning to notice the changes in the world around them and this could be used as a starting point for discussion. Equally it would work well as part of a season table or set of books themed around the changing seasons in a nursery setting.

Book 21 of 100. [Read more…] about Cub's First Winter #100books

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Filed Under: 100 book challenge Tagged With: 100BookChallenge, 100books, Build a library, OxfamUnwrapped, Rebecca Elliott, top that publishing

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