Post by Dante on Apr 22, 2013 2:09:47 GMT -5
Around the time of a book's release, you generally get quite a few articles about it, too many to really post all of, so I only post the good ones. These two are, I think, very entertaining.
By Tracy Brown
LATimes.com
Author Lemony Snicket and children's book illustrator Jon Klassen sparred over their book "The Dark" at the Target Children’s Stage on Saturday afternoon at the Festival of Books.
Snicket, a.k.a. Daniel Handler, who always denies he is Snicket, wrote the words and Klassen created the illustrations for "The Dark." It's a picture book that features Laszlo, a child who's afraid of the dark. The dark lives in the boy's home, and the story is about how Laszlo overcomes his fear.
Klassen, author of his own books such as “This Is Not My Hat” and “I Want My Hat Back,” started things off and invited the author to join him on stage.
Snicket announced to the audience that all those waiting to see Lemony Snicket had been lied to. “I don’t know why anyone would lie to children,” he droned. “Although it is fun.”
Adults and children alike laughed as Snicket, best known as the author and narrator of “A Series of Unfortunate Events,” began to torment Klassen about everything from his casual attire to his artistic talent. As the event moved onto a slide show prepared by the men, Snicket belittled the illustrator’s work while glowingly praising his own.
The only moment Klassen seemed to have an upper hand was when one of his slides about his book “This Is Not My Hat” showed a picture of a crab, which made Snicket shout out in surprise. “Mr. Snicket is terrified of crabs,” Snicket explained, still denying he was Snicket.
Snicket then announced he would read "The Dark" out loud while Klassen was tasked with re-creating all the drawings from the book on a white board on the stage. Snicket insisted that Klassen had the easier task, even blindfolding Klassen so he could experience “the dark.”
By this point, the children in the audience were on Klassen’s side and tried to warn him that Snicket was tricking him (as well as stealing his snacks). Klassen continued to draw blindfolded, seemingly unaware of everything, but soon the audience could see that the illustrator was no longer drawing scenes from the book.
When Snicket finally noticed what Klassen had drawn, he screamed and ran off the stage, and kept running away toward the surrounding booths without looking back. Why? Klassen had drawn a giant crab.
LATimes.com
Author Lemony Snicket and children's book illustrator Jon Klassen sparred over their book "The Dark" at the Target Children’s Stage on Saturday afternoon at the Festival of Books.
Snicket, a.k.a. Daniel Handler, who always denies he is Snicket, wrote the words and Klassen created the illustrations for "The Dark." It's a picture book that features Laszlo, a child who's afraid of the dark. The dark lives in the boy's home, and the story is about how Laszlo overcomes his fear.
Klassen, author of his own books such as “This Is Not My Hat” and “I Want My Hat Back,” started things off and invited the author to join him on stage.
Snicket announced to the audience that all those waiting to see Lemony Snicket had been lied to. “I don’t know why anyone would lie to children,” he droned. “Although it is fun.”
Adults and children alike laughed as Snicket, best known as the author and narrator of “A Series of Unfortunate Events,” began to torment Klassen about everything from his casual attire to his artistic talent. As the event moved onto a slide show prepared by the men, Snicket belittled the illustrator’s work while glowingly praising his own.
The only moment Klassen seemed to have an upper hand was when one of his slides about his book “This Is Not My Hat” showed a picture of a crab, which made Snicket shout out in surprise. “Mr. Snicket is terrified of crabs,” Snicket explained, still denying he was Snicket.
Snicket then announced he would read "The Dark" out loud while Klassen was tasked with re-creating all the drawings from the book on a white board on the stage. Snicket insisted that Klassen had the easier task, even blindfolding Klassen so he could experience “the dark.”
By this point, the children in the audience were on Klassen’s side and tried to warn him that Snicket was tricking him (as well as stealing his snacks). Klassen continued to draw blindfolded, seemingly unaware of everything, but soon the audience could see that the illustrator was no longer drawing scenes from the book.
When Snicket finally noticed what Klassen had drawn, he screamed and ran off the stage, and kept running away toward the surrounding booths without looking back. Why? Klassen had drawn a giant crab.
Mark Medley
Arts.NationalPost.com
One of the most anticipated children’s books of the season, though it will equally appeal to adults, The Dark tells the story of Laszlo, a little boy haunted by the darkness living in his basement — because, you know, where else would darkness live? It is the first of what one hopes is many collaborations between mega-selling children’s author Lemony Snicket, the nom de plume of writer Daniel Handler, and Winnipeg’s own Jon Klassen, a recent recipient of the prestigious Caldecott Medal for his picture book This Is Not My Hat and now one of the most sought-after talents in the world of children’s literature. Each brings their own sensibility to the book, which is at times scary, moving, and funny — a children’s classic in the making. Mark Medley recently conducted an email interview with author and illustrator.
The Dark is about a little boy, Laszlo, who is afraid of the dark. What were you two scared of as children? What are you afraid of now?
Lemony Snicket As a child I was afraid of being kidnapped and of loud noises. Nothing has changed except the ways those two things can be combined.
