The 2025 theme for Family Literacy Day “Learn to be Green Together!” was close to my heart! There were fun activity tips for kids and families to explore together to appreciate and support environmental change – from visiting parks, to planning a meatless meal, to outdoor scavenger hunts. You can visit ABC Life Literacy for free downloads and more ideas. Making a craft from recycled items was a perfect fit for this year’s virtual event. A reading of Picture a Tree was followed by a clay art tutorial. Modelling clay is an easy medium to reuse and recycle. Leftover clay scraps can be combined to create new colours, or a clump of mixed colours can be used for special effects. My spring picture used blended scraps to make earth colours, and my snail buddies spiral shells were made with a marbled mix of colours. A recycled yogurt lid was the base for my winter tree with multicoloured bark. You can find a recording of the workshop here. What will you make?
Family Literacy Day virtual workshop Snail buddies!
2025 marks my 10th year as honorary Chair of Family Literacy Day! As part of the celebration I had the opportunity to chat with Teachers on Call about family literacy, inspiration, creativity, and of course, plasticine. Following is an excerpt, and you can find the full interview here.
Teachers on Call: The 2025 theme is “Learn to be Green, Together.” How do you feel literacy and environmental awareness connect, especially for families?
Barbara: I love this theme! Environmental awareness is essential for everyone on our planet. By learning to “read” the environment, kids connect with nature and value it. Literacy skills encourage that connection, from identifying birds, to reading labels, joining local environmental initiatives, and following the news. Kids are future problem solvers and caring for the earth is the first step.
The 2024 Toronto Public Library Design a Bookmark Contest Winners
I had the honour of being one of the judges for the Toronto Public Library’s 2024 Design a Bookmark contest – and it was not easy! Over 5,000 entries were submitted from young artists in age categories 0-6, 7-9 and 10-13. Each library branch submitted their top choices for the final judging and there were SO MANY beautiful bookmarks. The winners were chosen for originality, theme and design. In addition to four winners in each category, four designs were selected as Elizabeth Cleaver Design awards for outstanding artistic merit. I was impressed by the variety of styles and mediums used by the artists, including collage, pencil, paint, markers, fabric and plasticine. The award presentations took place at at the North York Central Library and it was wonderful to meet the artists and celebrate with their families. Each artist received a certificate, a book bag with book prizes and 150 copies of their bookmark plus a set of all the winning designs. After the ceremony we held a plasticine workshop. You can imagine the masterpieces these accomplished artists created with clay!
You can see all the winning designs and learn more about the contest here, or collect all the winning bookmarks at your local library branch. The contest will open again next fall, stay tuned!
“Farmer”, illustration from Picture the Sky, published by Scholastic Canada, original available at The Picture Book Gallery.
I had the pleasure of being profiled by the Canadian Children’s Book Centre as part of their series about Picture Book Gallery artists. The Picturebook Gallery is in affiliation with The Canadian Children’s Book Centre (CCBC) which is a national, not- for-profit organization founded in 1976, dedicated to encouraging, promoting and supporting the reading, writing, illustrating and publishing of Canadian books for young readers. Gallery artists generously donate 60% of the sales to support CCBC programs. Please visit the gallery and the gorgeous original art that is available! You can find the interview here or read the Q&A below.
CCBC: Take us through the steps you take to create your plasticine illustrations.
Barbara: My plasticine illustrations begin with pencil sketches. A final drawing becomes the map for the clay art. Starting with a base of illustration board, the image is built up in layers. There are three basic techniques: spreading the clay to create a background layer; modelling shapes to build up the image; and adding texture to add detail and depth. I refer to my drawing to organize the order of the layers. Once the art is finished, I work with photographer (and husband!) Ian Crysler to light and photograph the art. We do a limited amount of Photoshop, mostly for cleanup. I feel that this art needs to look handmade and a little rough. Digital files are sent to the publisher.
CCBC: Your relief-style plasticine artwork is distinct, striking, and recognizable. Plasticine differs from other types of modelling clay as it is oil based, squishable, and non-hardening. What would you say are the joys and challenges (if any) of creating illustrations with this medium?
Barbara: Plasticine, like other similar brands, is a non-hardening modelling clay. I have loved working with it since I was a kid. There was a line in an old ad that said something like “how can you be bored when you have plasticine?” Still true! As a child I liked the way I could make an elephant, then squish that up and make a cat, or a wizard or whatever. I still love that quality because it means I can keep working on an image over time. Any mistakes can be scraped off and remade. Plasticine is literally a hands-on material, and I like the directness of that. While I do work very hard on my pictures, there is a silly quality about plasticine that takes the pressure off trying to make something perfect. Clay art is fragile, so I’m always nervous until the image has been photographed. After the art has been photographed it can be framed in a shadow box to preserve it and then it is quite stable. I love the challenge of figuring out how to create different things, like chenille fabric or a screened window. Depicting transparency is the biggest challenge with an opaque medium but the problem solving keeps things interesting. Another difficultly is working in the studio in winter because woolly sweaters shed lint onto the art. Sometimes I wear a big white overshirt and pretend I am a lab scientist. Mostly I try not to think too hard about why I love modelling clay because nothing ruins a joke like an explanation.
CCBC: Plasticine is fun for children, an easy-to-find art supply and one that is relatively affordable compared to other art supplies. How would you say readers are affected/influenced by your artwork crafted from plasticine, a medium which is familiar to them and commonplace in their everyday life?
