Wonders and 'dedications' at the French children's book fair (Salon du Livre Jeunesse, Montreuil, Paris)

I have enthused more than once before after signing my books at the inspiring treasure trove of books that is the French national children's book fair (the Salon du Livre Jeunesse).  What a paradise for lovers of children's books, old and young!  Surely it is one of the reasons why French children's publishing thrives. 

Is there an enterprising someone who could dig out a nice big exhibition space and rally British children's publishers here to create the equivalent - a national 'selling' fair for the UK children's book market? It would be such a big boost for the UK publishing industry, bookshops included.  

French publishers at the Montreuil work with different independent bookshops who run the sales tills at each of their stands at the book fair.  The point is that unlike at the London Book Fair, publishers could actually sell books (and apps and a few related products) directly to parents and children of all ages (babies too!) school groups (in France they come in their droves to visit the fair, sometimes with special book tokens to spend) as well as teachers, librarians, book lovers and art students, not to mention us authors and illustrators.

Here's my illustrator's eye view from the Bayard stand, as armed with coloured pencils and stickers I got ready to sign my new book,  Bridget's Book of English  (That's the title my French publishers chose).  It's a large board book full of flaps and details - and English words - showing a funny furry family going through their day. On the back is a QR code and link to a site where I pronounce every word online - and be warned - I even sing the few songs in the the book.  

How to sign a big shiny board book? Well I did a drawing on sticky-backed paper, stuck it onto the door on the right here alongside the name of the child and my signature.

 Regis Faller, the creator of Polo,  was signing just to my left.  Polo is the adventurous dog whose exploits feature in brilliant wordless comic books for pre-readers.  Polo is a big success in France and also won a prize in the US.  I told Regis that I was lucky enough to witness our Bayard editor Isabelle Bézard presenting it at our SCBWI Bologna conference some years back and as a result the great editor Neal Porter, of Roaring Brook bought the US rights for Polo.

At the 2011 Bayard stand at the fair, I signed my books alongside a very popular friend,  Hervé Tullet. Some of his books were on a table behind me.  Bayard sold coeditions to Tate UK/ Abrams US of my books and Herve's.  It was great to watch Hervé perform and interact with kids and adults of all ages at the Tate when I first moved back to London.  He is amazing - and he continues to create stunningly innovative books which are causing a stir in the US too.   Bayard published one of his first big doodle books in the same format as my Petites Mains Dessinent (The Big Book for Little Hands) which - hooray....

...has just been reprinted with a new cover in France. So I signed this book too. 

Oh - here is Hervé - in one of his books!  

Pity this is the only caught glimpse I caught of him at the fair.

Authors and illustrators were kept busy everywhere -  including comic artist Emile Bravo (I love his Trois Ours Nains series) in the middle here signing at the Seuil stand.

Art, doodles and drawing books were everywhere too this year - in books and on backcloths. Above is the Sarbacane stand which published one of my favourite books this year by Serge Bloch. 

It felt appropriate that the art and new kids book publishers Thames & Hudson had a stand at Montreuil.  (Wish I had had enough battery left to photograph their wares!)

Wow- was the fair busy!  Nice that the Paris libraries had a suitably quiet corner stand of their own for kids and adults to relax in and  browse.

Monday, the last day is the 'professional' day, when more adults attend than kids.
I wonder how many of the people here with their noses buried in books, are teachers and librarians buying their stock for the year.
Ouch! My Iphone battery went flat too soon and I missed taking a photo of my other friend Marc Boutavant who was signing all over the place. Queues for him were huge so I will have to wait to get my latest Marc Boutavant treasures signed when I see him for another fun dinner chez lui or hey - let's get him to London.

The day after I signed at Montreuil I had fun at my first fully fledged Bridget's Book 

workshop at Anglofun.  

But more about that next post!

Parsons New York, post the SCBWI Midwinter conference

If you happen to be in New York, next Monday lunchtime, Pat Cummings has invited me to give a talk at Parsons, New York.  See - she's put up my whole name, in big letters!

