Picture Book: Shark vs. Train by Chris Barton:
We had a small but vocal group at our recent meeting. Everyone,
without exception, LOVED Shark vs. Train. We loved the illustrations,
the humor, the 'boyness' of it, and the clever wordplay that maybe kids wouldn't
get, but that the adults reading it to kids would. Michelle had done an
interview on her blog with the illustrator, and we had a couple of
questions that she agreed to ask him, like: 1) did he collaborate with the
author, or just do the illustrations upon seeing the manuscript; and 2) did he,
or the author, write the comments in the bubbles?
Here is his answer:
Chris and I collaborated on everything. We created many,
many scenarios, then whittled it down to the best ones. We spent a lot of time
on the phone, I sent him sketches and we went back and forth on pretty much
everything, including the captions. We both came up with scenarios and captions,
so it's impossible to say who wrote what.
Once
we were in the home stretch, I went down to Austin, where we spent a weekend at
the library hammering things out.
Then I asked
him how the collaboration on SVT came about, since it's so atypical in picture
books. He replied:
I
always collaborate with authors to some extent; it's part of "the deal" when a
publisher works with me. I know it's atypical, but I love collaborating and
think it always makes for a better book. When the publisher showed me the idea,
I thought it was brilliant and knew I could add to it, so I just told her I'd
only do it if I could collaborate with Chris, and he was open to it.
Novel: Warp Speed by Lisa Yee
As for Warp Speed, we mostly liked it. Some more than
others. Some of our members thought the writing was really tight and descriptive
with very well-developed characters. Others thought it was a great read for
middle school kids, but not the greatest piece of literature in the world. A
couple of people thought the 'bullying' part and the ending was a bit didactic.
But generally, we had a positive feeling about it.
