Spotlight: James Foley On What You Should Never Feed A Lion

Western Australian author/illustrator James Foley is always on the go, presenting at schools and libraries and running fun workshops at bookshops in WA. Here's a sneak peek inside his studio, along with a few very important Top 5s. 

1. Top 5 Things You Should Definitely Not Feed A Lion: 

• a house
• a bomb 
• the principal 
• the Eiffel Tower 
• a toilet 

2. Top 5 things children tell me I definitely should feed a lion: 

• a house 
• a bomb 
•  the principal 
• the Eiffel Tower 
• a toilet 

Top 5 Things you definitely should not feed small children or lions: 

• Well you should never feed small children to lions, and you should never feed lions to small children.
• BUT, you can try feeding larger children to lions (it's more of a satisfying meal) and you can try feeding a single small lion to a group of children (I don't think they'd be able to polish off more than one lion but it depends on the size of the group and the size of the children).
• Small children and lions should also never eat chewing gum, or anything else that will stick to their hair or their mane - or their parents' hair or mane.
• Small children and lions should never eat anything they find down the back of the couch.
• Small children and lions should never eat tuna mornay. (It just tastes really gross).
  
  

3 Things every hungry lion should have: 

• good table manners 
• a large supply of digestive biscuits 
• a well-stocked litter tray 

Learn more about James, lions, and little boys who are handy with a toothbrush here.

A Picture Book is Greater than the Sum of its Parts

Peta Jinnath Andersen is an Online Consultant for Walker Books Australia. Her absolute, forever-and-ever favourite children's books are Guess How Much I Love You, A Bit Lost, Howl's Moving Castle, A Wrinkle in Time, A Monster Calls, and Winnie-the-Pooh. 

The Children's Book Council of Australia short-listed books for 2013 were announced yesterday, and we're thrilled to see three Walker titles on the short-list and four in notable mentions!

Short-listed:

The Wrong Boy, by Suzy Zail, (Older Readers Short List 2013)
Other Brother, by Simon French, (Younger Readers Short List 2013)
Python, by Christopher Cheng and Mark Jackson, (Eve Pownall Award for Information Books Short List 2013)

Notable mentions:

Cinnamon Rain by Emma Cameron (Older Readers Notables 2013) 
Black Spring by Alison Croggon (Older Readers Notables 2013)
Violet Mackerel’s Personal Space by Anna Branford, Illustrated by Sarah Davis (Younger Readers Notables 2013)
In the Lion by James Foley (Picture Book Notables 2013)

Two of the books recognised are picture books: Python, which is part of our Nature Storybooks series, and In the Lion, a playful picture book with a wry sense of humour. And Violet Mackerel's Personal Space, although not technically a picture book, is illustrated fiction.

There's something about seeing illustrated work recognised - it's so often undervalued. It's assumed to be easy to create; some even assume picture books are written inside a couple of hours. And yet, there's another, less obvious thing most of us forget when considering the picture book: how difficult it us to marry story and illustration effectively.

Many picture books are created by two people - an author and an illustrator. Sometimes these two meet; other times they work across borders, even countries. And although both people are storytellers, their media are vastly different.

Author-illustrators, despite working on both pieces of the book, are also pulling together two disparate things - even though the words and the pictures tell the same story, they complement each other and are not repetitive. 

Illustrated works are surely greater than the sum of their parts, and one of the joys of seeing our illustrated work recognised is seeing others appreciate the marriage of two ideas - and often multiple media - into a cohesive whole.