If Found...Please Return to Elise Gravel

by Elise Gravel, Shira Adriance (Translator)

Overview

Welcome to the charming world of cartoonist Elise Gravel’s notebook, where her imagination runs wild with creatures of all shapes and sizes

In the outrageously amusing If Found…Please Return to Elise Gravel, Elise Gravel offers readers a sneak peek into her sketchbook, where colorful monsters, imaginary friends, a grumpy things reign supreme. Meet Donald, who sings off-key; Francine, who likes to eat stones; and Marvin, the man with lots of stuff in his beard. Mixing the real with the fantastical, Elise’s drawings exude curiosity, as microbes and mushrooms share the page with speckled pepper pops, gloppers, and floofs.

Filled to the brim with vibrant felt marker illustrations, If Found… is not just an exhibition of Gravel’s work, but a challenge to young artists to keep a daily sketchbook. She reveals her top tips to becoming a successful illustrator—practice! practice! practice!—while empowering young artists to face their fears of making “ugly drawings.” Stop worrying about what makes a drawing good or bad—Elise draws anything and everything and you can too!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781770462786
Publisher:	Drawn & Quarterly
Publication date:	06/06/2017
Pages:	100
Product dimensions:	6.70(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.60(d)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Elise Gravel is an author illustrator from Montreal, Quebec. After studying Graphic Design, Gravel pursued a career writing and illustrating children’s books, where her quirky and charming characters quickly won the hearts of children and adults worldwide. In 2012, Gravel received the Governor General's Literary Award for her book La clé à molette. A prolific artist, she currently has over thirty children's books to her name which have been translated into a dozen languages, including The Mushroom Fan Club, The Worst Book Ever, and If Found…Please Return to Elise Gravel, her challenge to young artists to keep a sketchbook. Elise Gravel still lives in Montreal with her spouse, two daughters, cats, and a few spiders.

Editorial Reviews

"What, exactly, does it take to be a great artist? ... as Gravel gracefully demonstrates, it actually can (and should be!) a lot of fun."—School Library Journal

"A bright, colorful and quirky paean to drawing, imagination, and creativity."—NPR

"If Found… Please Return to Elise Gravel... feels like accidentally uncovering the greatest (and silliest) sketchbook of all."—The Hollywood Reporter

"[If Found] offers a kind of evangelism for the joy of drawing, as expressed through tons of Gravel’s silly, colorful critters... Make ugly drawings. Make stupid drawings. Make a lot of drawings, and make them for yourself."—Paste

"A rare mix of wackiness and savvy counsel—just right for getting the creative juices flowing."—Kirkus Reviews

"A valuable message for adult artists that want to achieve a more liberated state of mind..."—The AV Club

"This fascinating, quirky and liberating glimpse into the creative process will inspire budding artists and daydreaming doodlers alike."—National Reading Campaign

"Elise Gravel invites the reader in to the world of her little black notebook. In it are creatures and places familiar and imaginary, in a style that embodies quirkiness, whimsy, and humor ... an open-hearted drawing prompt for kids, or adults, who want to draw more."—Youth Services Book Review

From the Publisher

12/01/2017
Gr 3–5—Gravel offers young artists a peek behind the curtain at her creative process. The book visually resembles Gravel's own sketchbook, complete with an elastic band fastener. Text and attractive mixed-media illustrations never take themselves too seriously and speak directly to readers interested in developing their own artistic skills and abilities. Using an engaging, conversational tone, Gravel encourages the exploration of art and illustration, consistently returning throughout to core themes of fearlessness, silliness (heavy on the fart humor), and willingness to fail. She leads by example, sharing her own fanciful creations like the Big-Nosed Mimpus, a small North American mammal that is "pretty calm, except when it smells something bad—then it gets into a terrible rage." Gravel also provides ample nuts-and-bolts illustration instruction with a more prosaic focus, offering great tutorials on drawing foxes, dogs, and punk rock bunnies. While not all students will reach for this title, its intended audience will find it a worthwhile choice. VERDICT Budding artists will find instruction, inspiration, and silly humor galore in this insider's guide to drawing.—Ted McCoy, Leeds Elementary and RK Finn Ryan Road Elementary, MA

School Library Journal

2017-04-17
A popular Canadian illustrator tucks advice for budding artists into galleries of freestyle monsters, vampires, imaginary friends ("Take whichever one you want"), and like flights of imagination.Gravel's most cogent tip is to keep a notebook and not be shy about filling it with any nonsense that comes to mind. As for herself, she confesses, "I can't stop drawing monsters," and though she tucks in quick pen-and-marker drawings of actual mushrooms, cats, dogs, and microbes (like "Paige the phage" and "Norm the Coliform"), most of the popeyed figures filling these pages are more fanciful. There's a spread of "Grumpy Things" (including a scowling self-portrait), for instance; a page of bunnies clad in punk, rock, and heavy-metal band T-shirts; crowds of "Floofs" and "Blimpix"; and creatures and inanimate items participating in a "Fart Festival." Lots of neatly hand-lettered labels, names, and comments add further silliness (along with snippets of Arabic and Italian). By way of a postscript, the author offers a terrific starter list of types of things for fans to draw in their own notebooks—it's pretty safe to say that kids who are not thrilled at the idea of drawing "Babies" will be happy to turn their attention to "Gross Creatures." A rare mix of wackiness and savvy counsel—just right for getting the creative juices flowing. (Nonfiction. 5-9)

Kirkus Reviews