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A Handful of Illustrations Before Breakfast:
Featuring Renato Alarcão, K.G. Campbell,
Emily Gravett, and Steve Jenkins

h1 April 17th, 2014 by jules



 

Last week at Kirkus, I wrote about a handful of new picture books I like. All the talk talk talk is over here in that column, if you missed it last week.

Today, I want to share some art from each book. And, in the case of Emily Gravett, I’ve got a couple of early sketches, too. Above is a thumbnail from one of her sketchbooks. The rest is below.

Enjoy the art.

(Note: The illustrations from Mama Built a Little Nest are sans text. The colors in those also appear here on the screen a bit brighter than they do in the book.)

Emily Gravett’s Matilda’s Cat
(Simon & Schuster, March 2014):


 


Early thumbnails
(Click to enlarge)


Emily: “A page of rejected cats.”
(Click to enlarge)


A final spread from the book
(Click to enlarge)



 

Mina Javaherbin’s Soccer Star
(Candlewick, April 2014),
illustrated by Renato Alarcão:


 


“… Maria sees that I’m impressed. ‘So now can I be on your team?’ She asks me this day after day. But my answer is always the same: ‘Our team’s rule is no girls.'”
(Click to enlarge)


“We’re off to the ocean, and when it’s time, I cast my net in the deep.
Wild storm clouds appear fast in the sky above. …”
(Click to enlarge)



 

K.G. Campbell’s The Mermaid and the Shoe
(Kids Can Press, April 2014):


 



(Click either image to see spread in its entirety)


“There, one day, something new drifted into Minnow’s life. She couldn’t imagine
what it was for, but it was the loveliest thing she’d ever seen.”
(Click to enlarge)


“In the forest, she passed an octopus. ‘What is this?’ she asked it.
But the octopus just shrugged.”
(Click to enlarge)


“In the shallows, she happened upon a whale. ‘What is this?’ she asked it.
‘I swallowed one of those once,’ said the whale. ‘Yuck!'”
(Click to enlarge)



 

Jennifer Ward’s Mama Built a Little Nest
(Beach Lane Books, March 2014),
illustrated by Steve Jenkins:


 


Part of the male cactus wren spread: “Daddy built a little nest. / And then he built another. / And another. And another—/hoping to impress my mother.”
(Click to enlarge)


Part of the weaverbird spread: “Mama built a little nest. / She used her beak to sew /
a woven nest of silky grass, / the perfect place to grow.”
(Click to enlarge)


The grebe spread: “Mama built a little nest. / She gathered twigs that float /
and placed them on the water / to create a cozy boat.”
(Click to enlarge)


The hornbill spread: “Mama built a sealed nest / within an old tree’s hollow./
My daddy left a little hole / to pass her food to swallow.”
(Click to enlarge)



 

Steve Jenkins’ Eye to Eye:
How Animals See the World
(Houghton Mifflin, April 2014):


 



The halibut and panther chameleon spread
(Click either image to enlarge and see spread in its entirety)


The ghost crab and gharial spread
(Click to enlarge and read text)


The leopard gecko and tarsier spread
(Click to enlarge and read text)



 

Steve Jenkins’ and Robin Page’s
Creature Features:
25 Animals Explain
Why They Look the Way They Do
(Houghton Mifflin, October 2014):


 


“Dear harpy eagle: And why are your feathers sticking out?”
(Click to enlarge and read text)


“Dear horned frog: Your mouth is ginormous. Why so big?”
(Click to enlarge and read text)


“Dear sun bear: Why is your tongue so long?”
(Click to enlarge and read text)


“Dear shoebill stork: Why do you need such a burly beak?”
(Click to enlarge and read text)



 

* * * * * * *

MATILDA’S CAT. Copyright © 2014 by Emily Gravett. Published by Simon & Schuster, New York. Images reproduced by permission of Ms. Gravett.

SOCCER STAR. Text copyright © 2014 by Mina Javaherbin. Illustrations copyright © 2014 by Renato Alarcao. Reproduced by permission of the publisher, Candlewick Press, Somerville, MA.

THE MERMAID AND THE SHOE. Copyright © 2014 by K.G. Campbell. Published by Kids Can Press, Toronto. Images reproduced by permission of the publisher.

MAMA BUILT A LITTLE NEST. Text copyright © 2014 by Jennifer Ward. Illustrations copyright © 2014 by Steve Jenkins. Published by Beach Lane Books/Simon & Schuster, New York. Images reproduced by permission of Steve Jenkins.

EYE TO EYE: HOW ANIMALS SEE THE WORLD. Copyright © 2014 by Steve Jenkins. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Boston. Images reproduced by permission of Steve Jenkins.

CREATURE FEATURES: 25 ANIMALS EXPLAIN WHY THEY LOOK THE WAY THEY DO. Text copyright © 2014 by Robin Page and Steve Jenkins. Illustrations copyright © 2014 by Steve Jenkins. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Boston. Images reproduced by permission of Steve Jenkins.





2 comments to “A Handful of Illustrations Before Breakfast:
Featuring Renato Alarcão, K.G. Campbell,
Emily Gravett, and Steve Jenkins”

  1. I am all over MAMA BUILT A LITTLE NEST — after reading this thing about how kids take away confused impressions of anthropomorphic animals ( The effect of anthropomorphic books on children’s knowledge about animals, Frontiers in Psychology), I’ve been leery and wondering how to incorporate picture book animals for my nephews… one of them is especially dreamy, and I don’t want to take that from him, but… facts are good, too. MAMA BUILT A LITTLE NEST seems like the best of both worlds, and the artwork is LOVELY, too.

         by tanita April 17th, 2014 at 9:42 am

  2. […] storyboard for Matilda’s Cat by Emily Gravett […]

         by Storyboards and Thumbnails – Picturebook Illustration March 3rd, 2020 at 7:15 pm

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