The Last Viking has won the 2012 Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators’ (SCBWI) Crystal Kite Award.
This is a members’ choice award. Writers and illustrators from each region voting on their favourite title for the past year.
Congratulations to all the other Crystal Kite winners around the world! And many many thanks to all the Australian and New Zealander SCWBIans for choosing our book; it’s very humbling to have your support.
Brilliant brilliant news…
The Last Viking has been listed in the Children’s Book Council of Australia Awards 2012!
- Notable Book, Picture Book of the Year category, CBCA Awards 2012
- Shortlist, Early Childhood category, CBCA Awards 2012
The Last Viking has also been shortlisted in the 2011 Aurealis Awards for Australian fantasy, science fiction and horror creators.
Hi everyone,
Norm and I have some excellent news to share for 2012. The Last Viking has been shortlisted for three awards!
- 2012 Western Australian Young Readers’ Book Awards
- 2012 Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature
- 2012 Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators’ Crystal Kite Awards
It’s a great honour to have The Last Viking listed alongside books by Australian and international greats, like Shaun Tan, Bruce Whatley, Alison Lester and Chris van Allsburg.
The Last Viking has set up camp at the Fremantle Children’s Literature Centre for Term 4 2011 and Term 1 2012.
If you’re a teacher, bring your class to see copies of preparatory sketches, character designs, clay models, final pencil work and colour prints. Call the Centre on 9430 6869 to see if you can book a time.
If you’re a member of the public and would like to see the artwork, then the Term 1 2012 Open Day is your best bet. A date has not yet been confirmed, but when we know, we’ll post it on the blog.
The Lit Centre ladies have done an amazing job putting the exhibition together- Norm and I were ecstatic to see it, me especially. It was surreal to see my work on the walls of the Centre, where previously I’ve been able to see the work of my picture book heroes.
The Lit Centre is selling copies of The Last Viking and many other amazing books in their well-stocked bookshop. They’re also selling limited edition signed prints of Last Viking artwork, and prints from other great Aussie artists (including my favourite, Shaun Tan).
One of the best things about making a book is getting to travel for writers’ festivals- it’s a brilliant perk. You get to visit places you’ve never been before, chat with other authors and illustrators, and meet your readers.
Speaking of which, Norman and I will be visiting Geraldton later week for the Big Sky Festival!
The festival is organised by the hard-working staff at Geraldton Regional Library, and runs from Friday Sept 9 – Sunday Sept 11.
Norm and I are running a few sessions together over the weekend:
Then on Sunday Norm and I will run two separate sessions at the same time.
You can find the full program here.
There’s a scene in Last Viking where Josh arrives at Nan and Pop’s house, says goodbye to his mum and dad, and watches them drive off. Sounds simple enough. It took Norm and I a few goes to get it right.
The text and pictures would have to achieve a number of things- introduce Nan and Pop, introduce the setting, and show Josh’s close relationship with his Mum and Dad. The text and pictures couldn’t show Josh’s parents leaving in a way that implied they were dumping him so they could go away for the weekend together… it had to be sensitive.
The first and second goes didn’t achieve these things :p
It’s been a hectic July promoting The Last Viking.
On July 16 and 17 I was in Balingup for the Children’s Literature Festival, with talented WA creators Meg McKinlay, Deb Fitzpatrick, David Caddy and Elaine Forrestal…
…the next weekend saw Norman and I visiting Albany’s Singing Tree bookshop to teach children how to roar like Thor…
…and the weekend after that I was in sunny Kununurra for the Kimberley Writers’ Festival, with fellow Fremantle Press authors Alan Carter and AJ Betts.
Thanks to all those teams that put the events together- Helen and the ladies in Balingup (who aren’t booksellers or librarians, just committed and passionate members of the community- amazing people)… Dianne Wolfer, Andreas and co in Albany (thanks for your generosity and hospitality, and the mulled wine)… and the marvelous Jo and her team of maniacally energetic librarians and volunteers up north (who work 11 months of the year to put the Kimberley Writers’ Festival together- on top of their normal duties. Amazing amazing amazing).
Here’s a few pics from the travels…
It was a dark and stormy night…
Actually, it was. Norm and I had been watching the weather forecast all week, wondering what the heavens would bring on the Friday night of our launch. By Tyr’s Day, we could see that rain was likely. By Wodin’s Day, rain was certain. Come Freyja’s Day, when the wind didn’t let up all day, we knew a storm was brewing. Thor was angry. The joke going around was that his invite had been lost on it’s way to Asgard. But maybe that was true, and he thought we were snubbing him… and when you snub a Norse god, you get a once-in-10-years weather event. Thirty millimetres of rain fell in 30 minutes- the precise 30 minutes in which our guests were en route to the launch.
Thanks to Rebecca Newman of Alphabet Soup magazine for the following review of The Last Viking.
If you don’t know anything about Vikings yet, you’ll know heaps about them by the time you finish The Last Viking. The illustrations are fun and cartoon-like and if you’re a super sleuth, you’ll notice that on some of the pages there are messages written in code—rune carvings. At the back of the book (on the endpapers) you’ll find the key to crack the code.
Keep an eye out for the ravens in the book, too. In Norse mythology they are Odin’s messengers, and in The Last Viking, they keep the Viking gods updated on Josh/Knut’s progress.
The Last Viking is an exciting adventure about courage, imagination and dealing with bullies.
Time to go a-viking!
You can read the whole thing here.
Last week I spoke about some of the other illustrators who influenced my approach to The Last Viking. I forgot a couple of important ones… so I’ve put them in this post.
First up is Jan Ormerod. Moonlight was one of my favourite books as a child (still is). The sister book, Sunshine, is amazing too.
For those of you who’ve never seen these books (shame on you), the amazing thing is the lack of words. Everything is told in panels, using only body language and facial expressions. The figure drawing is so accurate and subtle, it makes me feel very jealous to look at it now. Jan also breaks the panel borders regularly, which stops the panels feeling stale or constrictive.
I hadn’t noticed that these books had an influence until I re-read them randomly last week… I then realised that the panel sequences in The Last Viking probably owe a lot to Jan’s work seeping into my brain at a young age. I can’t find any pics of the interior spreads on the web…
Another huge influence on me is The Eleventh Hour by Graeme Base.
I was obsessed with it around age 10 or 11. I loved all the puzzles hidden in the images and borders. Unfortunately, I wasn’t patient enough at the time to figure them out… my parents sent for the hint sheet to be mailed out to me (this was back in the day before they started including the hint sheet with the book), and once I got it, I couldn’t resist reading through and checking every little clue. No will power at that age, obviously.
When Norm and I thought about incorporating runes into The Last Viking somehow, it seemed natural to use them as borders, and to have them spell out secret messages.
If you’d like to have a go at decoding some rune messages, check out the new ‘Resources‘ page and download the rune handouts. There’s more messages in the book too… on the front and back covers, for example 🙂
James Foley 