In the October 15 issue of Kirkus, Gordon West, a writer/illustrator from Brooklyn interviews a fellow writer/ illustrator: Oliver Jeffers. If you’ve read the picture book The Day the Crayons Quit (featuring letters of complaint by each color to their owner, Duncan!), How to Catch a Star, or This Moose Belongs to Me, then you’ve already met Oliver Jeffers. His new book of rhymes, Once Upon an Alphabet, throws caution to the winds. Apparently the prevailing trends in publishing strongly discourage the writing of both rhyming books and alphabet picture books. Jeffers, however, admits that he doesn’t pay attention to trends, with the benefit of being able to follow where his stories take him, rather than trying to write what publishers think people want to see. If the Crayons book is any indication, he’s been very successful, since it is a NYTimes best-seller, with 45 copies in our catalog. His illustrations in the Alphabet book are “loose and lively”, with “witty” short stories for each letter of the alphabet, according to West. Jeffers is originally from Belfast, Northern Ireland, but has lived in NYC for the past 8 years, spending 5 of those in Brooklyn. His other creative projects include designing the album cover for U2’s song about Nelson Mandela, which he called “an incredible honor,” as well as a recent interactive exhibit of his work at the Discover Children’s Story Centre in London. I myself am looking forward to reading his latest creation.
