In this guest blog post, Sirin Thada takes us behind the scenes into her art-making process illustrating The Purple One, A Story of Prince. From a child growing up in Minneapolis to the music icon we know and love today, discover how Sirin researched, sketched, and painted the life of the one and only Prince, through five key illustrations from the picture book. 💜🕊✨
Read MoreFor many years, the celebrated Provensens lived at Maple Hill Farm in Dutchess County, New York. It is this home that they immortalized in picture books such as A Year at Maple Hill Farm, Our Animal Friends, and now… The Truth about Max! Max was a real-life cat with a larger-than-life personality: playful yet mysterious, friendly yet utterly his own. Earlier this fall, their daughter, Karen Provensen Mitchell, visited her childhood home, and in this guest blog post, you’re invited to discover the beautiful place that the Provensen family (and Max!) called home.
Read MoreRecently selected as one of the New York Times/New York Public Library’s Best Illustrated Children’s Books of 2024, There’s a Ghost in the Garden is a gentle, probing picture book about the special relationship between a grandfather and his grandson, and the many traces, memories, and even ghosts with which we live. In this guest blog post, award-winning author Kyo Maclear and celebrated illustrator Katty Maurey take us behind the scenes, through their words and images, into how this evocative picture book was made.
Read MoreWritten by Swedish author Sara Stridsberg and illustrated by Italian artist Beatrice Alemagna, We Go to the Park is a beautiful, lyrical meditation on going to the park to play—which extends into a reflection on life itself. In an interview with Enchanted Lion, translator B.J. Woodstein discusses bringing the openness and ambiguity of Stridsberg’s voice into English, what going to the park means to her personally, and why picture books are especially important to translate.
Read MoreSara Lissa Paulson, the translator of Johnny, the Sea, and Me, writes a guest post the ELB blog to share how she found this Colombian coming-of-age middle-grade novel, why she connected so deeply with it, the fascinating facts about pirates woven into the story's magical realism, and more!
Read MoreIn this Q&A, Enchanted Lion interviews Blexbolex, the award-winning French graphic artist and author-illustrator of The Magicians. He describes how he turns a tide of images and sensations into a book, how finding a narrative thread is like untangling a ball of yarn, what he learned about storytelling from video games, and more.
Read MoreAuthor Lee Juck and illustrator Kim Seung-youn are the creators behind One Day, a gentle, delicately illustrated meditation on loss and connection. In interviews with Enchanted Lion, they share how this picture book came to be, discussing the voice of childhood, making absence palpable, and their personal conception of what lies beyond death.
Read MoreTouching on loss and childhood, poetry and color, and Maurice Sendak and animal companions, author Dafna Ben-Zvi and illustrator Ofra Amit speak with Enchanted Lion’s Emilie Robert Wong about how Snoozie, Sunny, and So-So came to be. In part two of the interview, they discuss their connection to Maurice Sendak, the liberating and transformative power of the imagination, and why difficult topics belong in children’s literature.
Read MoreTouching on loss and childhood, poetry and color, and Maurice Sendak and animal companions, author Dafna Ben-Zvi and illustrator Ofra Amit speak with Enchanted Lion’s Emilie Robert Wong about how Snoozie, Sunny, and So-So came to be. In part one of the interview, they discuss the theme of moving on from loss, how music and emotion drive their creative processes, and the real-life pets that inspired Snoozie, Sunny, and So-So.
Read MoreIn this interview, Enchanted Lion’s Aubrey Nolan talks with Monika Vaicenavičienė, author and illustrator of What Is A River?, a singular and visually striking picture book that explores the many meanings of a river: as a source of life, as a meeting place, as a source of magic and mystery. Their conversation follows the winding and flowing path which led Monika to create this book, her artistic practice and materials, and the ‘mapping’ of the book in its early stages, which created its unique narrative structure.
Read MoreMichael and Shizuka Blaskowsky are the husband-and-wife translator team behind the Sato the Rabbit picture-book trilogy, written and illustrated by Yuki Ainoya and originally published in Japan. The pair speak with Enchanted Lion’s Emilie Robert Wong about the differences between American and Japanese stories, the immersive power of illustration, and the endless possibilities of Sato's dreamlike, fantastical world.
Read MoreMichael and Shizuka Blaskowsky are the husband-and-wife translator team behind the Sato the Rabbit picture-book trilogy, written and illustrated by Yuki Ainoya and originally published in Japan. The pair speak with Enchanted Lion’s Emilie Robert Wong about the differences between American and Japanese stories, the immersive power of illustration, and the endless possibilities of Sato's dreamlike, fantastical world.
Read MoreIn celebration of 100 years of Gianni Rodari, Antony Shugaar, translator of Rodari’s Telephone Tales, dissects a story, muses on what can be lost—and found—in translation, and answers our Ten Basic Questions. Third and final part of an interview between translator Antony Shugaar and Enchanted Lion’s Emilie Robert Wong, exploring translation, Rodari, and children’s literature.
Read MoreIn celebration of 100 years of Gianni Rodari, Antony Shugaar, translator of Rodari’s Telephone Tales, explores translation, metaphor, and moving vans, while taking a deep dive into Rodari’s underground river of decency and finding the light that Telephone Tales can offer in troubling times. Part two of three of an interview between translator Antony Shugaar and Enchanted Lion’s Emilie Robert Wong, exploring translation, Rodari, and children’s literature.
Read MoreIn celebration of 100 years of Gianni Rodari, Antony Shugaar shares how his translation of Rodari’s Telephone Tales came to be published by Enchanted Lion, his approach toward translation as a form of reporting, and the Rodarian idea that, in the end, all stories just might be telephone calls. Part one of three of an interview between translator Antony Shugaar and Enchanted Lion’s Emilie Robert Wong, exploring translation, Rodari, and children’s literature.
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