Barbara: When I looked a picture book art and comics as a child, I tried to figure out how they were done. I copied cartoons and artwork but often the images were so sophisticated and perfect looking that I couldn’t imagine ever being able to do that without access to serious art supplies. I like to think a young artist can look at my pictures and figure out how they were made and even try it themselves. I love to see artists exploring this accessible and fun medium for expression. I receive a lot of mail full of amazing clay art by kids. I believe it is as important for children to be able to read as it is for them to be able to communicate their own stories—in whatever form. My friend, author and collage illustrator Marthe Jocelyn, has said dimensional art “makes you look” and I think that is the appeal. You can look at a photograph of an alligator, a realistic painting of an alligator, and an alligator made from sunflower seeds painted green. The sunflower seed alligator is the one that makes you say “wow, this alligator is made out of sunflower seeds!” And maybe you will spend more time with that picture, that book. Maybe you will slow down and pay attention to the story that artist is telling. The important thing is that all illustrators are telling a visual story, whatever the medium. There are as many styles as there are readers. I’m not a fan of age or reading level categories. If young readers are given the opportunity to explore a variety of books, I believe they will connect with the ones that resonate with them.
CCBC: Prior to illustrating picture books, you created illustrations for textbooks. In what ways, if any, did your work illustrating textbooks influence/inform your work illustrating picture books?
Barbara: Illustrating textbooks was a terrific education. I learned to work with inflexible page designs, experience the printing process and to meet deadlines. The artwork had to clearly reflect the text, be researched for accuracy, and diverse representation was required. The restrictions pushed me to think more creatively. That discipline was helpful when I had the freedom to play with page breaks, page design and images with picture books. If illustrating textbooks was school, creating picture books is recess!
CCBC: The United States has at least three institutions (Eric Carle Picture Book Museum, Mazza Museum, R. Michelson Galleries) which are dedicated to collecting, preserving, and presenting picture-book illustrations. Canada doesn’t seem to have an institution committed to carrying out this type of mandate. How would our nation benefit from having a museum dedicated to the realm of picture book artwork?
Barbara: While there is no free-standing museum dedicated to Canadian book art, we are fortunate to have the Osborne Collection, housed in the Lillian Smith branch of the Toronto Public Library. The Osborne collects and preserves original book art including Canadian illustration, holds changing exhibits and access is free to the public. Tours and school visits can be arranged, and librarians are happy to pull materials from the collection for specific interests. Canadian artists Marie-Louise Gay, Brenda Clark, Sydney Smith, and Michael Martchenko are just of few of the artists represented in this treasure-filled collection. Well worth a visit!
Emil Sher and I were honoured to have our book I Love You More named as a finalist for the The IODE Jean Throop Book Award. The award was initiated by Past Provincial and National President Jean Throop, in order to encourage the publication of excellent Canadian-authored children’s books suitable for ages 3 to 7.
The winner is:
Professor Goose Debunks Goldilocks and the Three Bears – Author: Paulette Bourgeois; Illustrator: Alex G. Griffiths; Publisher: Tundra Books
The four finalists in alphabetical order by title are as follows:
Do You Wonder? – Author and Illustrator: Wallace Edwards; Publisher: North Winds Press
I Love You More – Author: Author: Emil Sher; Illustrator: Barbara Reid; Publisher: North Winds Press
Rodney Was a Tortoise – Author: Nan Forler; Illustrator: Yong Ling Kang; Publisher: Tundra
That’s Not My Name! – Author and Illustrator: Anoosha Syed; Publisher: Viking Book
I LOVE the Reading for the Love of It Conference and was thrilled to be back for the 45th annual event. Nothing beats spending time with passionate and enthusiastic educators and fellow creators. I was surprised and delighted to find out I was to receive the Heart Award of Recognition. The award “honours a member of the literacy community who has shown unwavering support for our organization and commitment to improving the quality of literacy instruction by encouraging the development of a lifelong interest in reading”. Recipients are given $500.00 to donate to the charity of their choice. My choice? The IBBY Canada Reading with Newcomer Children Program. The icing on the cake was having the honour of attending the awards Banquet and hearing the inspiring speaker Michelle Good. What’s not to love about sharing the love of reading?
Barbara and Gary read and grow!Barbara and Gary play Words of Art!
I had two fun filled video sessions at CBC Kids! First I got to meet Gary the Unicorn at the CBC Kids Book Club. We shared my book Watch It Grow: Backyard Life Cycles – and did a little gardening. Next, Gary challenged me to a creative and exciting game of Words of Art inspired by the book I Love You More, by Emil Sher and illustrated by me. How would YOU illustrate “love”? Click on the photos to watch the videos! Thanks to Gary and all my new frienderinos at CBC Kids for a wonderful time!
January 27th is Family Literacy Day, an annual initiative that aims to encourage reading and engaging in other literacy-related activities as a family. I’m delighted to be partnering with ABC Life Literacy Canada again to talk about the importance of family literacy. I’m especially excited about this year’s theme, “Celebrate your heritage”, because it truly offers a great opportunity for families to come together and learn something that is of interest to everyone.
I’ll be hosting a virtual event for families across Canada that will include a book reading and demonstration on how to create a clay picture. Families can register for this free event here.
To take part in Family Literacy Day, visit https://abclifeliteracy.ca/all-programs/family-literacy-day/ to find fee learning activities and materials or to find a local event. There is even a downloadable tip sheet – illustrated by me! Let the celebrations begin, happy reading!
How much fun was it to spend time with my pals Scott and Jim while creating new cover art for a fresh edition of Perfect Snow? As much fun as the first snow!
Perfect Snow cover sketch
It snowed just in time to share this fresh cover for Perfect Snow!
BOOKFLAP: insights into telling and selling your kidlit stories
Bookflap is a terrific online resource for creators that offers “insights into telling and selling your kidlit stories”. Author Emil Sher and I had fun interviewing each other about the process of creating I Love You More for “Word Meets Picture” where collaborators chat after the fact. You can find our conversation here and check out more kidlit info at Bookflap. Happy reading!
