Task 1 Children’s Illustrators

Notes from my book

• The Tale of Peter Rabbit
• Charlie and Lola
• Noddy to Thomas the Tank Engine
• We're Going on a Bear Hunt
• Each Peach Pear Plum
• Shirley Hughes 
• Michael Rosen
• Allan Ahlberg
• Lauren Child

For this task I have chosen to look at  Helen Oxenbury who is the illustrator of We're Going on a Bear Hunt and written by Michael Rosen in 1989. The reason why I decided to talk about this particular book is because I admire how easy it is to read illustrations. 

The book contains of black and white sketches along with watercolored paintings. It is also interesting how the whole layout of illustrations works perfectly the story itself. From my childhood I remember looking through the book and just focusing on the images. It is fascinating how children are able to figure out what is happening in book by looking at the pictures, that adult may not even notice.

Helen Oxenbury gave the story a ordinary family. If we look at the original poem, it has all the elements of an interesting children book. In the video "We're Going on a Bear hunt: The editors were nearly weeping"Michael Rosen explains that he had other ideas for the story such as kings and queens thinking of the rhythm and action from a performance point of view. However, Helen Oxenbury narrowed down to a family.

It was also fascinating to hear what Michael Rosen initial thought were when he looked through the book; "whats that, theres a baby and dog running about, and theres trees." He admits that he wasn't able to read it other than think that it was an impressionist painting until he realised she was telling a story. The illustration demonstrate the amount of danger this ordinary family go through to search for a bear and yet get back home safely.  The book has excitement, adventure and problems that they solve.

The book itself contains 40 pages and I would say the target audience is 3-8 years olds. However, the book can be read to the child so the age range may overlap with younger children. The reason why is because it consist of imagery which makes it interactive as the child can identify what is happening within the illustration. The book also has a rhythm and repetition which makes it memorable. Plus I can remember in nursery, when we were singing along with the teacher and acting the scenes out. (Fun Times)

Lastly, I want to mention the book We're Going on a Bear Hunt is the winner of the Nestlé Smarties Book Prize (age 0–5 and overall) and runner up for Greenaway. The book is highly recommended. 

Two well known books Illustrated by Helen Oxenbury:

The Dragon of an Ordinary Family (Heinemann, 1969), by Margaret Mahy and a joint winner of the Greenaway Medal.

Farmer Duck (Walker), 1991, by Martin Waddell. This book is the winner of the Illustrated Children's Book of the Yeah and the Smarties Prize. 

References

Weblinks

http://www.theguardian.com/books/video/2014/apr/10/we-re-going-on-a-bear-hunt-michael-rosen-helen-oxenbury-video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gyI6ykDwds

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Oxenbury

Images 
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Were-Going-Bear-Michael-Rosen/dp/0744523230

http://www.aquarellepublishing.co.uk/artistpage.aspx?id=55

http://www.antiqbook.com/search.php?action=search&author=Margaret+Mahy&l=en&owner_id=-csmx&sort_type=asc&sort_order=author_name+asc%2C+title_first_word&page_num=4

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Farmer-Duck-Martin-Waddell/dp/074453660X

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/318840848591378973/