Inspiring Picture Book Spreads

From modern Ozzie books

“Stay current”, they say… well, the only way to do this is to see what’s just hit the market. This week I purchased 4 brilliant Ozzie books.

1. ‘Do Not Open This Book For Eternity’ by Andy Lee and Heath McKenzie (This one because I love the whole series and my son might have disowned me if I didn’t leave the store with it.)

2. ‘Down The Road Little Bee’ by Sarah Jane Lightfoot

3. ‘Alone’ by Scott Stuart, and

4. ‘My Extraordinary Mum’ by Dani Vee and Alexandra Colombo

I picked my favourite spread from each of them.

I’m going to write about why the spread inspires me, rather than the actual picture book. Each book is truely outstanding for so many reasons, but I want to keep this post focused.

spread from ‘Do Not Open This Book For Eternity’ by Andy Lee and Heath McKenzie

What I Love about this spread from ‘Do Not Open This Book For Eternity’:

• The explosion takes up the whole page, emphasising its size.

• The light centre with sparks flying outwards creates fast movement to the outer edges of the page and it seems to continue beyond that.

• Wizz demonstrates the impact of the explosion by being blown away, upside down and with his body cut-off the page.

spread from ‘Down The Road Little Bee’ by Sarah Jane Lightfoot

What I Love about this spread from ‘Down The Road Little Bee’ :

• The illustrator plays with scale beautifully by having the insects appear large and the only showing us the bottom half of the legs.

• There is such a strong sense of movement from the left to the top of the right page.

• The use of sporadic bright colours, with a grey background, clearly directs our focus to the boots and little bee.

Spread ‘Alone’ by Scott Stuart

What I Love about this spread from ‘Alone’ :

• Who knew a blue and green ball could show character? The angles and expressions on Earth demonstrate her emotions so well.

• There is a clear progression across the panels, with distinct interactions between the planets and Earth due to scale, expression, and placement.

• The different colours of the panels work so well and although they are similar in tone to Earth, Earth still stands out well.

spread from ‘My Extraordinary Mum’ by Dani Vee and Alexandra Colombo

What I Love about this spread from ‘My Extraordinary Mum’:

• The colour palette is so vibrant.

• Each area is filled with action and fun.

• The characters are all unique and full of life and the page is full of diversity.

This month, members from illoguild will be writing about their favourite spreads. You can read it in the illoguild substack newsletter (new post coming soon).

News

• I’ve signed up for MATS My Kid Book Pitch starting this month.

• Little Shark Lulu is Sleeping, written by Charlie Birkmanis, Josie Montano and illustrated by me is launching this month in Sydney, Brisbane and Perth. Follow me on instagram for details.

  • Book for the Sydney Launch on 16 October at 1pm at Harry Hartog Marrickville

  • Book for the Brisbane Launch on 9 October at 1pm at Garden City Library

• I’ve booked my tickets for the Bologna Children’s Book Fair in March 2023. Drop me a line if you are going.