Fred and Pete at the Beach

Fred and Pete Win!

2011-06-01T22:13:00.000-07:00

Fred and Pete won the Chocolate Lily prize tonight! I am so honoured. 4000 children voted this year for this wonderful award.

using picture books in the schools

2011-04-22T11:48:00.000-07:00

I am so impressed with the kind of learning activities that talented, caring and energetic teachers are employing in the school. Here is one student's work on an activity elementary school teacher, Janine Fitkall, did with her students with Fred and Pete. I just love it! (click on the image to enjoy a larger size.

Raise-a-Reader

2010-09-25T10:54:00.000-07:00

The Vancouver Sun newspaper has an annual campaign called Raise-a-Reader which culminates in Raise-a-Reader Day on Wednesday, September 29, 2010. Look for the special feature in the Vancouver Sun that day. This year they are including a lot of local writers and putting videos of us reading from our books onto their website. Here's mine (sorry about the commercial - it's an embedded video from the Sun's website). The reading starts soberly enough, then gets increasingly goofy. Goofy's good.

A Perfect Day

2010-05-13T18:08:00.001-07:00

Fred and Pete was chosen by a committee of Vancouver Elementary School Principals and Vice Principals as the 2010 picture book to go into every school library. They bought 100 copies from Kids Books on Broadway and today held a special ceremony to celebrate the book. It was held at Douglas Elementary School and hosted by lovely teacher librarian Kathryn Buchan.

Sixty Vancouver schools were each represented by a teacher and two students.

My presentations were received with rapturous appreciation.

And if that wasn't enough, I was presented with beautiful flowers and everyone there was given a chocolate bar in the shape of a dog bone. Delicious! I was simply brimming with happiness.

But for me the absolute highlight of the afternoon was the splendiferous art that the Douglas Elementary grade 3 students did based on the Fred and Pete illustrations. Funny, beautiful and gorgeous all.

It was a huge honour and a perfect day.

How to do a painted photo

2009-10-14T15:39:00.000-07:00

The illustrations in Fred and Pete at the Beach were photographs pasted onto painted backgrounds. Here's a video demonstration.

The Book Broads Interview

2009-10-10T16:13:00.000-07:00

At Word on the Street on September 27, I made the acquaintance of the wonderfully vivacious Book Broads: Angela Crocker, Kim Plumley, & Peggy Richardson. They were interviewing many of the authors presenting at the Vancouver Public Library that day and I was lucky enough to be included in their busy schedule. They asked intelligent, well-researched questions and were quick with interested responses and easy laughter. In short, they are the ideal interviewers, making me feel both relaxed and fascinating. Here is the video of my interview. (Podcast data and content copyright TheBookBroads.com).

Thank you, Book Broads!

Fred and Pete on the North Shore

2009-10-07T09:15:00.000-07:00

The Children's Writers and Illustrators of BC are having a party to showcase members' new books and you're invited! It's called the Fall Book Harvest. I'll be there with Fred and Pete at the Beach. Click on the image for details.

Word Search Puzzle

2009-09-30T10:00:00.000-07:00

Click on the puzzle to open the 8.5" x 11" size. To print it out, hold down control (command on a mac) and press P.

Reading at Word on the Street

2009-09-21T20:22:00.000-07:00

I'll be reading Fred and Pete in the Kids Tent at 12:20, Sunday, Sept 27, 2009 at Word on the Street.

Stay tuned!

2009-09-21T19:40:00.000-07:00

Be sure to keep an eye on the Fred and Pete at the Beach Blog. There's more to come, including more word puzzles; a demo on how the art was done; how to make a comic book using photos of your pet; and Fred and Pete songs and ukulele singalong.

How Fred and Pete met Ron - the Video!

2009-09-21T19:21:00.000-07:00

Fred and Pete at the Beach is a fictional story using the real-life characters of Ron McDougall and his two rescue dogs Fred and Pete. Here's a video of Ron telling the story of how Fred and Pete came into his life.

