Bob Graham (author/illustrator)

Robert Donald Graham, better known as Bob Graham (born 20 October 1942), is an Australian author and illustrator of picture books, primarily for very young children.[1]

Graham won the 2002 Kate Greenaway Medal from the British librarians, recognising the year's best-illustrated children's book published in the UK, for the picture book Jethro Byrd, Fairy Child (Walker Books), which he both wrote and illustrated. (He donated the £5000 cash prize to refugees.)[2][3] The story features a young girl who finds a tiny fairy family "in cement and weeds", contrary to her father's teaching.[2] He also won a 2000 Smarties Prize, ages category 0–5 years, for Max[4] and the 2002 Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, Picture Book, for "Let's Get A Pup!" Said Kate.[5]

For his contribution as a children's illustrator, Graham was Australia nominee for the biennial, international Hans Christian Andersen Medal in 2012.[6]

Biography

Graham was born in Sydney, Australia.[1] He loved drawing and was greatly influenced by comics such as The Phantom and Mandrake.[7]

He studied drawing and painting, went to the UK after graduation, returned to Sydney, and there began his career as an illustrator and designer. Between 1983 and 1995 he lived in Melbourne working as an illustrator for a publishing house, The Five Mile Press. He now lives in the UK and works on a monthly comic-strip for a French magazine, Les Belles Histoires as well as continuing to produce picture books.

In 1982 he illustrated the music and lyrics booklet for Australian Broadcasting Commission's Sing primary school music radio broadcast. A scene from Greetings from Sandy Beach was used as one in a series of Australia Post stamps celebrating the 50th anniversary of the annual Children's Book Council of Australia awards.

WorldCat reports from participating libraries that his most widely held work is How to Heal a Broken Wing, a 36-page picture book about a city boy who rescues an injured bird; published in 2008 by both Walker and its US division Candlewick Press. WorldCat libraries hold editions in Scottish Gaelic, French, Spanish, Catalan, and Chinese.[8]

Awards

Overseas, Graham has won three annual book awards for picture books.

Runners-up, etc.

In Australia
Awards
  • 1986, First there was Frances won the Children's Book Council of Australia Book of the Year Award, Picture Books category
  • 1988, Crusher is Coming won the Children's Book Council of Australia Book of the Year Award, Picture Books category
  • 1991, Greetings from Sandy Beach won the Children's Book Council of Australia Book of the Year Award, Picture Books category
  • 1993, Rose Meets Mr Wintergarten won the Children's Book Council of Australia Book of the Year Award, Picture Books category
  • 1993, Rose Meets Mr Wintergarten was a joint winner of The Australian Psychological Society's biannual Children's Peace Literature Award[10]
  • 2000, Buffy – An Adventure Story won the Tasmanian government's CYBER [Children's Yearly Best Ever Reads] award, Picture Books category
  • 2002, Let's Get A Pup!" Said Kate won Children's Book Council of Australia Book of the Year Award, Early Childhood category
  • 2009, How to Heal a Broken Wing won Children's Book Council Book of the Year Award, Picture Books category
  • 2010, How to Heal a Broken Wing won Prime Minister's Literary Award, West Australia
  • 2012, A Bus Called Heaven won the Children's Book Council of Australia Book of the Year Award, Picture Book category
  • 2017, Home in the Rain won the Children's Book Council of Australia Book of the Year Award, Picture Book category
Runners up, etc.
  • 1990, Grandad's Magic was honoured in Children's Book Council of Australia Book of the Year Award, Picture Books category
  • 1992, Rose Meets Mr Wintergarten was highly commended in the Australian federal government's Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission's Human Rights Awards, Children's Literature category
  • 1998, Queenie the Bantam was shortlisted for Children's Book Council of Australia Book of the Year Award, Picture Books category
  • 2000, Buffy – An Adventure Story was shortlisted for Children's Book Council of Australia Book of the Year Award, Picture Books category
  • 2001, Max was honoured in Children's Book Council of Australia Book of the Year Award, Early Childhood category
  • 2002, Jethro Byrd, Fairy Child was shortlisted for Children's Book Council of Australia Book of the Year Award, Picture Book category
  • 2005, Tales from the Waterhole was shortlisted for Children's Book Council of Australia Book of the Year Award, Early Childhood category
  • 2008, The Trouble with Dogs was shortlisted for Children's Book Council of Australia Book of the Year Award, Early Childhood category
  • 2009, How to Heal a Broken Wing was shortlisted for the NSW Premier's Literary Awards
  • 2011, April Underhill, Tooth Fairy was shortlisted for the Prime Minister's Literary Awards

Notes
  1. Today there are usually eight books on the Greenaway Medal shortlist. According to CCSU, some runners-up were Commended (from 1959) or Highly Commended (from 1974). There were 99 distinctions of both kinds in 44 years, including two highly commended for 1997.[lower-alpha 2]

References
  1. Erin Peters (April 2012). "Bob Graham", Bookbird: A Journal of International Children's Literature, 50(2), p. 9. doi:10.1353/bkb.2012.0058
  2. (Greenaway Winner 2002). Living Archive: Celebrating the Carnegie and Greenaway Winners. CILIP. Retrieved 18 July 2012.
  3. (directory, 2003 CILIP Awards press releases). CILIP. Retrieved 2012-07-18.
    • Four press releases 11 July 2003 pertain to Graham. See also the earlier release 2 May 2003, "... Judges Comments on the Shortlist". Unfortunately, the primary release "Bob Graham Wins CILIP Greenaway Medal" is mis-linked to the next year's announcement, as of 2012-07-18.
  4. "Nestlé Children's Book Prize". Booktrust. Retrieved 29 November 2012.
  5. "Boston Globe–Horn Book Awards: Winners and Honor Books 1967 to present". The Horn Book. Archived from the original on 19 October 2011. Retrieved 29 November 2012.
  6. "2012 Awards". Hans Christian Andersen Awards. International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY).
      "Bob Graham". Hans Christian Andersen Awards. IBBY. Retrieved 2013-07-20.
  7. "A Guide to the Papers and Artwork of BOB GRAHAM" (PDF). University of Canberra. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 1 April 2015.
  8. "Formats and Editions of How to heal a broken wing". WorldCat. Retrieved 31 August 2012.
  9. "Kate Greenaway Medal" Archived 16 September 2014 at the Wayback Machine. 2005(?). Curriculum Lab. Elihu Burritt Library. Central Connecticut State University (CCSU). Retrieved 24 October 2013.
  10. "Children's Peace Literature Award". AustLit. Retrieved 12 November 2019.
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