Valerie Greeley Interview and Book Give-away!

Cheshire, England is a long way from Orange County, California, and if it weren't for blogging, I probably never would have "met" British author and gifted artist, Valerie Greeley.  

Every time I visit her blog, I am treated to a quick peek into her latest projects or wanderings around England! (Besides writing and illustrating children's books, Valerie is a textile and surface pattern designer.)

I'm delighted to tell you that one of Valerie's books White is the Moon has recently come back into print.  To celebrate, I'm doing an interview with Valerie, as well as a review and give-away of the book!  Leave a comment on this post today through midnight Thursday - for a chance to win the Give-away on Friday, April 20, 2012. (If you're not the lucky winner, you can find her book here on Amazon.) Update 4/20/12: Give-Away over - watch for my new post today.  As soon as I've made contact with the winner, I'll post her name.

White is the Moon is a poetic circle of text and color that takes us on a journey from forest, to sky, to sea - all in one day.  Beginning in the dark, with an owl and a full white moon, we are drawn into a day full of different colorful creatures and their habitats.

Title page.

Each of Valerie's perfectly detailed illustrations shows a peaceful scene as one animal encounters another, while her lyrical text leads us to the next creature's surroundings. The moon sees an owl, the owl sees a fox...

Red is the fox

Sly and fast

Sees a frog

Hopping past

The fox sees a frog, who sees the rising sun, which shines on a bird, who finds a crab...

Pink is the crab

Crawling up

Sees a seal

With her pup

The book ends after coming full circle, as nightfall returns with a full moon being gazed upon by a Puffin seabird.  A perfect bedtime story for ages 2-6. Remember to leave a comment at the end of this post, for a chance to win the Give-away of White is the Moon, on 4/20/12 - Friday! (shipped to an address within the U.S. only, please)

You can visit Valerie Greeley's website, which links to her portolio, Etsy page, and information about her other children's books.  Now that you've been introduced, let me help you get to know this very talented lady a little better...

Valerie, all your artwork is so beautiful.  What inspires you?

I have always been inspired by nature and in particular the sort of environment I am surrounded by. The lanes and woodlands around my home provide endless references, plants, flowers, birds, and bees that all appear in my illustrations.

    

How did you get started illustrating children's books?

I had some Camden Graphic's greeting cards in several high street shops in the UK in the eighties. A young lady with small children liked my cards and thought they would look good in the nursery. She happened to be Rosemary Lanning, the children's book editor at Blackie and Son ltd. She contacted the greeting card publisher and they very kindly forwarded her letter to me. (no email in those days!) 

She invited me down to London to discuss the possibility of illustrating a series of wordless baby board books. The office was in High Holborn, I remember it like yesterday. I waited in the board room, a library style room with a portrait of a kindly Cicely Mary Barker on the wall. I felt she was smiling at me, fortune certainly was that day!

Who are your favorite illustrators?

When I was a little girl my father introduced me to the world of books, and they were few but precious in our house. I particularly remember a Children's Treasury of Classics which he gave me as a Christmas present. There were illustrations by many of "The Golden Age" illustrators like Arthur Rackham and  Edmund Dulac and Heath Robinson. They were my earliest influences. Later I discovered the Pre-Raphealites and fell under their spell and tried to paint every leaf and blade of grass.

I also admire the work of Angela Barrett, Nicola Bayley, Gennady Spirin, Frances Tyrrell, Una Woodruff - and many more.

What keeps you busy, these days?

I am now working with my husband Tony Corrigan, a retired English teacher. We are creating new titles for young children, not only for print but for Apps also. We have been contacted by a publisher in South Korea and are in the process of finalising the contract for a new baby book which we have written together. 

We recently created our first children's App with Mobile Children's Books called The Bird with the Rainbow Tail and are looking at getting a print version to market, whilst working on a new calendar for 2013 and a range of greeting cards. I am also very involved with the study of traditional print making techniques, bookbinding, and hand bound books which is a whole new world of discovery.

Well, I'll look forward to reading about that world of discovery on your blog! Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions, and good luck with all you do!
With all good wishes from a very warm spring day here in England! 

CELEBRATING "GROUNDHOG DAY" WITH SOME FAMOUS HEDGEHOGS...

If you read my February 2nd post last year, you may remember that hedgehogs have everything to do with what we Americans call "Groundhog Day" and the simultaneously occurring Christian celebration of "Candlemas" (last year's post is HERE).

Paper sculpture by Canadian artist, Calvin Nicholls [photo source here]

This year, I thought it would be fun to remind you of some famous literary hedgehogs.  As you will see, they show up quite often in British children's literature...

Hedgehogs were an intricate part of Alice's game of croquet:
"Get to your places!" shouted the Queen in a voice of thunder... and the game began. Alice thought she had never seen such a curious croquet-ground in her life; it was all ridges and furrows; the balls were live hedgehogs, the mallets live flamingoes, and the soldiers had to double themselves up and to stand on their hands and feet, to make the arches.

illustration by Sir John Tenniel
from Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865)

The chief difficulty Alice found at first was in managing her flamingo: she succeeded in getting its body tucked away, comfortably enough, under her arm, with its legs hanging down, but generally, just as she had got its neck nicely straightened out, and was going to give the hedgehog a blow with its head, it would twist itself round and look up in her face, with such a puzzled expression that she could not help bursting out laughing: and when she had got its head down, and was going to begin again, it was very provoking to find that the hedgehog had unrolled itself, and was in the act of crawling away: besides all this, there was generally a ridge or furrow in the way wherever she wanted to send the hedgehog to, and, as the doubled-up soldiers were always getting up and walking off to other parts of the ground, Alice soon came to the conclusion that it was a very difficult game indeed.


