A Great Nephew and a Great Aunt, Guests-Dave Gray and His Daughter, Erin

Posted on by Penny Parker Klostermann

poetry friday button

Laura Purdie Salas at Writing the World for Kids is hosting the Poetry Friday Roundup today. If you’d like to know more about Poetry Friday, click HERE for an explanation by Renee LaTulippe.

Ants may rule the hill, but they don’t rule here! Art by Landon (Click to Enlarge)
Ants may rule the hill, but they don’t rule here! Art by Landon (Click to Enlarge)

Hello, Great Readers of our series! Just In case you haven’t visited before, let me tell you a little about A Great Nephew and A Great Aunt. My great nephew, Landon (a seventh-grader) and I (his great aunt) collaborate. I write a poem which he illustrates. We started this collaboration in the fall of 2014 and have had so much fun with it that we decided to invite others along. Landon and I will continue to have a new episode on one Friday of each month. The other Fridays are filling up quickly with guests. I have created a page on my website to view all the episodes of A Great Nephew and a Great Aunt. Click HERE to visit the page and enjoy past episodes.

Today it’s my pleasure to share a creative collaboration from . . .

Dave Gray and His Daughter, Erin

From Dave: When I mentioned the idea of a collaboration my daughter Erin (9) jumped at the chance! She loves being creative so I let her lead by writing a poem about anything she wanted. She came up with a great idea about wishing and I liked how she touched on something that I recognise in my own behaviour – letting desires get a little out of control before eventually realising that the people around us are more important than any material things. I thought the idea was great, so once Erin had finished her poem I started sketching some ideas. Usually an idea forms in my head quite quickly so I took elements from the poem and decided to develop the star idea. One of the secrets illustrators use is to limit the number of colours on a page. It makes images more striking so in this case I chose to use a single colour. Hopefully the image compliments the poem and helps to set the scene that I imagined when I read it. It passed the final test – Erin was mostly happy with it (and she is my most honest critic!)

Erin’s PoemerinpoemDave’s Art

davegray-art
Art by Dave Gray

The Collaborators-Dave and Erindave-and-erin

Many thanks to Dave and Erin for sharing their stellar talents with us today.

dave-image
Meet Dave: Dave Gray is an award winning author/illustrator living and working in the UK. Recent work includes illustrations for The Unstoppable Maggie McGee by Juliet Clare Bell and Save Our Stories by Nick Walker. As well as children’s books, Dave also works commercially for companies like the BBC, CITV, BMW MINI, BFI, Channel 4 and can sometimes even be found tinkering with a new invention in his shed.
Instagram/Twitter: @iamdavegray
Website: www.iamdavegray.com

38 thoughts on “A Great Nephew and a Great Aunt, Guests-Dave Gray and His Daughter, Erin”

  8. Lovely poem from Erin. Love the conclusion. So true! And the illustration is striking. I think the two of you should write a picture book together!

    Liked by 1 person

  11. These are wonderful, the poem’s style, moving along wishing, then “stop!”. Love that ending. And the image of that young girl wishing on a star is very sweet. Thanks Penny, Erin and Dave!

    Liked by 1 person

  15. Such a lovely collaboration!! I love the rhythm of the poem and the texture in the illustration. Thanks, Dave & Erin!! 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

Comments are closed.