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A Pacific Alphabet (Whitecap $16.95)
"I keep pinching myself,"; says Margriet Ruurs. "I feel so lucky.";
Best known as the creator of A Mountain Alphabet (Tundra) and the scatterbrained purple-plumed chicken in the Emma picture book series (Stoddart), Ruurs will see six books published this year, but she is hardly toting that literary six-pack by chance.
A workshop leader for writing, Ruurs estimates she recently spoke to more than ten thousand children in BC, Iowa, Nebraska, Wisconsin and Maryland. She also deliberately set aside last summer to market her work. Writing, it seems, is only half the battle.
For her A Pacific Alphabet (Whitecap $16.95) Ruurs envisioned an illustrated look with a quirky, non-realistic style, so she was delighted when her B.C. publisher chose Dianna Bonder of Maple Ridge. Bonder's whimsical style gave Ruurs free rein to indulge her love of word play and rhyme, "I'm ESL,"; she tells kids, encouraging them to retain their first language. "Being bilingual gives you twice as many ways to describe something. You're more creative in finding solutions, in writing and possibly in life.";
Born and raised in Holland, Ruurs learned English at 19. She eventually found herself living up north with two young sons where her husband was director of Yukon Parks. Nature and the wilderness, early influences on her work, continue to inspire her.
In A Mountain Alphabet, Ruurs and Andrew Kiss (a former Cariboo illustrator, who, through a twist of fate, has recently become her next-door neighbour in rural Armstrong in the southern interior) collaborated on When We Go Camping (Tundra $17.99). Text and pictures take readers through an image-rich day of camping with mystery animal tracks and a hidden animal on each page.
In Logan's Lake (Hodgepog $5.95), an easy-read book for grades two and three, a remote lake is threatened by commercial development. Young Logan can't stop 'progress' but he does inspire the developer to forego plans for a deluxe hotel complex in favour of a wilderness lodge.
Maupin House in Florida picked up both Virtual Maniac: Silly and Serious Poems for Kids ($12.95 U.S.) and the companion resource The Power of Poems: Teaching the Joy of Writing Poetry ($24 U.S.). The sales clincher for the education resource publisher was her passion for language, demonstrated when Ruurs, with her slight Dutch accent, rattled off lines from a poem that included Kleena Kleene, Takla, Tatlayoko, Bella Coola, Bella Bella, Archennini, Wapa Wekka, Flin Flon.
Ruurs' Emma's Eggs was a Storytellers' World Honor Title; Emma and the Coyote was shortlisted for the 2000 Mr. Christie Book Award and the Canadian National Institute for the Blind Tiny Torgi Award. Her new Emma's Cold Day (Stoddard Kids $19.95) finds the addled hen bustling about the farm in search of a warm, cozy, chicken-perfect shelter.
Ruurs will travel to Newfoundland in November for Children's Book Week and go for a series of readings next March in Iqaluit, Nunavut.
Virtual 0-929895-43-6; Power 0-929895-44-4; Camping 0-88776-476-2;
Logan's 0-9686899-7-3; Pacific 1-55285-264-4 Cold Day 0-7737-33140.
[Louise Donnelly / BCBW 2001]
Best known as the creator of A Mountain Alphabet (Tundra) and the scatterbrained purple-plumed chicken in the Emma picture book series (Stoddart), Ruurs will see six books published this year, but she is hardly toting that literary six-pack by chance.
A workshop leader for writing, Ruurs estimates she recently spoke to more than ten thousand children in BC, Iowa, Nebraska, Wisconsin and Maryland. She also deliberately set aside last summer to market her work. Writing, it seems, is only half the battle.
For her A Pacific Alphabet (Whitecap $16.95) Ruurs envisioned an illustrated look with a quirky, non-realistic style, so she was delighted when her B.C. publisher chose Dianna Bonder of Maple Ridge. Bonder's whimsical style gave Ruurs free rein to indulge her love of word play and rhyme, "I'm ESL,"; she tells kids, encouraging them to retain their first language. "Being bilingual gives you twice as many ways to describe something. You're more creative in finding solutions, in writing and possibly in life.";
Born and raised in Holland, Ruurs learned English at 19. She eventually found herself living up north with two young sons where her husband was director of Yukon Parks. Nature and the wilderness, early influences on her work, continue to inspire her.
In A Mountain Alphabet, Ruurs and Andrew Kiss (a former Cariboo illustrator, who, through a twist of fate, has recently become her next-door neighbour in rural Armstrong in the southern interior) collaborated on When We Go Camping (Tundra $17.99). Text and pictures take readers through an image-rich day of camping with mystery animal tracks and a hidden animal on each page.
In Logan's Lake (Hodgepog $5.95), an easy-read book for grades two and three, a remote lake is threatened by commercial development. Young Logan can't stop 'progress' but he does inspire the developer to forego plans for a deluxe hotel complex in favour of a wilderness lodge.
Maupin House in Florida picked up both Virtual Maniac: Silly and Serious Poems for Kids ($12.95 U.S.) and the companion resource The Power of Poems: Teaching the Joy of Writing Poetry ($24 U.S.). The sales clincher for the education resource publisher was her passion for language, demonstrated when Ruurs, with her slight Dutch accent, rattled off lines from a poem that included Kleena Kleene, Takla, Tatlayoko, Bella Coola, Bella Bella, Archennini, Wapa Wekka, Flin Flon.
Ruurs' Emma's Eggs was a Storytellers' World Honor Title; Emma and the Coyote was shortlisted for the 2000 Mr. Christie Book Award and the Canadian National Institute for the Blind Tiny Torgi Award. Her new Emma's Cold Day (Stoddard Kids $19.95) finds the addled hen bustling about the farm in search of a warm, cozy, chicken-perfect shelter.
Ruurs will travel to Newfoundland in November for Children's Book Week and go for a series of readings next March in Iqaluit, Nunavut.
Virtual 0-929895-43-6; Power 0-929895-44-4; Camping 0-88776-476-2;
Logan's 0-9686899-7-3; Pacific 1-55285-264-4 Cold Day 0-7737-33140.
[Louise Donnelly / BCBW 2001]
Submitted on June 24, 2003 in By David.
