Henri and the Machine: picture book of the month at THE OBSERVER
This is the third time, after the NEW YORK TIMES and the WALL STREET JOURNAL that a major international newspaper reviews one of my books. Here’s the link to the Guardian website.
NO ART ON AIR
On December 3rd 2022, I was a guest on the TV show NO ART ON AIR with Jenny Fischbach.
Walfer Bicherdeeg 2022
Here’s to more than 47,000 copies sold worldwide in 6 different languages and 7 territories (UK, USA, Portugal, France, China, South Korea and Luxembourg)….and to a movie in the making! Cheers!
THE BOY WHOSE HEAD WAS FILLED WITH STARS is now out in Greece
I am super excited to announce this new foreign edition, published in Greece by Brainfood. So far, the book has been published in South Korea, Denmark, the USA, and now Greece. In 2023, Turkey, China, and Taiwan will follow.
LEO AND THE OCTOPUS goes into pre-production
In October 2022, I visited the animation studios of Mélusine/Studio 352 with a TV crew from RTL TV. It was amazing to finally meet the people who are going to work on the adaptation of my book! Storyboarding and the development of a teaser will start end of November 2022. The film will be directed by Pascal Gérard and produced by Alexandra Hoesdorff at DEAL Productions.
My Hubble biography is on the NYPL Best Books of 2021 list!
The tradition is almost a century old: The New York Public Library's annual best book list - and now I am part of that list.
The 2021 list features 295 titles "across all age groups, genres and formats... selected by committees of dedicated, expert librarians from across the NYPL system." The criteria include i.a. literary merit and audience appeal.
The categories this year include best books for kids (100 titles), best books for kids in Spanish (45 titles), best books for teens (50 titles), and best books for adults (100 titles).
Check out the complete Best Books of 2021 list here
Leo earns a KIRKUS starred review!
Leo and the Octopus, published in the US by Kane Miller has just earned a Kirkus starred review! This is a BIG deal - A Kirkus star is "awarded to books of exceptional merit." Additionally, recipients of a Kirkus star are automatically eligible for the Kirkus Prize, a $50,000 literary prize …that would be nice, wouldn’t it? For the time being, I am just happy. Here’s the review:
A captive octopus helps a neurodivergent boy find companionship.
Leo feels like he’s “living on the wrong planet.” Sensory overload makes him retreat into a box to read—but this is a lonely pleasure. When he meets Maya, the octopus, at the aquarium, he sees her as a kindred spirit. At the library, he learns about octopuses, and when he returns to the aquarium, the keeper allows him to touch her. He realizes she shows emotion by changing color. “If only humans were as easy to understand.” During weekly visits he strengthens their friendship, building increasingly difficult puzzles for her to solve and helping to erect a “no flash” sign when too many picture-taking visitors stress her out. Eventually, through sharing his own knowledge about octopuses with another small boy, he makes a new, human friend. Writer Marinov, mother of an autistic child, expertly paces this gentle story, interspersing Leo’s own feelings with information about octopuses. The author of a book about Asperger’s syndrome adds a note in the backmatter. Nixon’s slightly stylized art uses a limited palette and an ever changing layout to extend readers’ understanding. When Maya reacts to too many flashing cameras, angry red pages help readers feel her stress. Leo and the keeper are depicted with light-tan skin tones; his new friend is much darker, with black, curly hair.
Sympathetic and gently insightful. (Picture book. 5-9)
The New York Times reviews my Hubble biography
A lovely review of THE BOY WHOSE HEAD WAS FILLED WITH STARS in the New York Times, by Nicola Davies:
The cyclical nature of many scientific phenomena provides writers with ready-made narrative structures, but a human life story can be tricky to handle in a picture book: What to include, what to leave out when you have so few words and pages? In “The Boy Whose Head Was Filled With Stars,” Isabelle Marinov and Deborah Marcero get it just right. Edwin Hubble is a colossal figure in astronomy. His research proved that the Milky Way is just one among an infinite number of galaxies. He’s difficult to summarize. Beginning with the words “Edwin was a curious boy,” Marinov succeeds in distilling Hubble’s life to the essence of youthful curiosity, bringing readers back time and again to the three key questions to which he sought answers: “How many stars are in the sky? How did the universe begin? Where did it come from?” (themselves typeset in a glimmering silver foil). Marcero’s tender illustrations remind readers on every page that the experience of looking at a dark, starry sky shaped Edwin’s life.
Of course there are many things missing from this small biography. No book can tell you everything, nor should it try to. The job of nonfiction is to build the fire of curiosity and to instill in readers the idea that while knowledge is finite, questions and the ability to ask them are not. In Edwin Hubble’s words, “We do not know why we are born into the world, but we can try to find out what sort of world it is.”
Nicola Davies is a zoologist and prolific children’s author. Her most recent picture books are “Grow: Secrets of Our DNA” and “Last: The Story of a White Rhino.”
Publisher's Weekly: A STARRED review
Another starred review for Hubble…in Publisher’s Weekly
Marinov and Marcero pair up to create this visually striking biography of astronomer Edwin Hubble, whose insatiable curiosity led to groundbreaking discoveries about the cosmos in the early 20th century. Straightforward storytelling details young Hubble’s early obsession with the sky throughout his Missouri childhood and first career as a teacher and basketball coach, then his transition into astronomy, while mixed-media illustrations evoke the immenseness of the universe in compositions, including an impressive gatefold, that emphasize star-studded skies. Paneled vignettes pace the story, while diagrams and maps extend the narrative and illustrate astrophysical phenomena (e.g., a lunar eclipse). Back matter, including author and illustrator notes and a brief biography, further explains Hubble’s major contributions to astronomy—helping show the universe’s sprawling size and adding evidence to the theory that it’s expanding—concluding a book that should spark the imagination of young sky-watchers while introducing the scientist for whom a modern space telescope is named. Ages 7–10. (Jan.)
The picture book buzz - interview with Maria Marshall
My interview with Maria Marshall for THE BOY WHOSE HEAD WAS FILLED WITH STARS.
A Kirkus star for THE BOY WHOSE HEAD WAS FILLED WITH STARS!
THE BOY WHOSE HEAD WAS FILLED WITH STARS has just earned a Kirkus starred review. What an honor! The Kirkus star is “one of the most coveted designations in the book industry, marking books of exeptional merit”. Read more at this link.
Lively and wondrous - readers will be star-struck! Kirkus review, December 2020.
Representation
I am beyond thrilled to announce that I am represented by the wonderful Silvia Molteni at Peters, Fraser + Dunlop, one of the oldest literary agencies in London. I signed my contract with Silvia in early February 2020.
Silvia is the dedicated children’s books agent at Peters, Fraser + Dunlop.
LEO & THE OCTOPUS has a publication date...and an illustrator!
Publishing date is January 14, 2021. LEO & THE OCTOPUS will be published by Templar Publishing in London, with illustrations by Chris Nixon. I am super happy for this opportunity to work with such an amazing artist.
Chris Nixon is a multidisciplinary artist creating across illustration, graphic design, creative direction and public art. Based in Perth, Australia, Chris’s work is inspired by the West Coast and classic surf culture with an emphasis on the handmade and crafted, using colour, texture and pattern across a wide range of media from children’s books to animation, commercial illustration and large artwork installations.
