Today Kid Lit Reviews is extremely happy to showcase a new author. Heather Ellis released her debut children’s, The Sugary-Sherburts,  in 2013. Her second book, The Sugary-Sherburts and The Stone Witch, released this past January 7, 2014. Both books will be reviewed here this Saturday, March 22, 2014.

There is one amazing catch . . . Heather is a ten-years-old. She will tell us what it was like to work with an illustrator, whom she calls Dad.

What is it Like Working with My Dad as an Illustrator on My Books? 

My name is Heather and I am 10, from Yorkshire in England. I have luckily written and self-published three children’s books aimed at 8 -11 years old.

I work quite a lot with my dad as he illustrates my books. I thought it would be nice to tell you about how that works and what it’s like.

My book writing first started properly in 2013. My dad used to draw for (and with) me when I was much younger, because we both like drawing.  My dad is good at drawing, better than me anyway.

When I published my first book (called The Sugary-Sherburts – in 2013) I didn’t always want to put pictures in my book. CreateSpace.com needs a minimum of 25 pages to create a book – I think I was a couple of pages short and it helped fill up a couple of pages when my dad drew for my book. However everyone who bought the books said it really gives the books character – so I started putting pictures in all my books, my dad draws them all.

It wasn’t an accident that I worked with my dad for illustrations on my books. He could draw well and I didn’t have to pay him any money to illustrate my book. I never thought about using another illustrator because of the cost (I am only 10 after all!). Working with my dad is great (and easy!) because I don’t have to tell him what to draw. He usually reads my books a lot and has his own ideas and tells me what he thinks. Another good thing about working with my dad is that he doesn’t have a deadline either. Normally the opposite, he is usually asking me to be quicker with my writing when he wants to draw a certain part of the book.

 

My favourite book illustrator is Axel Scheffler of The Gruffalo books; his drawings are awesome and so colourful! I do like colour in kidslit books but I told my dad to keep my pictures plain black and white. I like black and white and that was my decision.

If there is something I don’t like about one of his drawings – I do ask him to change it and redraw it. He is ok with that and doesn’t take offence! For example when I wrote Rosie and Camilla’s Candyland Adventure, he drew a pointy moustache on one of the characters called Professor Quirk. The moustache didn’t make him look very friendly – so he drew him again for me without (the moustache).

The Sugary-Sherburts was my dad’s very first book that he ever illustrated and now he has done three. I asked him if he always wanted to be an artist or illustrator. He say he  knew that he was not bad at sketching with a pencil when he was little – but he always moans that he can’t use a paint brush – so he never really wanted to be an artist full time.

I would never draw my own pictures for my books, because I can’t really draw very well.

Here is a link to my latest book called The Sugary-Sherburts and The Stone Witch – paperback — kindle version.
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Thank you for reading my blog post, I hope you liked it.

Heather Ellis

Website — www.heatherellisbooks.co.u k

Blog — http://heatherellisbooks.wordpress.com