Introducing -- our new Meet The Illustrator Coordinator!

Good news often succeeds wistful goodbyes. Today we farewell another valued member of the KBR family, Nicky Johnston who, after several glorious months of coordinating our Meet The Illustrator interviews, is now packing away her KBR pencils to dedicate more time to her zillion other creative projects. On behalf of the entire KBR team, I thank Nicky for her efforts and wish her even more illuminating moments to come as she immerses herself ever deeper into her craft.

Stepping up into the Coordinator's Role is the equally radiant, Sally Fawcett.

Sally  is an Author/Illustrator, Primary School Teacher and Mum to three kids, a dog and four chickens. She lives in the beautiful country town of Margaret River in the South of Western Australia. Sally loves to draw pictures that move the soul and elicit feelings of connection with nature and people. Sally has published two picture books with EK Books What Could it Be? in 2016 and Through the Gate in 2017. She likes to write stories that inspire readers to interact with the pages and to think beyond the book.

The whole team is as excited as I am to welcome Sally aboard and can't wait to see what wondrous creative talent she can round up for us.

Our amazing team continues to swell and sparkle. Allow yourself to be dazzled and learn more about  them, here.

Meantime, I invite you to get to know Sally.

Yours enthusiastically

Dimity, KBR Managing Editor

Welcome Sally Fawcett!

Sally loves to draw pictures that move the soul and elicit feelings of connection with nature and other people. Sally won 2^nd place Peoples’ Choice 2015 and 1^st place Peoples’ Choice 2017 at the Margaret River Annual Art Auction. She also won Peoples’ Choice at the Margaret River Readers and Writers’ Festival Art Competition 2017. These wins were a great encouragement to keep creating. Sally mostly uses ink and watercolour on paper for her artistic creations.
 

Sally has published two picture books with EK Books What Could it Be? in 2016 and Through the Gate in 2017.She likes to write stories that inspire readers to interact with the pages and to think beyond the book. Her ideas come from the children in her classes at school, her own children, children in the street and sometimes from her own childhood.  These ideas tend to jump into her mind while in the shower or doing the dishes—perhaps the flow of water brings the flow of ideas. Sally has many more ideas for picture books clambering for a space in her mind and demanding she sits down and actually gets them on paper. 

Sally also works part-time as a primary school relief teacher. Her favourite subjects to teach are, not surprisingly, Art and Writing. But she also loved to teach Maths!  Sally reads picture books to children every day, even bigger kids!  She believes no-one is too old for a picture book. 

Visit Sally at her Blog, here.

KBR Short Story: Squawkless

by Sally Fawcett

“Yum!”

Mum opened the paper package and the tang of vinegar flared my nostrils.  I pinched a chip and tossed it high, opening my mouth to catch that hot, salty, crunchy stick of yum… But before that delicious morsel had the chance of delighting my tastebuds, it was rudely snatched from the air.

The next chip I grabbed went straight into my mouth as a greedy group of gulls gathered around us. We teased those seagulls as we munched and crunched and filled our bellies to bursting.

Mum lobbed the first left-over chip.  Oh the squawking and squabbling!   “Don’t feed the mean ones Mum,” I tried to keep my chips away from the bossy gulls.
“Try to feed that one,” said Mum, throwing a chip at a one-legged gull.
“He got it!” I cheered.

Then I noticed another seagull towards the back.  He was struggling to get closer to each chip, but he kept tripping.  Fishing line was tangled around his legs and his wing.
“That one, Mum, aim for him, he looks like he needs a feed.”
“He needs more than just a feed Molly,” Mum said directing a chip towards the flailing gull.  Another seagull snatched it and flew away with his prize. We threw chip after chip in the tangled seagull’s direction, but he was never able to get to them first.  Not once did he squawk, instead he silently sat.

“I’ll lure the others away then you feed him Mum,” taking a handful of chips I ran along the beach.  A flock of flapping followed.  But five persistent gulls stayed, staring at the last two chips.

Mum tried to shoo them away, but they were not scared.  So she chucked a chip behind her and two of the gulls raced after it.  I ran at the remaining few and sent them flying, but they multiplied in the air and settled again—squabbling and squawking.

“Hide it Mum,” I said.  Tucking the last chip under her towel Mum pretended there was none left.  Those gulls were not stupid. They stayed and stared and squawked.  The quiet bird still sat in the sand. He stayed and stared too—squawkless.