American author/artist Jan Brett's Picture Books: 
Have you noticed who's wearing The Hat?  Hedgie also shows up in Jan's books The Mitten, and Hedgie's Surprise.  Her website has some easy instructions on "How to Draw a Hedgehog".

Hedgehogs often show up in the Redwall Series by Brian Jacques:
These prickly beasts come from all walks of life, from warriors to cooks to riverbeasts. They are typically easy-going and friendly, though a few have been known to become eccentric or insane in old age. Many Hedgehogs come from a clan or tribe, such as the Dillypins or Waterhogs, and it is traditional (though not exclusive) for the cellarkeeper of Redwall Abbey to be a hedgehog. [source: Redwall Wiki]

Note: British author Brian Jacques died last year on February 5th.  His wonderful series was a family favorite.  To read my short tribute, click here.

Hedgehogs can do laundry. 
Well, at least Beatrix Potter's "Mrs. Tiggywinkle" could.  (She is probably my favorite hedgehog.)

Water Color Artist, Valerie Greeley...
I'll leave you with this cute little hedgehog, by Valerie Greeley. You can buy the print here from her Etsy shop, Acornmoon. The print is a reproduction of a water color illustration from her children's book, Down the Lane.  Another picture book by Valerie featuring hedgehogs is Field Animals.  (Both books - though currently out of print - are available on Amazon.)

Hedgehog, by Valerie Greeley

A NIGHT OWL, OR AN EARLY BIRD? - WHOOO ARE YOU?

When insomnia hits (which happens more frequently, the older I get!), I sometimes get up and work on my blog in the middle of the night.  Once in a while, just outside the window, I'll hear an eerie "screeech!"  I decided to google "owl calls" and found a website, THE OWL PAGES.  It has everything you'd want to know about owls, including both sound and photo galleries.   The owl screeching in our backyard was a Common Barn Owl.  (I discovered that Screech Owls don't actually "screech", they have a very lovely "hoo-hoooing" call.)


The downside to staying up late is that I miss lots of sunrises...but my husband and son, who are Early Birds, make up for it!  They went on an early morning walk last week and snapped some great pictures of two Great Horned Owls, up in a tree, watching the sunrise.  

Maybe I could get some tips from these "Morning Owls" on how to wake up after a night of no sleep!  They reminded me of some of the beautiful artwork by artist and children's book author and illustrator Valerie Greeley...

Visit Valerie's Etsy site, Acornmoon

One particular house we lived in years ago had rather interesting (and outdated!) wallpaper in several rooms when we bought it. An upstairs bedroom that was to be my daughter's was plastered in greenish-gold owls.  She was afraid she'd have nightmares with dozens of "owl eyes" staring at her all night and refused to sleep there until she'd helped us peel it off the walls.

This print, "Wisdom to the Nines",  by Rachel Caldwell had to have been
influenced by our retro wallpaper.  A little scary for a little girl, huh?

I love this Baby Snow Owl - you can find it
HERE on Etsy by Myko Bocek.

Well, all owls aren't scary and maybe our daughter wouldn't have been as squeamish, if she'd grown up reading some of these irresistible picture books about owls that I've discovered since then:

GOOD-NIGHT, OWL! by Pat Hutchins.  Will Owl ever get any rest?  His sleep is constantly disturbed by neighboring animal noises!  Just when it starts to quiet down, someone new lands in the hollow tree and wakes Owl up.  Your kids will love Pat Hutchin's artwork and the fun twist at the end of the story. (ages 2-5)


WOW! SAID THE OWL by Tim Hopgood.  This is the story of a little owl who decides to take a nap one night in order to stay up all day and see what the world looks like by daylight.  She discovers all sorts of colors that are "WOW" worthy. (Preschool-1st grade)


IN MY TREE by Sara Gillingham and Lorena Siminovich.  This cozy little book comes with a finger puppet owl.  Simple, sweet story - perfect for toddlers.


THE OWL WHO WAS AFRAID OF THE DARK by Jill Tomlinson, illustrations by Paul Howard. Howard's stunning illustrations give new life to the late British author's 1968 tale of an owlet frightened of the night. "The dark is scary," Plop tells Mommy Barn Owl, who wisely instructs him to learn a bit more about it before passing judgment. Soon, Plop is off to find new friends, both human and animal, who tell him their favorite things about the evening, from fireworks and campfire singalongs to viewing constellations.  Ages 3-up.



OWL MOON, by Jane Yolen. A girl and her father go owling on a moonlit winter night near their farm. They trudge through snow "whiter than the milk in a cereal bowl"; here and there a fox, raccoon, fieldmouse and deer, hidden in the shadows, watch them pass. An air of expectancy builds as Pa imitates the Great Horned Owl's call once without answer, then again. From out of the darkness "an echo/ came threading its way/ through the trees." I love that many of the water-color illustrations offer a bird's-eye view of the farmhouse and its surroundings, as if we're flying with the owl.  Ages 4-8.


(Owl lovers, don't miss this CUTE website:  MyOwlBarn.com)