by Michael on October 13, 2011
A book jacket can take a long time to get right. Almost always there are conflicting issues – from marketing demands, editorial preferences, to the illustrators artistic ego. I want one thing they want another. We all have the same goal: make the best jacket possible. But not everyone has the same idea of what constitutes the best solution.
The jacket is the sales tool for the book. The message should be about two things: here’s what I am about – buy me. Usually the primary drive for the publisher, and rightly so, is getting the “Buy Me” message across no matter what it looks like. As the designer or illustrator, my desire is for both the book to sell and look great as well. I always assume both are possible. But time is usually my problem. Not enough of it to find the perfect design that makes everyone happy.
The jacket for this book: An Annoying ABC, was pretty straightforward. I came up with a few ideas and this one with kids holding the letters A B C above them came early on.
After a few thoughts, I drew as many different faces as I felt I needed to get the expressions just right.
More to come…
by Michael on August 28, 2011
“The hilarity lies in the illustrations, typical Emberley style, done in pencil and watercolors.” “Emberley’s spirited pencil and watercolor cartoons nearly sing from the pages”. – starred review, Kirkus Reviews.
“Emberley gives it a true story, one that will have kids gasping and giggling(!) – GoodReads/Marika McCoola
Anyone who thinks life is a breeze for abecedarians should check out this knowing and very funny primer from Bottner and Emberley. Bottner’s deadpan, minimalist text inspires Emberley to some terrific portraits in extremis–this isn’t just an alphabet book, it’s an encyclopedia of kindergarten deportment, from aggression to zealotry - Starred Review, Publishers Weekly, July 25, 2011:
My New Book, An Annoying ABC, Written by Barbara Bottner, and Published by Knopf, is just out and beginning to getting reviews. She reviewed the book recently in one of the big review houses, Kirkus, which uses many reviewers, including Julie Danielson, who is also an accomplished blogger. Below is an excerpt from a recent entry of hers featuring the new book on the amazing children’s book blog – “Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast”, run by Jules Danielson.
“If you missed last week’s Kirkus column, I discussed the newest picture book titles from Peter Brown, Michael Emberley, and Adam Gudeon. But you know I can’t talk about picture books without also showing lots of art and sketches,…..” http://blaine.org/sevenimpossiblethings/?p=2193. Below is a page from my sketchbook working out the climax of a kindergarten meltdown in alphabetical order…
