Activities for It's Bedtime, William!

This craft project is based on my book It's Bedtime, William! published by Penguin.

With this activity, we can make a mobile of William having a pillow fight with his visiting friend, the lion.

Hopefully, it is an idea with which crafty people can springboard into their own creative ideas.

Download this Activity Sheet here.

Once the pages are printed, they can be used for just colouring-in if a mobile is not your thing.

You can make these figures bigger or smaller by adjusting your printer settings.

I've been working on another activity for It's Bedtime William!

This one is fairly simple to make. It is a Lion Face or Mask.

A number of lion faces would be quite impressive decorating a classroom wall.

Click on the image and print the instructions.

Good News!

Wow!  I was so delighted to learn that two of my books have been shortlisted for this year's CBCA Children's Book of the Year Awards in Australia.
What a surprise!

The books shortlisted are:

•  It's Bedtime, William!  Published by Penguin Viking, 2010

•  The Tall Man and the Twelve Babies.  Published by Allen & Unwin, 2010            

 

William jumps for joy!

 The lion is laughing!

The babies are so happy!

We are all thrilled at this exciting news!

Gustaf Tenggren

Gustaf Tenggren was born in 1896 in Sweden to a family of artists. He showed early aptitude and began thorough training as an artist.  His early illustration work shows an influence from his contemporaries, mainly John Bauer, and decorative styles of the day.  The subject matter was often mythological in nature.

Tenggren immigrated to the US in 1920. He opened a studio in New York  and began a prolific output in children's books and magazine illustration. His style changed to adapt to the requirements of the market. In 1936 he was hired by Walt Disney to work on the first feature length animated film, Snow White.
He also worked on Pinocchio,  Fantasia, Bambi and others, as a concept artist and designer. His Scandinavian background is evident in the artwork for these films.

From the 1940's to 1962, Gustaf Tenggren was a major illustrator of  Little Golden books.  One of his best known titles from these books is The Poky Little Puppy. He was amazingly successful and produced art for a wide range of subjects and age groups.

One of my favourite books from childhood is called Golden Tales from the Arabian Nights with superb illustrations by Tenggren. His approach is more stylised than his Disney work.

Gustaf Tenggren died in 1970 and his widow donated much of his artwork and papers to the children's literature research library at the University of Minnesota,

Early works from the 1920's.

Little Golden Book titles illustrated by Gustaf Tenggren

Golden Tales from the Arabian Nights. Simon and Schuster. First published in 1957

For further information and more of his artwork, there is a great site devoted to Gustaf Tenggren. Take a look here.

New book release...

It's Bedtime, William! is the title of my new book, published in June 2010.  This picture book looks into the world-wide occurrence of kids not wanting to go to bed as opposed to the parent who knows the sleeping hour has definitely arrived.
A battle of wills can develop but with some negotiation and some strategic thinking, a child can usually buy some more precious time. In this story William has played his last card and reluctantly trudges up to his room only to find his bed is already occupied by a huge uninvited lion.
After the initial shock of this unexpected discovery, it is William who tries to persuade the now energetic and wide-awake lion to stop fooling about and go to sleep.
Does William succeed and will his parents find out?

I had a lovely time working on this book, creating the characters and writing the story.  Nowadays I tend to keep the design and format of the layout quite simple and direct.  I can then concentrate on the rapport between the main characters, their expressions, and vitality of the book as a whole.

These illustrations were drawn on a Wacom tablet using Photoshop.

Its Bedtime, William! is published by Viking, Penguin Australia.