Hi! I'm David, an editor here at Annick Press. I must say that being a children's book editor is a fantastic experience ... often quite literally. Many a workday do I spend poring over manuscripts for novels set in places that exist only in the imagination. Picture books, on the other hand, are slightly different beasts. With a picture book, it us up to the illustrator to show us those imagined worlds and all the characters who inhabit it. A big job!No picture book illustrator goes it alone. As an editor, it is part of my job to work with the illustrator, as well as the author, the art director, and the publisher, to make sure the pictures and words are working together to tell the best possible story. It's an amazing collaboration of creative ideas, and when the final artwork arrives, I'm always excited to see the story come so vividly to life.
That was the case this week, when we received the final artwork from Ruth Ohi for her newest picture book Chicken, Pig, Cow (coming in Fall 2008). I've been lucky enough to work with Ruth on her last several picture books, for which she has been both author and illustrator. She also wears both hats for Chicken, Pig, Cow and never before have her humor and imagination been on better display. In a word: fantastic!
