Neil Gaimon children's books and promo trailers

As a follow-on from the last post on pop-ups, this week I'm just going to highlight one of my favourite authors and what his publishers have provided for him with trailer videos on Youtube.

Neil Gaimon (I absolutely, definitely, definitively follow his journal) has written some fabulous children's books recently; or should I say has allowed some of his material to be repackaged and envisioned as illustrated children's literature.

Two books in particular: the first being Blueberry Girl (actually an original work, inspired by a friend's child), and the second is Instructions (which was originally a poem in one of his short story collections). Both books are illustrated by renowned artist Charles Vess - a specialist in fantastical imagery.

Blueberry Girl is a wonderful poem about fostering a young girl's growth through life from an early age, filled with much underpinning mythological significance (as per Gaimon) - or maybe that's just my reading.

Instructions is a truly wonderful poem, and should be learnt by heart by every primary school student. I think I might start at home with that idea. It's a poem detailing all the necessary 'instructions' a traveller in fairy will need in order to return safely home - to return, but to a new changed home. It is wonderfully evocative of the power inherent within fairy stories, and what that can bring to the human imagination young and old. Highly recommended.

Below are two of the promo trailer videos of the books. Enjoy my brave fairy land wanderers.

Pop-up books and videos

I love pop-up books.

Last semester I did Professional Communication, and one of the major assessments was to orally present a presentation convincing the other students in the class that you had a fabulous commissioning idea on an old out-of-print book.

Now naturally I took this on a creative side bender, and considered resurrecting an out-of-print book - but bringing it back as a glorious pop-up book al la Robert Sabuda (the picture above). My book was Jorg Louis Borges Book of Imaginary Beasts; a fantastical cavalcade of mythical and superstitious animals and beasts - perfect for 3-D treatment. I'm still absolutely sure it would be a great success.

What this round-about rave is getting to is, that one of my great discoveries doing this project was to find pop-up videos on youtube and such. These were little hand made videos of people opening and reading books with a video camera, and then adding a wondrous soundtrack as accompaniment.

This is more of your basic variety.

Other books credit a more professional quality, such as...

Pop-ups, you've got to love them.

A good reason for following your favourite blog...

Well I never thought it would happen to me. I have to say that after this experience I'm a committed blogster.

Received an email this week alerting me to the fact that I'd just won the award (a new prize winning illustrated children's book) for leaving a comment on my favourite blog at We Heart Books. I couldn't believe it, really stoked. It looks like a beautifully illustrated book by Taeeun Yoo, and I know my daughter will love it - what with young witches, flying brooms, black cats...perrrrfect. I know that for the next week or so I'll be checking my letterbox every moment just like a lovesick sad case.

The illustrator Taeeun writes a fascinating blog, or rather illustrates it with sketchbook drawings, like the following.

However, my favourite (and it's currently adorning my screen saver) is this one. Find the Red book.

Development of 'Open Book' name

This week the goal within the group was to find a name and overall feel for our bookshop review website. Easy peasy.

Well, not really.

Thought long and hard, and then some more, until finally the simple things just seemed to fall into place as if from on high (thank you Muses).

My ideas, and there were plenty of dud ones, seemed to coalesce around: Open Book.

Simple. Classy. Expandable into other territories, eg. Open Book Melbourne, Open Book Sydney, etc. always got to think ahead marketing wise.

Anyway, great nice name, but what about an image and logo to go with it.

So, I sat down in my office at home (crowded with my daughter's proliferating daily artworks or more precisely, objet d'art) and began configuring a logo through Adobe Illustrator - a fabulous program, of which I'm only truly minimally capable.

Finally though, something did come together. I think I'm quietly proud. I hope the others see it as I do...we shall see; all part of the rich tapestry of life.

We Heart Books

The blog I love to follow, especially in regard to the focus of my project, is We Heart Books. The blog is run by two Melbourne women who have had publishing industry experience, but now after children, have decided to focus on highlighting children's literature, especially classic and international illustrated books.

Their blog site also cleverly sits side by side with an online store, that features specialty illustrated books and soft toys. Which to my mind is very, very smart.

What I really like about their site, is not only their enthusiasm and openness, but also the fact that they provide easy-digestible inspiration to others with their passion for quality children's literature and illustrated books.

I look forward also to learning and harnessing some of their ideas on their blog into our bookshop reviews project. I'm going to be handling or developing the kids or children's side of bookshops and literature. I guess at this stage I'll definitely be including dedicated children's bookshops around Melbourne. Would also like to include some interviews with their owners: such as Desert Island books type of short interview material, e.g. What favourite book would you take with you to a deserted island type of question. Anyway, just some initial ideas at the moment. Will develop and keep this blog abreast of developments. Team bookshop (e.g. university colleagues) seem very committed and easy to work with...all good thus far.