Showing posts with label Red Cat Blue Cat. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Red Cat Blue Cat. Show all posts
Tuesday, 25 September 2012
Red Cat, Blue Cat by Jenni Desmond is out TODAY!
Labels:
Blue Apple Books,
Jenni Desmond,
Red Cat Blue Cat
That's right, Jenni Desmond's excellent book Red Cat, Blue Cat (published by Blue Apple Books) is out today! You can read our review of the book or our interview with the lovely Jenni here but you'll definitely want to go and grab a copy pronto. So, what are you waiting for? Bounce like a blue cat and hop to it!
Tuesday, 18 September 2012
The First Ever ReadItDaddy Interview! We talk to Jenni Desmond, Author and Illustrator of Red Cat, Blue Cat (Blue Apple Books)
We're rather excited and honoured to be interviewing Jenni Desmond, Author and Illustrator of "Red Cat, Blue Cat" as our first ever interview. Jenni is a freelance Author, Illustrator and Artist represented by The Bright Agency and Bright Literary Agency. "Red Cat, Blue Cat" is published by Blue Apple Books.
ReadItDaddy: What's the best thing about working in children's books / illustration?
Jenni Desmond: For me, it is doing a job that I am so passionate about- I feel incredibly lucky. It’s great to get to be so creative every day and to be able to embrace the ridiculous side of your personality that you might give up when you have to become an adult.
ReadItDaddy: Who are your art heroes (past or present) / greatest influences on your work?
Jenni Desmond: There are way too many illustrators to list. But I greatly admire the artists who lived in Paris at the beginning of the 1900’s such as Matisse, Toulouse-Lautrec and Picasso, and Japanese art and aesthetics particularly from the Edo period.
ReadItDaddy: If you could pick a single superpower to help you with your work /
life, what would it be?
Jenni Desmond: It would be something that stopped time rushing by so fast. (We'll have a word with our friend Hermione and see if we can borrow her pocket watch! - Ed)
ReadItDaddy: This is probably a completely pointless question given your latest
book but do you consider yourself to be a dog or cat person (or both?)
Jenni Desmond: Believe it or not, although I do love cats, I would say I was more of a dog person. I love taking my parents dog for long walks in the countryside - you can’t really do that with cats. (It's true, we tried once, it didn't work out very well - Ed)
ReadItDaddy: How do you feel about the rise of electronic media? Is it something
you see yourself dabbling in eventually?
Jenni Desmond: I think it’s important for children to learn and have fun in lots of different ways, and if electronic media can be another way of doing that then it must be a good thing. I might do some dabbling, possibly.
ReadItDaddy: Charlotte wanted to ask 'Who is your favourite Disney Princess and
are you going to do any books with princesses in?' (be warned, this is
a character assassination question subtly dressed up as a 4 year old's
innocent query!)
Jenni Desmond: After a long hard think I am going to go with Belle. I have no princess books planned, but I would consider doing one if the princess was slightly mischievous. (Charlotte's reaction to 'Belle' was "YAY! Belle is the most beautiful! But I like Snow White best because she's cute! - Ed)
ReadItDaddy: Charlotte also wanted to ask 'what's your favourite colour?' (hers
is, unsurprisingly, pink so she's secretly campaigning for 'pink cat'
(who does ballet) to turn up in the sequel if there is one!)
Jenni Desmond: My favourite colour is white. Perhaps red cat could meet white cat in the sequel and there could be lots of pink kittens? (this answer definitely got a huge nod of approval from Charlotte! -Ed)
ReadItDaddy: What's your routine for getting motivated / started first thing in
the morning?
Jenni Desmond: I’m sure this is terrible for my health, but I have a whole cafetiere of black coffee every morning. I also listen to a lot of music that motivates me, and I cycle to work or sometimes go for a run to get some fresh air and think about things. When I get to the studio I always draw in my visual diary- I do one drawing a day, so that I can look back at my year and remember what I’ve been doing. It’s also quite good as a morning warm-up sketch. (Definitely approve of the cafetiere of coffee - Ed!)
ReadItDaddy: Which piece of art equipment / kit is your essential tool of the trade?
Jenni Desmond: A 2b pencil and a good pencil sharpener.
ReadItDaddy: Last but by no means least, How important do you think bloggers /
tweeters and the online community are to authors / illustrators?
Jenni Desmond: I think they are fantastic for spreading the word about new work and new artists. I love finding new illustrators through social media and its wonderful when you find one that excites you. So for me it is an essential tool to promote my work and also to nose around to see what interesting and beautiful things everyone is doing. (Hear hear! - Ed)
Many many thanks to Jenni for her time and her superb answers and to Blue Apple Books for providing a copy of Red Cat, Blue Cat for review. Please drop by Jenni's excellent website and check out her beautiful online gallery and illustrations.
"Red Cat, Blue Cat" by Jenni Desmond (Blue Apple Books)
Labels:
Blue Apple Books,
Jenni Desmond,
Red Cat Blue Cat
This week, we're doing our first interview on ReadItDaddy! Exciting stuff! Jenni Desmond, the Author / Illustrator of "Red Cat, Blue Cat" has kindly answered some quite tricky posed by us (including a serious character assassination question from Charlotte!)
Before we show you that article and tell you a bit more about Jenni, here's our review of "Red Cat, Blue Cat", kindly supplied to us by Blue Apple Books.
Red Cat is a frisky bouncy little feline, and Blue Cat is intelligent, creative and thoughtful. Occupying different floors of a huge house, Red Cat and Blue Cat mostly keep out of each other's ways. But when they meet, chaos ensues!
Jenni Desmond has obviously had ringside seats at many a catfight, her illustrations perfectly capture the absolute frenzy of a cat-scrap. Fur stands on end, the moggies screech and yowl and scratch, and generally the best place to be in a cat fight is about 10,000 miles away from it.
But Red Cat and Blue Cat have a secret. Each wants to be more like the other, and so they try to think up various ways to achieve this. First by merely changing colour, then by altering their behaviour.
This doesn't change what happens when they meet, but a pivotal moment in the story will show Red Cat and Blue Cat precisely why they behave the way they do.
It's a finely tuned tale that uses the two characters extremely well, to provide a moral tale of jealousy, conflict and (eventually) friendship.
The way the book ends actually made Charlotte practically jump up and down on the spot with glee (naturally we're not going to tell you what happens in the end but we're hoping it means more Red Cat, Blue Cat adventures in the future).
Jenni Desmond's illustrative style is eminently attractive and such a good fit for the story. It goes without saying that we highly recommend this beautifully presented book and are glad to see that there's always room in the cat-basket for another children's picture book featuring everyone's favourite felines.
Charlotte's best bit: Greedy Red Cat scoffing blueberries (and making a huge mess)
Daddy's favourite bit: The superb, chaotic (and sometimes quite scary) cat fights in the book. Absolutely perfectly captured.
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