Small in the City

Product Information

From The 2021 CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal Shortlist: Starbird illustrated and written By Sharon King-Chai (Two Hoots) If this picture book and his 2017 Kate Greenaway Medal winning collaboration ‘Town Is by the Sea’ written by Joanne Schwartz is anything to go by Sydney Smith is on his way to great significance. When you are small in the city you can still have the biggest heart of all. As the girl (or boy—it could be either) makes her way through dark and sometimes foreboding scenes, she describes the people “who don’t see you,” and the disorienting sights and sounds of the city. Challenging myself is the primary goal of working. I cannot be excited about a project unless I challenge myself to take risks and work outside my comfort zones. I tend to start a project open and free and build up rules as I go. Most of my challenges are about breaking those fake rules. Or setting my goals and expectations so high that although I may never reach them I still achieve far more than I could before. The fake rules I impose are usually about materials I use or the way I pace the story or external expectations. For the next book, I play around with materials I haven’t tried before and a style that is different than I am used to. Thank you, Sydney, for sharing your work and your process!

Small in the City by Sydney Smith - LoveReading4Kids Small in the City by Sydney Smith - LoveReading4Kids

Wednesday 16 th June 2021: The winners of this year’s CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medals, the UK’s oldest and best-loved book awards for children and young people, were revealed today. Both winning books were announced at a virtual, daytime event, hosted by University Challenge Star and author Bobby Seagull and livestreamed from The British Library. Tens of thousands of young people who shadow the Medals have also been reading and debating this year’s shortlists and have voted for their favourites to win the Shadowers’ Choice Awards. Announced today by a selection of young Shadowers, the Shadowers’ Choice for the Carnegie Medal is Run, Rebel, a debut novel by Manjeet Mann, about a girl who runs in quiet rebellion to escape an arranged marriage. The Shadowers’ Choice for the Kate Greenaway Medal is Starbird, illustrated and written by Sharon King-Chai, a mythical tale of a singing Starbird caged by a Moon King. Hello Yellow - 80 Books to Help Children Nurture Good Mental Health and Support With Anxiety and Wellbeing -

The weather steadily worsens. The child almost disappears in the blizzard. Our hearts are in our mouths. The most important reader of a picture book has to be a child. However talented the artist, however major the award, a book only works if the child reader responds to it – better still, if they respond positively! The grid lines of buildings, walk ways and street furniture create a web suggesting a trap for the uninitiated. There is a stunning picture of the child’s reflection fractured by the arrangements of the mirror tiles on a building façade. We soon realise that this advice is not aimed at the reader but at something far more important. The revelation at the end of the picture book came as a surprise for me but I did start to get an inkling of what was to come. When I was a kid my dad went to a psychic. He asked them about his children and they said that I should be a movie director and that I would be as famous as Spielberg. I never forgot about that. I get a lot of inspiration from the innovation film and languages of film and picture book illustrations are very similar. Growing up in Nova Scotia, what aspects of your early years there influenced your creative work? And in what ways?

The Yoto Carnegies - Carnegie Greenaway

Setting descriptions, poems, diary entries, dialogue, letters of advice, lost posters Main Outcome: Smith’s art has been award winning, but here he becomes author as well as illustrator. He does both titles proud in this stirring piece.”— Booklist, Starred Review

Congratulations to our 2021 Medal winners, to independent publishers Knights Of and Walker Books, to our Shadowers’ Choice winners,it’s such a wonderfully diverse range of stories and always exciting to see how engaged children and young people are in voting for their favourites. A huge thank you to those voters and to all the children, librarians and teachers who participated this year without whom the Medals would not be possible.” A child braves strange streets in search of a mysterious someone in this gorgeous story about love and loss.”— People Magazine Not all picture book illustrators write the story, nor do they need to. However, here is a book that essentially has a shared narrative in text and in illustration. At first it is unclear why the child, who I took to be a little boy, is travelling alone on public transport. It is a cold, dark, frightening city that he emerges into, rain lashes down, becomes sleet, becomes snow, but still the child marches on alone across traffic-heavy roads. He takes no notice of passers-by, and they ignore him. At first he appears to be about 4 years old, but is perhaps 8 or 9. Whatever, he’s a child alone.

Small in the City | Literacy Tree Small in the City | Literacy Tree

When you’re small in the city, people don’t see you, and loud sounds can scare you, and knowing what to do is sometimes hard. But this little kid knows what it’s like, and knows the neighborhood. And a little friendly advice can go a long way. This story is a way for me to process my situation as much as Sidewalk Flowers and Town is by the Sea was.Small in the Cityis an evocative and immersive book which tells quite an ordinary story in such an extraordinary way that it surprises you. It conveys just how it feels to be small in an over-powering city. It’s understated whilst also managing to build to a moving emotional end with the themes of being lost, alone, and overlooked, taking on a much wider resonance. It’s a striking and atmospheric example of artistic storytelling skills which is almost cinematic in its depiction of a child’s view of an imposing urban landscape. Which is interesting, because in his acceptance speech Sydney Smith said the story doesn’t have a happy ending, Now that confused me! So the paw prints in the snow…? JUDGES CITE ‘POWERFUL EMOTIONAL PUNCH’ DELIVERED BY TWO BOOKS THAT EXPLORE LIFE THROUGH A CHILD’S EYES

Small In The City – Teachers | Books | Readers Small In The City – Teachers | Books | Readers

Armistice Day: A Collection of Remembrance - Spark Interest and Educate Children about Historical MomentsThe atmosphere will draw listeners in immediately . . . “ — The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, Starred Review Adding the silent spread was intuitive. Some stories I have worked on were possible to punctuate with silence. Pacing is important to the flow of the story and engaging the reader but it also involves knowing when the story needs the sustained ring of the words. Illustrations can control how the story is read and can add weight to words or flip them upside down. There’s a lot of power there. Set in an urban setting with street cars and a maze of lights, streets and sounds, this picture book skillfully captures the confusion of the city. As the child moves through the space with confidence, readers will learn more about both the kid and their city along the way. Readers at first may think that the child is homeless or running away. It takes a little while for their lost pet to be revealed to the reader.