Hope to touch on the core, the 'coeur' , the heart  of what it's all about for artists. 
Knowing our strengths, overcoming self-doubt,  appreciating others and our context, and plain old plugging on are all part of it.  It seems so obvious, even banal when put like this.
The brilliantly smart comic artist Jamie Smart  puts it in much more colourful language.  By the way he's also got a kids and adult version of his site and a bunch of wonderful characters, and kids books and comics and TV pilots and all. 
And here are a few more serious words of his wisdom.... I couldn't have put it better myself!  And yes it IS fun!

"Even though I look back and think much of my older work is pretty terrible, it is still essentially me, and it’s fascinating to watch how that’s evolved and become more distinct.  That process never ends. You’ll die and never reach the pinnacle of what you’re trying to do, but that’s irrelevant.There’s no such thing as an end point with art, you’re going to keep going and growing and that’s the fun of it

Let's play with Tiz and Ott - in the Idea Store

A story I've been struggling with for months is ready to show, at last.
Could it be the pressure of my upcoming week in New York then Bologna mid-March?

And last week, I had a new idea.  I was enjoying a baked potato and the view from the top floor of the Whitechapel Idea Store  Anyway, I put down my fork, and started sketching two new characters.

Meet Tiz and Ott.   Maybe that's what an Idea Store is for?

Signing at the French children's book fair, Montreuil with Hervé Tullet, Brian Selznick (of Hugo Cabret), Lorenzo Mattotti, and all...

I caught this boy reading - totally absorbed - on the Sunday of the French national children's book fair in Montreuil near Paris....

Then I looked left and up - and at the top of the pile of cubes was my bouncing black rabbit from my box of my Sept Comptines à Chanter!

Here's me getting distracted by another child wandering past, while I was signing my Sept Comptines, the original French edition of The Big Book for Little Hands and other books I've illustrated at the Bayard stall. I was sandwiched between (to the right) Nicolas Hubesch, a brilliant comic book illustrator among other things, of Serge Bloch's Zouk series,  and to the left, the amazing, innovative artist Hervé Tullet, and author of Moi, c'est Blops.  

You can see Hervé Tullet's pink and orange Blops above and the blue spot from the cover of the minimalist Press Me! which is a huge success in the US, as well as in France (where it's simply called Un Livre.)  

And there's a blue and green Blops in front of a girl watching Hervé draw. 

Does anyone know of another book with a cover that comes in a choice of colours?

Or another book with a whole in the spine like Hervé's Book with a Hole?  

And the best thing is that it's not just about the cover - his work changes the way you see and think, all the way through each book....and they are fun and always surprising.

 Brian Selznick was also signing at the Bayard stall on Sunday.  He seemed to be having a great time behind piles of the French translation of his book, The Invention of Hugo Cabret.   

I love this book for the innovative way it  alternates with words, great swathes of pictures when words aren't needed.  You need to use your eyes to follow the story.  It's a perfect example of the power of visual story telling.  Martin Scorcese understands that alright, being a film maker.  I heard Selznick talk in Bologna about how film had always been a huge influence on him.   (Coincidentally, Shaun Tan said the same thing in Newcastle).   I can't wait to see Hugo, Scorcese's film adaptation just out in France and the UK. 

And while we're still on guys and Italians -  here is the great comic book artist and illustrator Lorenzo Mattotti signing his black and white Hansel and Gretel

However for me, the best thing about the French children's book fair is the huge diversity of beautifully designed books and pictures and illustrators signing with creative colourful 'dedicaces'  on every publisher's stall.  Above Rue du Monde....below Editions Memo.

and above all a huge diversity of kids of all ages from tiny tots... 

to toddlers, not to mention teens.... 

and their parents and teachers.  

What better way to encourage kids to love books than to show all the love and attention put into the creation of books of all kinds at fairs such as this? 

My Munich SCBWI picture book workshop -this weekend Oct 22-3, 2011

This weekend I'm off to give a nice, slow 2 day stir of a big cauldron of creative juices.   

