So now I get to the main reason for my blog, my work…
Since I arrived at Chronicle I have been told to expect The World Almanac activity books and also to be warned that it is a huge amount of work. They were supposed to come in last week but didn’t quite make it so I spent my time doing final correx on Rosie Flo and Learning to Ski with Mr Magee. I absolutely love The Mr Magee series Chris Van Dusen’s illustrations are some of the most beautiful ones I have ever seen, he has got such a lot of talent. All of his illustrations are hand painted and yet almost photographic in their cartoon realism. I wish there was a broader market for this style of illustration, he deserves to be on peoples walls! I was nervous about scanning in his original art work, but I was even more nervous about presenting my design options for the cover of Learning To Ski with Mr Magee to the Children’s pub group! Luckily it went well and the final designs are currently routing around Chronicle.
The World Almanac work books arrived this Monday, they definitely weren’t lying about the amount of work it would be. I have three books to complete and each book has about 280 pages. I have to go through all three books making the corrections picked out during routing which doesn’t take too long. My major task is to create answer pages for each of the 280ish activities. The Pre-kindergarten book has taken me two days so far. The activities are all about learning and the book is divided into sections such as phonics and alphabet. Although it is a long laborious project to be completed in minimal time, I am enjoying it. It feels like a really worth while thing for me to be doing. This is the whole reason I was drawn to designing childrens’ books over adult ones. Reading is so integral to childhood and children’s development I want to make books that they can enjoy, in the same way as an adult reading for pleasure, and learn from at the same time.
It stil shocks me that there is such a huge amount of adults that cant read. Give it a few years and everyone will be able to read all thanks to my amazing book designs! (I wish!).
