"Monkey On The Run" - a bookwrap

"ONE GOOD BOOK CAN SPARK A LIFETIME OF READING"

Who is Gecko Press?

Gecko Press is an independent publisher, based in Wellington. Every year Gecko Press translates and publishes a small number of carefully-selected children’s books by some of the world’s best writers and illustrators, from countries including France, Germany, Japan, Poland and the Netherlands.

Gecko Press also publishes two or three books each year by (mostly) New Zealand authors and illustrators.

Unwrapping 

Written and Illustrated by Leo Timmers

* Counry of Origin:  Belgium

* Age Range:  2-5

* Grade Level:  PS-K

* Hardcover:  32 pages

* Publisher:  Gecko Press

* Pub. Date:  March 5, 2019

* Language:  English 




Media Reviews

• Midwest Book Review – July 3, 2019
  In author and illustrator Leo Timmers’ wordless picture book “Monkey on the Run”, children will be enormously entertained from first page to last, making this unique picture book very highly recommended for family, elementary school, and community library collections.
  
• 
  Waking Brain Cells – July 3, 2019
  The bustle and rush of the traffic would seem to make a fast-paced book, but this is one to linger over and enjoy following the adventures of a little monkey through the wildness of the different modes of transportation.
  
• 
  Youth Services Book Review – July 3, 2019
  The illustrations in the book are so colorful and detailed that I can see several different stories coming out of this one book. “Reading” this book would be a great opportunity to let a child’s imagination go wild and see what they come up with while looking at the pictures.
  
• 
  Publishers Weekly – June 26, 2019
  Weathered textures lend each vehicle a comic gravitas, and the way the conveyances interact offers mechanical and character-based amusement. Through it all, the curious little monkey remains admirably cool and mischievously confident—and as delighted by the surroundings as readers will be.

Unwrapping some wonderful illustrations for you

Unveiling the Storyline

Papa Monkey and Little Monkey are on their way. But the street is very busy and they are moving so slowly! Little Monkey loses patience and jumps onto the fire engine. Up the ladder from there and he joins a TV crew! Then the garbage truck, an aquarium bus, a food cart for rabbits packed with carroty treats, Arctic animals traveling by snow globe, a jewel thief's getaway car . . .

There is so much going on in the street, it's become a playground!

Each vehicle in this wordless picture book contains a world of detail, activity and humour to share with curious toddlers. The illustrations are colourful, expressive and spot-on perfect for the age-group targeted.  I highly recommend this book. 

About Leo Timmers

“I like to exploit and stretch an idea until it reaches breaking point”, Leo Timmers

Posted July 22, 2019 by Gecko Press

Leo Timmers’ new book, Monkey on the Run, has all the characteristics of his picture books. As an illustrator, Leo asks the reader to look—then look again, and again. He uses collisions, movement, problem-solving, colour and humour in his plot. Here he talks about how Monkey on the Run developed as a story, even demanding new technique.

I often say my books may have cars in them but they are not about cars. Bang is about bumping into each other and therefore meeting each other. Gus’s Garage is about using your imagination to solve problems (and feeling out of place). Cars are just “vehicles” to convey these ideas.

Journeys (with or without cars) are a perfect way to play with these concepts. When you go on a journey, when you move, anything can happen.

I think children enjoy the surprise and suspense of my books. My goal is to surprise, and to make children laugh, to open up their imagination by combining visual ideas in a way that looks natural and surprising at the same time.

The construction of Monkey on the Run took a long time. My original plan was a sort of encyclopaedia with all kinds of cars and funny, imaginative pictures. But my narrative instincts pushed me in another direction.

I began to tell a visual story alongside these images of classic cars. The connections between each spread sparked new ideas for cars and animals. I kept shifting the vehicles around to see where they would fit and add to the story.

But still there was something missing. I needed the book to feel like one story and a character that children could relate to. I had the idea of the monkey father and son exploring this asphalt jungle; I’d found my guide who could tie it all together.

I gave this little monkey his own story—and so had to redo all my neatly constructed spreads! What began as a simple book with a lot of cars became a complex story, a tale, about playing, looking, discovering and imagination.

Like the little monkey, life started for me when school was done. Finally I could go home and play and draw! Here the monkey starts exploring, running and jumping the minute he leaves school. This busy, dangerous world won’t stop him. He adapts and finds wonder and surprise in it. And at the end, he comes to a haven of nature and stillness; a retreat from the hectic world where playing in the trees is still possible.

As for the vehicles themselves, I particularly like the bicycle–mudbath–cinema because it combines so many ideas: turning the peddles while turning the film reel, a light that is also the projector, the pig children watching Titanic in 3D projected onto a sail boat. I also love the steamroller–ironing machine. This started as a small idea that grew with every new version until it filled up the double page.

“I like to exploit and stretch an idea until it reaches breaking point.”

As for the artwork, I changed my process to make this book. Because every page is so wildly different, I wanted to create a coherent look, so I limited myself to about ten colours. While my previous books are painted with a brush, in this one I used scotch tape and a knife to cut out the shapes of the cars. Within this confined shape, I was then free to spatter, drip paint and create textures and imperfections.

I am more and more fascinated by the way paint can be used. I try to be more loose and spontaneous, while keeping the shapes and colours simple. All these shapes are the result of endless sketching, shaping and stylising until everything fits seamlessly.  Creating picture books is the most beautiful profession in the world! I recently noticed that almost all of my favourite books were made by writer/illustrators. Is it through the unity of form and content, text and drawing that their books work so powerfully? One voice? I don’t know, but I do know that these books work for children and therefore also for adults. I believe adults are also children, but with a diploma and a job!

Storywraps Rating:  5 +++ HUGS!!!!!

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Hey everyone, Marilyn here.  Just wanted to thank you for being here this week with me.  Always fun to have so many people, from so many countries, land here and read my reviews.  Thank you for supporting Storywraps and the work that I do.  Have a wonderful weekend with family and friends and be sure to join me again next week as I unwrap some more fabulous books to share with your little ones.