If in some way my own stirrings can help some other illustrators get a story down,  and help writers see spaces for illustrators on the page  - I'll be happy.  We'll have plenty to cook up, at any rate.  It's also very exciting also to be bringing together SCBWI Germany members,  with some illustrators from the German Illustratoren Organisation EV 

and from the Austrian Illustria.    Thanks to the brilliant young German illustrators and SCBWI members,  Constanze von Kitzing and Andrea Offerman (whom I mentored at the SCBWI Los Angeles conference in 2010)  for helping us expand the network of child-minded creators across Europe.  That sounds weird  - but we know what we mean!   And biggest thanks - in advance - go to the generous and talented illustrator and coordinator Kirsten Carlson and Donna Weidner RA of SCBWI Germany, without whom none of us would be heading to such a great looking place.

Children's illustrators concerned over UK market

In the recent issue of the UK  Bookseller, Caroline Horn  quotes UK illustrator:

Frann Preston-Gannon, who was recently awarded a Maurice Sendak Fellowship in the US, said: "I have had a number of openings for my work in the US, while in the UK, I have been told to change my style to make it more commercial. As a new illustrator [in  the UK], the kinds of projects you get are reissues of fairy tales rather than brand new books."

It's a topic that's close to my heart since I stopped working for UK publishers in the early 1990s when a UK publisher a wanted a novelty project I'd written but wanted to use a more "conservative, less European-style" illustrator.  I took the project to a French publisher and didn't look back.   I've only recently returned with a book published by Bloomsbury US/UK.   


Anyhow The Bookseller asked me for my feedback as SCBWI international illustrator advisor.  Anyone who knows me would realize that the quote they used,  was not all I had to say about the subject. So for what it's worth, here's my expanded 'take',  coloured by my own experience. 

As I see it, if there is a problem that unpublished, talented illustrators have in the UK, it's not due to the lack of support.  Aside from a great variety of workshops and conferences that British Isles SCBWI organizes and the professional back-up of  Association of Illustrators, there are initiatives like  Booktrust's  Best New Illustrators award.   A handful of new UK illustrators hit the shelves  each year and the lucky few are the object of  media attention, prizes and focused marketing.   But emerging talent  from previous years and 'mid-list' published illustrators have increasingly had to fend for themselves and go wherever the work is.

The problem is more about a shrinking UK home market.  Since the first reductions of library budgets in the early 90s, UK publishers have had to be more careful about the new talent they take on.  They've done really well on foreign rights sales,  second-guessing what other countries want.  But the dependency on foreign sales, alongside the restricted commercial demands of UK chain stores, means it's economically well-nigh impossible for a publisher to strike out with a new look with nothing but the courage of your convictions  - unless a) you have a niche market like Tate does with its own museum shops, or b) you go into e-publishing and don't expect any fast return.    So many UK publishers have been forced to be more cautious than the US or French counterparts, and the kind of ground-breaking, expensive  black and white tome like Brian Selnick's The Invention of Hugo Cabret  could simply not have been launched in the UK.

I want to believe that this may be changing. British publishers are looking harder for ways to by-pass conservative retailers,  and  for innovative  ways to promote and sell books in online as well as off, and there are  e-books and apps. 

Book festivals such as at Hay on Wye seem to be increasingly successful at drawing in book-buying crowds and children.  Could festival sales help to expand the market for illustrators?  Across the Channel, that's what I think happens at the huge French children's book fair which is both a professional fair and a buying jamboree.   Held in Montreuil, near Paris, it attracts more UK illustrator visitors each year.    Not only is it a diverse window - with many pictures -  for stunning new and older talent,   but a major if not the primary source for some French publishers of their annual book sales -  to school teachers, librarians (armed with larger budgets, it's true,  than their UK counterparts), as well as families...and collectors.  This in turn means that French publishers can also take risks with new illustrators and foster less 'commercial' but more critically interesting work.  And illustrators can arrange to meet editors and art directors at their stands.  Sue Porter is just one example of a UK illustrator who did that and found her first French publisher there last year, having become disenchanted with UK commercial constraints.

