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The When I Grow Up Blog Tour

The When I Grow Up Blog Tour commences this week! Behind the scenes, giveaways, the magic of childhood, sneak peeks and so much more! When I Grow Up treats every day of the week!  Thanks so much to all these passionate book bloggers for the support! 

Monday 9th  - Picture Books Blogger: https://picturebooksblogger.wordpress.com/

Tuesday 10th - Minerva Reads: http://www.minervareads.com/

Wednesday 11th - Library Mice: http://librarymice.com/

Wednesday 11th - The Kids of Readalot: http://readforgood.org/kids-of-readalot/

Thursday 12th - Get Kids into Books: https://getkidsintobooks.wordpress.com/

Thursday 12th - Book Lover Jo: https://bookloverjo.wordpress.com/

Friday 13th - A Little But A Lot: https://alittlebutalot.wordpress.com/

Friday 13th - Books a Go Go: http://www.booksagogo.org/

Enjoy!

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First Unplugged Review

It's always exciting (if not slightly terrifying) to discover the first review of one of my books. Thankfully, this is a great review! And I'm so pleased that Askews and Holts Library Services decided to feature it in their monthly newsletter, which goes out to all their libraries. 

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A Peek at the 'When I Grow Up' Trio

No less than 70 children of all shapes, sizes, colours and abilities feature in the picture book adaptation of Tim Minchin's When I Grow Up. Here's a little peek at the three main characters. They are an imaginative, joyful, brave and wishful trio. I remember listening constantly to Tim's moving song while developing these playful and inquisitive children. Together, they skip, bound and ponder what a grown-up life will be like. Illustrating this book reminded me of how I used to fantasise about growing up: being able to stay up late, go on shopping sprees in Toys R Us, eat and drink whatever I want, whenever I want. I wouldn't watch boring late night news programmes or go on diets. No way! I'd take full advantage of being a grown-up. But it's not quite that simple, is it? Life is complicated. This world can be confusing, overwhelming, and who's going to pay the bills? For me, When I Grow Up became about remembering that eagerness, that sense of anything-is-possible, hope and imagination I had as a child before getting bogged down with all my grown-up responsibilities. Illustrating this book allowed me to indulge my inner child. I hope the child in you and the children in your life enjoy this book. 

I can't thank Tim enough for allowing me to illustrate this book, and I look forward to when we can finally share its contents, and I have much to thank my designer Strawberrie and editor Pauliina for, not to mention my agent Elizabeth Roy. When I Grow Up will be published by Scholastic, first in the UK on the 5th of Oct. It will be published elsewhere, but I do not have dates, though I do know it will be released in the States next summer. 

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Merry Christmas! The Queen's Present Now in Paperback

Launch at Waterstones, Cheltenham

Launch at Waterstones, Cheltenham

The 4th book in the Queen series is now out in paperback!

The Queen's Hat is a windy tour of London. The Queen's Handbag is a wild goose chase across the UK, and The Queen's Present is a global quest for the perfect present! Each book features pages of famous landmarks and lots of fun-to-find details (like the butler, for example).

Below are just a few illustrations from each of these books. 

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Mr Panda Book 4 Cover Reveal

Here it is! The cover of Goodnight, Mr Panda! Do you like his onesie? This one's not out until next year so you'll have to be really patient, like the little Penguin in I'll Wait, Mr Panda. 

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When I Grow Up UK Cover

Here's the cover of When I Grow Up, which you can now preorder from just about anywhere! It was a real privilege and honour to illustrate Tim Minchin's words. 

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Growing Up A Reader (Or Not): An article for The Federation of Children's Book Group

A guest blog for The Federation of Children's Book Groups about how I bridged the gap between picture books and other books, which you can read by following the link below:

http://www.fcbg.org.uk/growing-up-a-reader-a-guest-blog-from-steve-antony/

Below were some of my favourite comic books. These were the covers for Marvel's 25th Anniversary. 

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ENTER MR PANDA’S DOUGHNUT COMPETITION ONLY AT SWINDON LIBRARIES

Mr Panda and Swindon Libraries invite you to design your own doughnut this summer! It can be any kind of a doughnut: a monster doughnut, an arty doughnut, a magic doughnut!

Three winners will be chosen by Mr Panda’s creator, Steve Antony, and will each receive fun prizes, including three signed books!

The winners will be announced by Steve Antony at the Summer Reading Challenge Event, Central Library, September 25th, 6pm.

Pick up an entry form at any Swindon Library from 15th July. Design your doughnut by 2nd September.

Have fun and good luck!