Jon Klassen I was afraid of snakes, and if anything I’m more afraid of snakes now because I have had more time to see snakes.
How did your own experiences with the dark shape or influence this book?
LS In my experience, the dark is very dark, so when working on The Dark I suggested to Mr. Klassen that he make the dark dark.
JK It was a good suggestion. There is nothing like working with a master to get suggestions like that.
There’s this idea — propagated by this book — that we shouldn’t be afraid of the dark. But the dark is scary! Shouldn’t you be warning kids instead of lulling them into false sense of security?
LS Where you see “security” I see “fatalism,” but then for me it’s the same thing in airports.
JK I think we just have to promise them that if they go down to the basement in the middle of the night, like in the book, it will answer all their questions.
Why does the dark always live in basements? Maybe we should start building houses without them …
LS I imagine the dark often prefers basement living for the same reason people do: it’s cheaper.
JK Yeah, a lot of people don’t know this, but when the dark was first starting out, it blew a lot of its savings on one bedroom apartments in nicer buildings. But it learned. It learned.
How did the two of you come to work together? Jon, you weren’t scared off by Lemony’s reputation?
LS It is indeed sad that Mr. Klassen has sounded the death knell of his own career, reputation and mental health. On the other hand, he was already Canadian, so it’s not entirely my fault.
JK I’d been in touch with Susan Rich, Daniel’s editor, and I sent her a picture I’d made of a boy standing at the top of the stairs with a flashlight shining down onto a dark doorway with text in the doorway telling the boy to come downstairs. She sent it to Daniel, I assume with some sort of blackmailing letter attached, and it was effective enough for him to write this book for me to illustrate. His reputation was scary, but I’m pretty scary too, you know. Kinda.
Was this a collaboration or did you work independently of one another?
LS We would meet over a glass of chartreuse and then retreat to our respective corners.
JK I would get chocolate milk. I’m surprised the bar had it available, actually.
Is this the beginning of a beautiful friendship? Or can you no longer stand the sight of each another?
LS As we prefer to meet in the shadows, our looks are irrelevant.
JK My looks are very relevant.
Arts.NationalPost.com
One of the most anticipated children’s books of the season, though it will equally appeal to adults, The Dark tells the story of Laszlo, a little boy haunted by the darkness living in his basement — because, you know, where else would darkness live? It is the first of what one hopes is many collaborations between mega-selling children’s author Lemony Snicket, the nom de plume of writer Daniel Handler, and Winnipeg’s own Jon Klassen, a recent recipient of the prestigious Caldecott Medal for his picture book This Is Not My Hat and now one of the most sought-after talents in the world of children’s literature. Each brings their own sensibility to the book, which is at times scary, moving, and funny — a children’s classic in the making. Mark Medley recently conducted an email interview with author and illustrator.
The Dark is about a little boy, Laszlo, who is afraid of the dark. What were you two scared of as children? What are you afraid of now?
Lemony Snicket As a child I was afraid of being kidnapped and of loud noises. Nothing has changed except the ways those two things can be combined.
Jon Klassen I was afraid of snakes, and if anything I’m more afraid of snakes now because I have had more time to see snakes.
How did your own experiences with the dark shape or influence this book?
LS In my experience, the dark is very dark, so when working on The Dark I suggested to Mr. Klassen that he make the dark dark.
JK It was a good suggestion. There is nothing like working with a master to get suggestions like that.
There’s this idea — propagated by this book — that we shouldn’t be afraid of the dark. But the dark is scary! Shouldn’t you be warning kids instead of lulling them into false sense of security?
LS Where you see “security” I see “fatalism,” but then for me it’s the same thing in airports.
JK I think we just have to promise them that if they go down to the basement in the middle of the night, like in the book, it will answer all their questions.
Why does the dark always live in basements? Maybe we should start building houses without them …
LS I imagine the dark often prefers basement living for the same reason people do: it’s cheaper.
JK Yeah, a lot of people don’t know this, but when the dark was first starting out, it blew a lot of its savings on one bedroom apartments in nicer buildings. But it learned. It learned.
How did the two of you come to work together? Jon, you weren’t scared off by Lemony’s reputation?
LS It is indeed sad that Mr. Klassen has sounded the death knell of his own career, reputation and mental health. On the other hand, he was already Canadian, so it’s not entirely my fault.
JK I’d been in touch with Susan Rich, Daniel’s editor, and I sent her a picture I’d made of a boy standing at the top of the stairs with a flashlight shining down onto a dark doorway with text in the doorway telling the boy to come downstairs. She sent it to Daniel, I assume with some sort of blackmailing letter attached, and it was effective enough for him to write this book for me to illustrate. His reputation was scary, but I’m pretty scary too, you know. Kinda.
Was this a collaboration or did you work independently of one another?
LS We would meet over a glass of chartreuse and then retreat to our respective corners.
JK I would get chocolate milk. I’m surprised the bar had it available, actually.
Is this the beginning of a beautiful friendship? Or can you no longer stand the sight of each another?
LS As we prefer to meet in the shadows, our looks are irrelevant.
JK My looks are very relevant.
