Tag Archives: Picture Book

There Is No Giant In This Story

by Big Bearded Bookseller | Leave a comment

Lou Carter, Deborah Allwright. Bloomsbury Publishing, (32p) ISBN: 9781526608208. Picture Book, read 17/04/25, eBook ★★★★☆

There Is No Giant In This Story

There Is No Giant In This Story

We return to the fairy tale lands of Lou Carter and Deborah Allwright, where the antagonists of the tales don’t behave as they are traditionally made to.

Then we see what can happen from this in a hilarious manner.

This time it’s a Giant who doesn’t want to stay in the castle up the beanstalk as it is boring and comes down to play in fairy land.

But he’s loud and destructive, which is very off putting for everyone else, even though he’s only bored and wants to play.

He’s so loud and destructive everyone hides from him and he can’t understand why he’s not liked but after a talk from someone who explained things to him and a lucky accident he became part of the fairy land group.

As always a lovely story with some really great illustrations, love the troll!

Looking forward to trying this out at story time.

I received this from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Fib

by Big Bearded Bookseller | Leave a comment

Pedro Iniguez, Nathan Kwan. Gloo Books, (32p) ISBN: 9781962351300. Picture Book, read 14/04/25, eBook ★★★★☆

The Fib

The Fib

Picture books with clear stories, with a simple moral are always great for kids, especially when they are fun as well.

More so when the story feels as though it’s getting out of hand.

It all starts with Pepe being too embarrassed to share the comic book he had been working on all summer with the class, and it is here where he introduces the fib to the class.

and this is where things start to get out of hand, to defend the initial fib Pepe has to keep adding to the fib.

Initially the fib is a cute little green fuzz ball, but it gets bigger and bigger all the time and gets more destructive as it goes on.

This is a brilliant metaphor for lying and works really well, and the monster is wonderful in it’s growth and, eventually, in its reversal. The reversal is also excellently explained.

Really enjoyed this for its vibrant illustrations and straightforward clear explanation of what can go wrong when you lie.

I received this from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Questions for Illustrators

by Big Bearded Bookseller | Leave a comment

Mum Me and the Mulberry Tree

Mum Me and the Mulberry Tree

There is already a really successful Author Interview series (90 so far and another 10 to transcribe and edit, always looking for more 😉) here on the blog and I started thinking about one of the major contributors who often get overlooked when it comes to the book world.

Illustrators, from striking graphic designs for literary covers to full picture books lovingly illustrating the whole story, illustrators are right there at the heart of what pulls us into the a book.

2023 saw the start of an Illustrator Interview, a series of interviews with book/cover illustrators/artists and I’m just finalising a series of questions for this, if you’re interested please email me.

I was thinking these could be the questions, any thoughts?

  • What’s your name, could you add lots of images and links
  • When did you know you wanted to become an illustrator?
  • How long does it typically take to make a page or cover for a book?
  • What’s your favourite piece of art equipment?
  • do you have a favourite colour scheme, if so what and why?
  • Who were your inspirations when starting out?
  • Do you have another job beside being an illustrator, if so what?
  • What do you do to overcome a creative block?
  • Do you have a favourite piece in your portfolio, if so could you share it and talk about it?
  • What was your first book related project?
  • What type of media do you prefer to work in and why?
  • Do you have a playlist you like working to? If so do you want to share it?
  • Do you have any rituals when working?
  • Do you have a favourite artist outside of the world of books, if so who and why?
  • Did the books you read as a child influence your work?
  • Has your illustration/art style changed over time?
  • How closely do you work with the author on developing the illustrations for a book?
  • If you could illustrate any classic book which would it be and why?
  • Which illustrated books in the last year have you loved?
  • If you can please tell us about your latest project and if not your last project
  • Do you have any events on in the near future?

An alphabetical list by surname of all the illustrator interviews, with date the interview was published.

  1. Rowena Aitken (24/10/23)
  2. Ian Archie Beck (15/02/23)
  3. Tom Brown (08/02/23)
  4. Karin Celestine (11/01/23)
  5. Jan Dolby (27/10/24)
  6. Olaf Falafel (01/02/23)
  7. Steve May (01/03/23)
  8. James Mayhew (05/01/23)
  9. Maria Oliver (25/01/23)
  10. Rikin Parekh (22/03/23)
  11. Keith Robinson (18/01/23)
  12. Lynne Russell (08/03/23)
  13. Mahendra Singh (26/11/24)
  14. Robyn Wilson-Owen (22/02/23)