Welcome to Week 2 and Interview with Dame Lynley Dodd

Welcome to Week 2 of the Powerof Picturebooks.

Last week we remembered picturebooks we know and love. We read about the characteristics of picturebooks and a little of their history. This week, we focus on picturebook illustration, starting by meeting an illustrator, and then learning about visual analysis.

In this step, please listen to this interview with Dame Lynley Dodd, New Zealand author and illustrator of the Hairy Maclary picturebook series.

Our Lead Educator, Dr Nicola Daly, is in conversation with Dame Lynley about her work as a picturebook creator. After listening, join the discussion in the next step to share your thoughts and responses to the interview.

In this interview, Dame Lynley Dodd shares how her career as an illustrator developed, starting with illustrating My Cat Likes to Hide in Boxes. She discusses the media she has used in her illustrations and the process of illustrating for other authors and illustrating her own work. We discuss the use of colour in her work, and the way her well known character, Hairy Maclary has changed over time. We also discuss the importance of sound in children’s books, and she shares a funny anecdote about the reaction of a bird to her book being read on radio in Australia. Dame Lynley shares her childhood love of the rhyme in Dr Seuss books, and her reflections on the reasons for the success of Hairy Maclary.