Further down the beach, a family gathered around a steaming paper package.  Red beaks pointed towards the wafting aroma.  The flock rose as one, flapping like white knickers drying on a windy day, and quickly surrounded the potential source of their second course—all except one.

I held out the last chip and edged towards him.  He touched his beak to the chip, but didn’t take it.  I could see why as I grasped the end of the line.  He didn’t struggle as I untangled his beak, his wing and his feet and offered him the chip again.  Silently he took it, ruffled his feathers, stretched his wings and nodded his head.

“You’re welcome Squawkless!” I called as he took off up the beach to join the jostling group, ogling the next family’s tasty treats.

Squawkless by Sally Fawcett

Sally Fawcett is a mum to three gorgeous young kids who provide wonderful inspiration for creative writing.  She is a primary school teacher and aspiring author of picture books.  Sally is passionate about writing for children and has been working on her illustration ability through Tania McCartney's 52 Week Illustration Challenge.  You can see her artwork and other little creative things she does here at Sally's Blog.


KBR Short Stories are a way to get your work ‘out there’—and to delight our KBR readers. Stories are set to a monthly theme and entries are due in the 25th of each month. Find out more here.

Review: What Could It Be?

This shape is a circle. What else could it be?

With that question, readers are invited to look at the illustrations, and the world around them, to find circles in unexpected places – the shell of a snail, fruits in a fruit bowl, spectacle lenses, flowers, insects and more.

What Could It Be? offers an interactive reading experience for preschool and early school-aged children. The sparse rhyming text flows well, the colourful illustrations are fun and engaging for young readers, and the leading questions – What else could it be? Can you find a green square? How many other triangles can you find? – encourage children to examine the details in the illustrations.

Meet the Illustrator: Sally Fawcett

Describe your illustration style in ten words or less.
Children full of emotion and wonder in the natural world.

What items are an essential part of your creative space?
Drawing board, light box, ink pencils, paintbrush, coffee and music.

Do you have a favourite artistic medium?
Derwent inktense pencils are my thing at the moment.

Name three artists whose work inspires you.
Picasso, Steven Michael King, Oliver Jeffers.

Which artistic period would you most like to visit and why?
The cubist period.  I am not a fan of realism. I appreciate the amazing skill that it takes to create a realistic piece of art, however I love seeing art that depicts the world in a new way that can only be seen through that piece of art or through the artist’s eyes.

12 Curly Questions with Sally Fawcett

1. Tell us something hardly anyone knows about you.
I don’t like driving over bridges.

2. What is your nickname?
Sal

3. What is your greatest fear?
Driving over bridges!

4. Describe your writing style in ten words.
Succinct - allowing the illustrations to do much of the work.

5. Tell us five positive words that describe you as a writer. 
Succinct, dedicated, quick, creative, collaborative.

6. What book character would you be, and why?
Mary from The Secret Garden.  I was spellbound by this book as a child. Mary had a mansion and huge gardens to explore. I’ve always found English walled gardens so enchanting.

Review: Through the Gate

Children rarely have a say when changes affect their family, especially big ones: like moving home and leaving friends behind. Forever.

Sally Fawcett's illustrations of an ordinary view at the front gate of the new house show how what we perceive can be a window to our hearts.

Announcement: New Meet The Illustrator Coordinator Heidi Cooper Smith

Swings and roundabouts often describe life and here at KBR, the thrill rides never stop. We value each and every ounce of effort, not to mention each carefully contemplated word, our team members contribute so when one of them leaves, it is not without sadness.

The illustrious Sally Fawcett farewells KBR this month. Her Meet the Illustrator contributions have been a consistent source of enlightenment and entertainment and we shall miss her cool and colourful presence. Thank you for introducing us to so many sparkling illustrators, Sally!

Thankfully our Ferris wheel keeps on turning and we are equally as delighted to announce our new Meet the Illustrator Coodinator, author illustrator, Heidi Cooper Smith.

Book List: Picture Books about Moving House

Moving house is one of the biggest changes in a child's life. This change can create many different emotions; excitement, sadness, fear and trepidation. Through picture books readers will discover children; worried about not liking their new house or bedroom, having to make new friends, fearful of going to a new school, missing their garden, getting a new dog, whose favourite toy doesn't want to move and comparing their new home to their old home. Ultimately the children in these stories accept their new home, they resolve their feelings and some do so in the most interesting ways.

Through the Gate by Sally Fawcett, EK Books, $24.99, 9781925335415, ages 5 - 8, KBR Review