Extremely Gruntled

Here they are -- the two new books of mine from Scholastic, Make It! Robot and Make It! Rocket. 

It occurred to me that this might be the only occasion I'll be able to say "I had two books published today." To have one book published is an event. To have two published on the same day is really pretty unusual, even if the books are very closely related.

Sometimes as I grind through a mountain of artwork or sweat over a text or have a cherished project rejected, it's easy to become disgruntled with working in the publishing industry. Then they publish stuff of yours and the world seems a better place.  This week it's safe to say that, just for the time being at any rate, I'm extremely gruntled.

New Book!

I'm very pleased to announce that two books of mine are being released in May! They're called 'Make It! Rocket' and 'Make It! Robot' and are published by Scholastic. They star Hugo and his mad bonkers inventive family. As you read the story, you can pop out the various pieces and actually build your own rocket and robot. Coooo! I thought I'd give you a sneaky peak of one of the spreads before the books reach the shops. I know -- I spoil you. This is where Hugo interrupts his Mum, Dad and sister Dottie in the middle of some mysterious goings on. (I was quite pleased with the name of the rocket fuel.)

Snip!

I've just finished this illustration to accompany a poem called Snip! for Highlights High Five Magazine in the States. So go on, see if you can spot all ten letter S's. And how many pairs of scissors? Lots of points on offer, and of course normally points mean prizes, but today I'm feeling mean.

Dino School

This is an image from a book I've just finished illustrating for Simon and Schuster in New York. The book is called 'Dino School' and as the name suggests, it's about a school for dinosaurs. This particular story is about a T-Rex called Teddy, who can only roar extremely loudly. Think Brian Blessed in dungarees with scales and teeth.

Another Highlights High Five Cover

This is another cover for those nice people at Highlights High Five Magazine, in the States.
A Mother Hen and her chicks can only mean that this is an Easter cover!

Highlights High Five Cover

This is a cover that I recently finished for Highlights High Five magazine in the States. Happy, smiley animals for a bright, sunny morning.

BICKIDS Competition

Last month I had the pleasure of being invited to be a judge in the annual competition run by BIC -- the BIC PICTURE -- to find talented young artists amongst Britain's primary school children. My fellow judges were children's TV presenter Kirsten O'Brien, and colour expert Cecile Parenton, who heads the children's division of BIC. The winners have just been announced.

The theme was 'What I want to be when I grow up,' and the ambitions of the nation's children ranged from becoming a mad scientist to a roller coaster designer. If this small sample is representative, there'll be lots of footballers, astronauts, dress designers and chefs around in the future!

It's not as easy as you might imagine, picking winning pictures from a room full of shortlisted entrants, and there were several (good-humored!) arguments along the way. We had some really lovely designs to sort through though, and choosing an overall winner was especially difficult. Well done to all who took part. Congratulations to all the age group winners, and especially to Laura Burton who won the main prize. Laura wants to be a children's book writer, and with her winning picture she's made an impressive start.

I've pictured a few of my favorites here, but this is a link to the BIC Kids website, which gives more information: http://www.bickids.com/index.php?p_sa=actualite&p_actu=1 and to the Flickr site which shows more of the winning entrants: http://www.flickr.com/photos/thebicpicture.