Another good  springboard for new ( not always young!)  children's illustrators that used to exist in the UK, but has gone down the television tube, are the richly-illustrated monthly children's magazines which still are going strong in France, the US and elsewhere.   Such magazines kept me thinking laterally and paying my bills for years.  The French magazines publisher by Bayard, Fleurus and Milan, use a wide range of styles, even edgy and conceptual ones at times, and  they are open to foreign talent. As David McKee told me, when he suggested I contact them back in the 90s, working on a monthly project expands your repertoire and allows you to experiment.  As turnover is rapid, feedback from experienced art directors is much faster than in the book world.  I've seen the work of Helen Stephens,  Bob Graham, and Helen Oxenbury among other non-French illustrators in their pages.

Caroline Horn wondered in the Bookseller if the UK needed a  Maurice Sendak-like fellowship.  Of course a star like Sendak  can give confidence to a new illustrator,  and help put their name on the map as Quentin Blake did for his Royal College students. But the risk of a star system of mentorship, like some contests,  is that it perpetuates a certain 'line' of illustration.  From my own experience at the huge SCBWI Los Angeles conference last year, I'd argue that pooling several mentors together, with different viewpoints might work  better.  But what the six illustrators selected out of the portfolio display needed most of all - what we all need -  is the confidence boost that comes from working with an agent, art director or editor.

So what to do if you're a budding book illustrator in the UK?   My answer is, expand your horizons!  I think Bologna should be on every children's book illustrators agenda, at least once in their life.  Its size is daunting but aside from making your mark on the famous Illustrator Wall, it gives you a global sense of the whole publishing business. The Bologna Illustrators competition  which tends to foster less commercial illustration, might be worth sending in to.  The organizers have told me they don't receive enough work from UK and US artists...  And aside from the Illustrator and Author's cafes (where I saw Selznick talk last year)  the kilometers of publishers stands display every kind of book  for every age from across the world.  There are inspiring illustration exhibitions in the centre of town too.  In 2012,  SCBWI will have its biennial stand in the fair and shows the work of selected members there and online in the Illustrator Display portfolio.   It also provides a number of showcase slots for published SCBWI members and pre-booked individual reviews for illustrators with art directors - another reason to join SCBWI wherever you are!

It's worth remembering the cliché that pictures travel. We should embrace the global market more, and learn from it.   After all, we are one small planet.   And children's author-illustrators are rare birds even if we do all flock together at times.

More pics, less words from Bologna

Where would the Bologna International Children's Book Fair be without these small people who aren't allowed into it?

But the Book Fair is a serious business.  And authors and illustrators' futures can sometimes depend on it.   Their publishers may need to sell foreign rights to survive, and make sure their work ends up in childrens' hands.

I discovered this baby in central Bologna.  Wenzel Saves the World, is a poor snap of one of Nikolaus Heidelbach's arresting illustrations in the exhibition of his work off the Piazza Maggiore, open until April 17. His beautifully crafted, sometimes disturbing images stayed with me like questions.  Here's another from a book about food...

But back to the Fair, starting with a snippet from the famous Illustrator wall.  

The 3D stuff this year stood out  - though not always their names...  

I've always had a problem with illustrations displays.  Most children's illustrators aren't working for  walls but for books.  The Lithuanian artists' exhibition had the best solution I've seen to remind us of this:

 

and look at the slots where the book was available for consultation!

There's a nice School Library Journal review of some of the Illustrator Competition winners.

Here are some others I liked and snapped (again apologies for the photo quality).  

But no trace of an online catalogue so I regret giving my printed catalogue away (I was over my luggage limit) so help -  I don't have their names!   Can anyone tell me who they are?

Wonderful to wander through the US area and come across  the name of a friend on the Scholastic  wall...Way to go Brian!  

We invited Brian Karas to speak at our SCBWI Bologna conference in....was it 2005?  He makes great dummies, books AND trailers for his books.   In his trailer for Neville, he talks about his process and the emotion behind that picture book.

And wonderful also to be with another friend, SCBWI international ARA wonder woman, Angela Cerrito as she discovers a copy of her first book The End of the Line for the first time at the Holiday House US publishers' stand!  Hot off the press as it's out this month - yay!

Spotted on a poster for a book on the Blue Apple / Chronicle stand,

is a question which could also apply to publishing,  illustrators, authors, ideas...