This article from The Bookseller magazine:
Waterstone's has launched a search for the next big children's illustrator, offering a publishing deal to illustrate a new book written by Julia Donaldson, author of The Gruffalo.
The winner of the 'Picture This' competition will win a publishing contract with Macmillan to illustrate Donaldson's latest book, Freddie and the Fairy, which will be published Christmas 2010. The book is about what happens when a boy who won't talk clearly meets a fairy that can't hear well and is told in the same rhyming style as The Gruffalo, illustrated by Axel Scheffler.
The complete text of the story was uploaded onto the retailer's website this morning at waterstones.com/picturethis. Aspiring artists who wish to enter have to submit an illustration for two pages from the story as well as character sketches for the main characters.
The deadline for submissions is 18th May. A panel of judges, led by Julia Donaldson and including her agent Caroline Sheldon and her Macmillan editor Suzanne Carnell, Waterstone’s picture book buyer Kate Skipper, children’s writer and illustrator Lauren Child and Daily Telegraph writer Cassandra Jardine, will select a six-strong shortlist on 26th May. The six artists will be asked to submit further work for the book.
The winner will be announced at the Bath festival of Children's Literature in September.
Kate Skipper said: "This is an incredibly exciting competition that will change the winner’s life. Julia is the biggest and the best in the business—there can’t be a child in the country who hasn’t enjoyed one or more of her books—and we are very proud to be working with her.
"Freddie and the Fairy is full of Julia’s trademark wit, charm and invention and is an absolute gift for any good illustrator—a once-in-a-lifetime chance to work with this incredibly talented, and much loved, writer!"
Julia Donaldson said: "This is a leap in the dark for me and is both exciting and scary. But finding and fostering new talent is important and I look forward to meeting my new illustrator later in the year!"
Waterstone's has launched a search for the next big children's illustrator, offering a publishing deal to illustrate a new book written by Julia Donaldson, author of The Gruffalo.
The winner of the 'Picture This' competition will win a publishing contract with Macmillan to illustrate Donaldson's latest book, Freddie and the Fairy, which will be published Christmas 2010. The book is about what happens when a boy who won't talk clearly meets a fairy that can't hear well and is told in the same rhyming style as The Gruffalo, illustrated by Axel Scheffler.
The complete text of the story was uploaded onto the retailer's website this morning at waterstones.com/picturethis. Aspiring artists who wish to enter have to submit an illustration for two pages from the story as well as character sketches for the main characters.
The deadline for submissions is 18th May. A panel of judges, led by Julia Donaldson and including her agent Caroline Sheldon and her Macmillan editor Suzanne Carnell, Waterstone’s picture book buyer Kate Skipper, children’s writer and illustrator Lauren Child and Daily Telegraph writer Cassandra Jardine, will select a six-strong shortlist on 26th May. The six artists will be asked to submit further work for the book.
The winner will be announced at the Bath festival of Children's Literature in September.
Kate Skipper said: "This is an incredibly exciting competition that will change the winner’s life. Julia is the biggest and the best in the business—there can’t be a child in the country who hasn’t enjoyed one or more of her books—and we are very proud to be working with her.
"Freddie and the Fairy is full of Julia’s trademark wit, charm and invention and is an absolute gift for any good illustrator—a once-in-a-lifetime chance to work with this incredibly talented, and much loved, writer!"
Julia Donaldson said: "This is a leap in the dark for me and is both exciting and scary. But finding and fostering new talent is important and I look forward to meeting my new illustrator later in the year!"
I love the drawing :p
ReplyDeleteWhat a great opportunity. I'm going to have to show this to a friend of mine.
~ Popin
Thanks! It's my Red Phase...
ReplyDeleteGrins.