Robert's Snow for Cancer's Cure is an online charity auction of some 200 snowflake art pieces created by children's book illustrators. The proceeds from the auction go to cancer research at Boston's Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Won't you put in a bid? They make excellent, one-of-a-kind gifts. Visit the Robert's Snow/DFCI web site to see the particulars about buying the snowflakes.
Marion Eldridge's snowflake, Shanté Keys (left), goes up for auction starting Monday, Nov. 19th. I am so pleased to feature it here at Chicken Spaghetti as part of the Blogging for a Cure initiative.
Marion
Eldridge has illustrated over 40 books for children. She has worked for
both trade and educational publishers. She has a daughter, Kate. Marion
lives in Massachusetts with her husband, Paul, and their little dog, Tam-O-Shanter, who keeps Marion company while she is working.
In addition to adorning a snowflake, Shanté Keys stars in Shanté Keys and the New Year's Peas (Albert Whitman & Company, 2007), which Marion Eldridge illustrated and Gail Piernas-Davenport wrote. Their joyful picture book celebrates family, community, and diversity. It imparts a few facts about New Year's customs in different cultures as Shanté goes from neighbor to neighbor looking for a missing ingredient for her family's feast. (Eating black-eyed peas for good luck on New Year's Day is an African American and Southern U.S. tradition.) Marion and I chatted via email recently.
1. What were some of your favorite childhood books?
I loved The Golden Egg Book by Margaret Wise Brown,
illustrated by Leonard Weisgard. I still have a copy, though not the
one I had as a kid. I've remembered it vividly my whole life. My
parents did save some pop-up books that were mine when I was little.
One is called Playtime in Action. Another is Christmas Time in Action.
They are quite elaborate pop-ups of whole scenes. Very impressive! Both
were illustrated by William Kemp Tilley, with a copyright by Walter P.
Phillips. I'm so glad my parents saved these for me! They are a lot of
fun and bring back many warm memories. They are quite a contrast to the
books that kids have now!
2. Children are going to love Shanté Keys and the New Year's Peas. With its bouncy, rhyming text,
the book is such fun to read aloud. I can imagine a kindergarten class
chanting along. Shanté herself is adorable and looks someone you'd want
to be your friend. Did you use a model or have someone in mind when you
created the illustrations of the little girl Shanté?
I
love the bouncy, rhyming text too! And I'm so glad if you'd like
Shanté to be your friend! I feel the same way. I would miss her and the
other characters in the book, but they share my studio now. It's great
having them around! I didn't use any models or reference photos for
Shanté or the other characters. They came completely from my
imagination—with inspiration, of course, from the text. For me,
creating the characters is one of the most fun parts of illustrating a
story. In general, I just try to observe people a lot and occasionally
browse through photographs online to get ideas, but then I put it all
aside and just draw.
3. Here's an image from the book. Would you tell us about
this picture? What's going on at this point in the story?
This
was a terrible moment for Grandma, but a fun scene to illustrate! It's
the moment when Grandma realizes that she's forgotten the black-eyed
peas! As written by Gail Piernas-Davenport in the book:
"Mercy!" cries Grandma.
"I'm weak in the knees.
I cooked lots of food,
but forgot black-eyed peas!
"Chitlins, baked ham,
macaroni and cheese,
Greens and hot corn bread,
but no black-eyed peas!"
It's
a dramatic scene—everyone shocked and surprised! But, I tried to
soften the blow a little for Grandma by putting Shanté's Dad's arm
behind her as though he is offering support.
4. Are there going to be further adventures of Shanté Keys? She's a natural for a series.
There are no plans that I know of. Of
course, that is up to the author, but I would love it! For now, Shanté
is participating in Robert's Snow for Cancer's Cure. Gail had some
wonderful things to say when she found out that Shanté was involved in
Robert's Snow. You can read about her reaction on her blog, Writing
from the Lemonade Stand. I just loved what she had to say!
Thank you, Marion. Readers, don't forget to click over to the Robert's Snow site and bid in November! Featured at other blogs today are snowflakes by Carin Berger, at Chasing Ray; Sophie Blackall, at not your mother’s bookclub; Erik Brooks, at Bildungsroman; and Brian Lies, at Greetings from Nowhere.