Crossword Puzzle

2009-09-21T12:43:00.000-07:00

Click on the picture to open the 8.5" x 11" size. To print it out, hold down control (command on a mac) and press P.

Fred and Pete book launch

2009-09-20T17:15:00.000-07:00

Fred and Pete will step into the world at an Orca group launch on October 15th, 2009 at Kidsbooks on Broadway in Vancouver. Click on the image to view the large-size poster.

Colouring Page - Why can't we go too?

2009-09-19T13:58:00.001-07:00

Click on the picture to open it as a 8.5" x 11" colouring page. To print it out, hold down control (command on a mac) and press P. Choose the horizontal orientation. Print. Colour with crayons, coloured pencils or markers.

Colouring page - Fred and Pete have to stay home

2009-09-01T11:47:00.000-07:00

Click on the picture below to open it as a 8.5" x 11" colouring page. To print it out, hold down control (command on a mac) and press P. Colour with crayons, coloured pencils or markers.

Colouring Page - Happy on the Beach

2009-08-31T17:40:00.000-07:00

Click on the picture to open it as a 8.5" x 11" colouring page. To print it out, hold down control (command on a mac) and press P. Colour with crayons, coloured pencils or markers.

Word on the Street

2009-08-28T11:00:00.000-07:00

I'll be reading Fred and Pete at the Word on the Street - hey! that rhymes - at 12:20pm, Sunday September 27, in the children's tent at the central branch of the Vancouver Public Library.

How the book came to be

2009-07-08T11:47:00.000-07:00

The illustrations for Fred and Pete at the Beach are photograph/painting collage. I had been doing these painted photos for years after getting the idea from a photo of Picasso in which he had painted a toga and a laurel wreath on a photo of himself. I thought it would be a great method for a book. I just had to find someone fascinating enough that I could photograph in a dozens of different positions to use as my character. Then one day while walking my dog I encountered Fred and Pete. I found them so odd and comical-looking that I burst out laughing. Eventually I got to know their human, Ron McDougall, who used to be Hugh Pickett’s business manager in his working days. Ron told me the story of how he came to have the dogs. Pete was fat and happy and Fred had been abused before he landed up in the SPCA and had poor health and a nervous disposition. Who could blame him! They were both already old when Ron got them. Check the archive for a video interview with Ron.

I thought Fred and Pete were like two sides of the same coin, and I fell in love with them. My story is about Fred and Pete who, unfortunately, both died of old age last year.

I shot 3 rolls of film of Fred and Pete thinking I’d one day use the photos to do a book. I was too broke at the time to afford a digital camera. I tried to do a book with these photos but found it impossible because in them the dogs were all differently lit, sized, and focused. It was just too difficult and expensive going to London Drugs to have them resized, reversed, lightened and darkened. I also realized after reviewing the photos that though I found Fred appealing and interesting and odd, he looked too damaged to use in a children’s picture book. So I shelved the idea.

Then my old computer died and I got a mac. I learned from a manual how to use photoshop and discovered I could get my negatives of Fred and Pete converted to digital files and could manipulate them in photoshop to exactly how I wanted them, including creating new positions and improving Fred’s looks. Then I could have these altered files printed as photos and paint in the backgrounds. Suddenly it was possible.

I had moved away from the neighbourhood but had kept in touch with Ron. He told me he had lots of photos of Fred and Pete and would try to find the negs. Finding the photos is turning out to be quite the excavation as they are squirreled away all over Ron’s house.
The story is based on Fred and Pete’s actual characters and inspired by an adventure I had with author, Melanie Jackson, in which we got lost trying to make the Bowen Island ferry to attend a big children’s authors’ picnic. Melanie was always cheerful and optimistic and I was glum and ready to go home. In their story of trying to get to the beach on their own, Fred is the near-sighted pessimist and Pete is the optimist and, needless to say, I identify with Fred.

I also used this technique for the art for a cd called Dances and Dreams produced by the CBC with Books for BC Babies 2008