Small in the City

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I have a soft spot for Ito, once a weekend escape for the Tokyo smart set of the 1920s. It’s also where William Adams, the hero of James Clavell’s Shogun and Giles Milton’s Samurai William, had his shipyard and estate.

September 3, 2019 Our interview begins with Sydney’s response about his role as an illustrator and a storyteller. I wanted to show the city honestly. The neighborhood is dirty and feels cold and definitely not a charming residential street or cul-de-sac. It was important to me because that’s where I live and raise a child of my own and we aren’t the only family in an apartment in a dodgy neighborhood, surrounded by crime and sirens. I wanted to show the reality of living in the city center.Sydney Smith is a Halifax-based illustrator. His other books include Town is by the Sea, written by Joanne Schwartz, and Sidewalk Flowers, written by JonArno Lawson. Town is by the Sea won the TD Canadian Children's Literature Award in 2017. 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. 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. The country is quiet and there were moments of mindfulness and the sublime found in unremarkable places. I suppose I am always trying to recapture those feelings. You have referred to a “rural mentality” that rejects the limelight or attention focused on an individual. How did that atmosphere affect you? Does it still inform your work as an illustrator and now as an author? The 2021 CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medals are sponsored by Peters and ALCS, and funded by Carnegie UK Trust. THE WINNERS:

That’s what this book is really about. It’s an examination of autonomy, it’s this idea that every child has a different journey and it’s all about the fact that despite those journeys we are all interconnected. One people. One race. Having similar experiences and yet different experience altogether.” CILIP Carnegie Medal Winner Jason Reynolds. Photo credit: Adedayo ‘Dayo’ Kosoko Centre for Literacy in Primary Education and the English and Media Centre create expert teaching resources for the shortlisted books.

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Edward Gorey was a master of ambiguity in the way he combined his text and the way he framed his images. Implying a gruesome death or a hideous crime is so much more impactful than just showing it. The darkness of his stories was also quite thrilling. Obviously, he wrote for himself. It must have created problems for his publishers when his mysteries were too gruesome to be marketed to children, but he answered to his own mind and the results were innovative and singular. A challenge can also drive you as an artist. What do you foresee as the next approach that may provide a creative risk for you? 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. Jason Reynolds first found inspiration in rap and began writing poetry when he was nine, He focused on poetry for the next two decades, publishing several collections before he published his first novel When I Was The Greatest in 2014. The first in his New York Times bestselling ‘Run’ series, Ghost, has sold 33,000 copies in the UK to date. He is also the author of the Marvel Comics novel Miles Morales: Spider-man (2017) and is the US National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. This is the first win for Reynolds following a shortlisting in 2019 for Long Way Down.

This year’s Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medal winners are compelling stories told from a child’s viewpoint that deliver a powerful emotional punch. Look Both Waysis a breathtakingly gripping collection of intertwined stories brimming with humour, empathy, and humanity. Each story has its own heart with deft characterisation and narrative voices that feel child-like and completely real and recognisable making it identifiable for children and adults alike. It’s such an innocent tale which covers hard hitting issues including bullying, homophobia and bereavement. The title sums up the way it challenges the reader to see differently in an engaging and fresh way. This is the first Carnegie Medal win for US poet and author Jason Reynolds – who is the US National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature – following a shortlisting in 2019 for Long Way Down. Look Both Ways (Knights Of) is a collection of 10 standalone but intertwined, interconnecting stories chronicling the 15 minutes of unsupervised independence of the walk home from school. The judges called it a “breathtakingly gripping”, “innocent tale which covers hard hitting issues including bullying, homophobia and bereavement” that “challenges the reader to see differently in an engaging and fresh way.”

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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! Smith’s illustrations create a fascinating mix of the bustle of urban life but also the quiet of snowfall, the beauty of an empty park, and the small areas of a city just right for a little cat to survive. The images bring a contemplative tone to the book, giving space and opportunity to breathe and feel deeply. Starbird’s songs weave the richest dreams and delight all who hear him, but when the Moon King traps him in a cage, the colour and life in his voice begin to drip away. What follows is a story with the feel of a timeless myth, with the message that that captivity dims even the brightest star.