From Steve Antony and Swindon Libraries

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Steve AND Tim Minchin are teaming up to create a magical picture book based on 'When I Grow Up' from Matilda the Musical!

Scholastic has announced a global deal for a new magical picture book inspired by When I Grow Up, Tim Minchin's hit song from the acclaimed and multi-award-winning Matilda the Musical.

The book will be illustrated by Steve and will imagine life from a child’s viewpoint, with all the humour and poignancy of the song.

Tim says: “I feel incredibly lucky to be able to lend my lyrics to a children’s book. I adore Steve’s work, and it’s been a thrill to watch him develop his gorgeous illustrations. I can’t wait to hold a copy in my hands.”

Steve says: “I feel so lucky and honoured to be working on such an exciting and unique picture book project with Tim and the team at Scholastic. Adapting Tim’s beautiful and emotive song into a visual narrative really is a dream job and has allowed me and my inner child to indulge in a world of imagination, fun, hope and possibility.”

‘When I Grow Up’ by Tim Minchin and Steve Antony will publish in the UK in October 2017.

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An Open Letter to Swindon Council About the Closure of Our Libraries

I sometimes hear people say things like 'Libraries are the beating hearts of our communities.' but does our UK government fully understand just how true this is?

Can our government really justify the closure of literally hundreds of libraries across the UK? The Borough of Swindon, in which I live, is shockingly set to lose 10 of its 15.

 The Bookseller Magazine has been closely covering this national crisis and have kindly published my open letter to Swindon Council, which you can read here:  http://www.thebookseller.com/blogs/open-letter-swindon-council-446346

To find out more on the ongoing campaign to save Swindon Libraries please follow Save Swindon Libraries.  Thanks to the campaign, the total number of libraries to be retained has increased from one to five. What the campaign has managed to achieve so far is an absolute inspiration.

We all have the right to a quality library service and to be heard. It's not just my Borough. Visit My Library By Right for more on the nationwide campaign.

I've personally emailed each and every Swindon Councillor to direct them to my open letter and would like to add that those who've responded are very much in favour of saving our libraries - as with almost everything, it boils down to money. I am hopeful a way will be found to keep as many of our libraries open as possible.

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Bologna Book IBBY Spree for Refugee Children

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The Bologna Children's Book Fair runs for four days. On the fourth day, publishers begin packing up for the journey home, but they don't always take all their books with them. This is something my Bologna buddy and fellow author-illustrator, Elena Arévalo Melville, discovered, so we challenged ourselves to collect as many books as possible to donate to IBBY. IBBY stands for International Board on Books for Young People and is a non-profit organisation that represents an international network of people from 75 countries; at the fair their Italian branch had a sign asking for book donations for refugee children. 

Elena and I went on a mission to collect as many donations as possible. Hachette leant us a red trolley, and off we went. We hashtagged our spree with #HelpIbbyBCBF16. It was a race against time; we wanted to collect as many books as possible before the publishers all packed up; and we had a flight to catch, too.

Two or so hours later, we had 100's of books for IBBY. IBBY were delighted. It was magical moment. It felt empowering. In our own little way, we helped. 

We'd like to thank all the publishers who kindly donated so, so many books!

I had intended to post this blog shortly after the Fair, which took place in April, but didn't due to one reason or another. This morning, I found it sitting in my 'drafts', so here it is... Below are some photos of the event. For a much better blog post about our spree, which includes more details, please visit Elena's blog HERE.

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Halloween Pandas, Drawing with Nicholas Allan, Oxfordshire Awards and More Events

I've fallen slightly behind with my blog, so here some tweets from the past few weeks which feature...

- my day at the Oxfordshire Awards Ceremony (where Please Mr Panda won Best Picture Book)

- drawing The World's Longest Landscape with Nicholas Allan at Dulwich Gallery for The Big Draw

- Halloween Mr Pandas!

- Thame Lit Fest, Gloucester Waterstones Event, and more

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Beanstalk Fundraising Launch with GBBO winner Frances Quinn

Last week I launched my 9th author-illustrator picture book, The Queen's Present, at Waterstones' flagship in Piccadilly, London, and in the process raised enough cash for literacy charity, Beanstalk, to support four pupils for a whole year. It was a festive affair. There was mulled wine, mince pies and a fab turnout of lovely people, including friends, family, my publisher and agent, Beanstalk volunteers, fellow authors, booksellers, librarians and several curious customers. The icing on the cake was a delicious Christmas bake, by Great British Bake Off winner, Frances Quinn. It was very nice of Waterstones to allow us to take over the children's department. THANK YOU, Waterstones; and thank you to all who donated! Below are some tweets from the event. 

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