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! 

NEED A "SUSTAINING BOOK"?

"...would you read a Sustaining Book, such as would

help and comfort a Wedged Bear in Great Tightness?"

A.A. Milne's books about Edward Bear will definitely hold your child's attention, as well as provide them with lots of bedtime stories, one chapter at a time!

This edition celebrated the 75th anniversary of the beloved "silly old bear". THE COMPLETE TALES AND POEMS OF WINNIE-THE-POOH collects A.A. Milne's classic stories (Winnie-the-Pooh; The House at Pooh Corner; When We Were Very Young; and Now We Are Six) and Ernest H. Shepard's original illustrations in one gorgeous oversize gift edition.  And it includes Three Cheers for Pooh: The Best Bear in All the World, by Brian Sibley, which provides readers with a historical reference point, starting with the story of Mrs. Milne's purchase of a stuffed bear at a London department store for their young son, Christopher Robin. Photographs, original manuscript pages and Shepard's sketches and illustrations complete the package.

 


from WINNIE-THE-POOH,
Chapter II ...In Which Pooh Goes Visiting and Gets Into a Tight Place...

"We'll read to you," said Rabbit cheerfully. "And I
hope it won't snow," he added. "And I say, old fellow, you're
taking up a good deal of room in my house -- do you mind if I
use your back legs as a towel-horse? Because, I mean, there
they are -- doing nothing -- and it would be very convenient
just to hang the towels on them."

"A week!" said Pooh gloomily. "What about meals?"

"I'm afraid no meals," said Christopher Robin, "because
of getting thin quicker. But we will read to you."


Bear began to sigh, and then found he couldn't because
he was so tightly stuck; and a tear rolled down his eye, as he
said:

"Then would you read a Sustaining Book, such as would
help and comfort a Wedged Bear in Great Tightness?" So for a
week Christopher Robin read that sort of book at the North end of Pooh,
and Rabbit hung his washing on the South end . . . and in
between Bear felt himself getting slenderer and slenderer. And
at the end of the week Christopher Robin said, "Now!"

So he took hold of Pooh's front paws and Rabbit took
hold of Christopher Robin, and all Rabbit's friends and
relations took hold of Rabbit, and they all pulled together....

And for a long time Pooh only said "Ow!" . . .

And "Oh!" . . .

And then, all of a sudden, he said "Pop!" just as if a
cork were coming out of bottle.

And Christopher Robin and Rabbit and all Rabbit's
friends and relations went head-over-heels backwards . . . and
on the top of them came Winnie-the-Pooh -- free!

So, with a nod of thanks to his friends, he went on
with his walk through the forest, humming proudly to himself.
But, Christopher Robin looked after him lovingly, and said to
himself, "Silly old Bear!"


A.A. Milne always acknowledged that it was his wife, Daphne, and his young son, Christopher Robin, who inspired him to write the poems and stories – the literary journey began in 1924 when the Very Young Christopher Robin was introduced to an American black bear at the London Zoological Gardens. (from PoohCorner.com)
Click on the link PoohCorner.com to read more about the origins of Winnie-the-Pooh.

And you can read my previous post "Making Friends With Pooh" by clicking HERE.

TWO "GOODNIGHT BOOKS" FROM MARGARET WISE BROWN

Margaret Wise Brown
1910-1952

Today marks the birthday of Margaret Wise Brown, one of America's most prolific children's book authors of the Twentieth Century. She attempted to write most of her books from the "here and now" perspective of a child, rather than in the more popular style of the day: fairytale and fantasy.  Her books often included animals and everyday things that mattered to children.  Even though she died at the young age of 42, at the peak of her career she had over 100 books in print.  She chose her illustrators carefully.  They included Clement Hurd, Garth Williams, Felicia Bond, and Leonard Weisgard.

HER GOODNIGHT BOOKS...

She is probably best known for her timeless classic, GOODNIGHT MOON (1947), illustrated by Clement Hurd.  Who can forget the rhythmic text that begins:

In the great green room

There was a telephone 

And a red balloon

And a picture of --

The cow jumping over the moon!

The whole story takes place in one room, as the baby bunny bids a ritual "goodnight" to all the objects in his room.  Have you ever noticed these little details...

-the hands on the two clocks progress from 7 PM to 8:10 PM.
-the young mouse and kittens wander around the room. The mouse is present in all pages showing the room.
-the red balloon hanging over the bed disappears in several of the color plates, then reappears at the end.
-the room lighting grows progressively darker.
-the moon rises in the left-hand window.
-the socks disappear from the drying rack.
-the open book in the bookshelf is The Runaway Bunny.
-the book on the nightstand is Goodnight Moon.
-in the painting of the cow jumping over the moon, the mailbox in the right-hand side of the painting occasionally disappears.
-in the painting of the three bears, the painting hanging in the bears' room is a painting of a cow jumping over the moon.
-the painting of the fly-fishing bunny, which appears only in two color plates, appears to be black and white (or otherwise devoid of color). It is very similar to a picture in the book The Runaway Bunny.
-the number of books in the bookshelf changes.
-the pendulum of the bedside clock disappears in the final room scene
-the stripes on the bunny's shirt change
-in the last page the word bunny is gone off the brush

A new (though even older never-before-published!) "goodnight book" by Margaret Wise Brown is THE FATHERS ARE COMING HOME (2010), pictures by talented illustrator Stephen Savage.

It is nighttime and the fathers are coming home... 

This book is a perfect bedtime story, and would also be a great read for Father's Day.  The original manuscript was written in 1943, as a tribute to WWII fathers, but it was never published.  Though lost for years with many other of Brown's writings, it was finally published in 2010. The story is about fathers returning to their children at the day's end - birds, bugs, bunnies, fish - and finally, a sailor dad coming home from sea to his child.  The bold and colorful illustrations and simple, lyrical text make a sweet book for 2-5 year olds.