While working the reference desk at the Yorkville Branch of the New York Public Library I was randomly asked what I thought of different cover treatments. Spread out in front of me were three versions of bloody sharks and titles. Little did I know that author/illustrator Katherine Roy was a patron of my library. I had been asked weirder things so this was a nice surprise. Over the next few weeks she kept me posted on what was going on with the book and which cover/title her editor was leaning towards. As you can see from the above picture the final choice was Neighborhood Sharks: Hunting with the Great Whites of California's Farallon Islands. Roy was able to travel to San Francisco to see this group of great white sharks in action. She even met with the scientists who study these amazing sea creatures.
This is Roy's first time creating both the text and illustrations altough you may have seen her work before. She has drawn the illustrations for Anthony Aveni's Buried Beneath Us as well as for the middle grade adventure series The Expeditioners by S.S. Taylor. She is now working on another non-fiction title called How to Be an Elephant. She recently returned from Africa where she was studying elephants for this project. Katherine Roy is really a delightful person, obviously talented and isn't afraid to get out there and explore. Her website is www.katherineroy.com and if you are interested in booking her for an author visit you can email her at this address: katherineroystudio@gmail.com. Below is a photo from her recent travels where she was able to get up close and personal with some baby elephants! Neighborhood Sharks is due out on September 30th of this year.
No comments:
Post a Comment