Animachines - bookwrap

Unwrapping...

Authored by Debora Pearson and illustrated by Nora Hilb

Ages:  2-5

Unwrapping some illustrations for you to enjoy...

About the book...

This book, full of fun animals, mighty machines, and action words will delight any young reader.  Each animal demonstrates that it can do exactly what a machine can do.  Whales dive and move underwater just like a submerged submarine can do, a giraffe and cherry picker work side by side to get a job done, and a powerful male lion emulates the sound of a souped-up car with his mighty roar, just to name a few. The idea is not like the song..."anything you can do I can do better" but rather I can do it too and we can have fun doing it together.    

The illustrations are whimsical and playful and on each page there is a little surprise gnome to discover as you flip through the pages.  Action words are highlighted in the text, words like: dive, squirt, race and dig etc.  The book can be a catalyst for imaginative thinking and play (as kids try to act out what the animals are doing) and as they try to think of other animachines.  

The actions and the big simple words make the message of the book clear to little ones.  Kids will smile as ten happy animals copy the antics of ten mighty machines giving kids ten chances to smile  and giggle at the comparisons.  

About the author...

Debora Pearson is the author of numerous children’s books and the former editor of OWL Magazine. Under her direction the magazine won rave reviews from kids and high honors from the Parents’ Choice Foundation and the Education Press Association of America.

For younger readers, Debora has teamed up with illustrator Nora Hilb and written Sophie’s Wheels (2006), a story about a little girl’s growth and the wheels (which keep her moving) that grow with her. Debora and Nora have also worked together on Kids Do, Animals Too (2005), a book about kids and animals acting out opposites in the park and Leo’s Tree (2004), a gentle tale of a baby boy and the tree planted in honor of his birth. This uplifting story was selected by Maclean’s Magazine as one of the top 20 Canadian picture books published in 2004, as well as “The Year’s Best” List, by Resource Links. Animachines (2003) creatively combines the actions of animals and machines to teach action words, is another collaborative effort between Debora and Nora.

Hidden Worlds: Amazing Tunnel Stories (2002) explores the mysterious and various world of tunnels that people have built all over the world since ages past. Debora has also authored all three titles in the successful Mighty Wheels series—Load ’Em Up Trucks(1999), Rough, Tough Wheels (2000), and Hard Working Wheels (2000).

Debora co-authored 52 Days by Camel: My Sahara Adventure(Revised 2008), with author/ photographer Lawrie Raskin, which follows Lawrie’s journey into “mysterious Africa” via Morocco, across the vast Sahara desert to Timbuktu, and beyond, into the ancient and remote salt mines of Taoudenni. 52 Days by Camel has been made part of the prestigious White Raven Collection of international children’s and youth literature.

Debora lives in Toronto, Ontario.

About the illustrator...

Nora Hilb was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1953. As a child, she loved drawing more than anything else, though she never imagined it would become her profession. Because Nora’s parents were both from Germany, she grew up speaking German, later learning Spanish and English. Young Nora would find inspiration for her pictures in her favorite books, such as Die Wurzelkinder (which is German for The Children of the Roots), several wonderfully illustrated fairy tales (which she read over and over again), and collections of poems and songs by Argentina’s best-known author, María Elena Walsh. Later, she fell in love with the mysteries of Enid Blyton, though she read them in German.

After high school, Nora studied to be a kindergarten teacher. Her desire to create, however, remained strong, and she eventually found work drawing for a small company that produced animated films for children. She also met her future husband there. They fled Argentina in 1976 in the wake of violent military upheavals and settled in Mexico, where they had their first child, Marcela, before returning to Argentina in 1980. Times were hard, but they eventually opened a graphic design studio where Nora designed lots of labels for everything from shoe polish to vinegar, as well as company logos and brochures.

By 1985, a second child, Leandro, was born and life in Argentina was getting better. Nora began slowly turning her thoughts to her dream of illustrating picture books. After putting together a small portfolio of illustrations, she contacted as many children’s book publishers in Argentina as she could find. By 1989, she had published her first picture book.

Nora has since illustrated many, many books and has won numerous awards for her work. She now works with publishers around the world: in addition to Argentina, her illustrations appear in books in Switzerland, Spain, the United States and Canada. Nora is grateful to have had the chance to work and grow in a profession she so dearly loves. “What I like most,” she explains, “is to illustrate picture books with animal characters that combine humor and gentleness. I want to be able to transmit through my illustrations all the passion and joy I feel when I create them.”

Nora alternates her time between the seaside and Buenos Aires, Argentina.

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