Childrensbooks - Blog Posts

Check out my review of "Head, Shoulders, Knees & Toes" - a fun board book that teaches children parts of the body. I love that it features babies of diverse backgrounds http://ow.ly/yOsk2

Check out my review of the picture book "Dress Up Day" at http://100childrensbooks.blogspot.com/2014/07/dress-up-day.html

Come with us as we dress up!

Be a princess, pilot or chef. Maybe you think a policeman is best.

Farm the land, sing in a band, or fight fires like a fireman.

See a teacher, a doctor, an artist too and learn about the jobs they do.

Just like that, with a few things, it's easy to do - just start imagining!

If you have children interested in space, check out my two books available on Amazon. “MISSION, GO!” is for appropriate for readers 3-7 and explains what it takes for a manned space mission. “Hello Luna, It’s Me Again” is for all ages, and is just a collection of thoughts along with images of the Moon from my backyard telescope. . . . . . #explorepage #nasa #celestrontelescope #childrensbooks #space #solarsystem #moon #spaceflight https://www.instagram.com/p/CfeFKweOfs8/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

I know it’s a very specific category, but I still can’t believe this! Thank you to my friends and family! #space #iss #internationalspacestation #childrensbooks #stem #steam https://www.instagram.com/p/CJZberVjUrF/?igshid=tb8xj1y7quxl

Hi=) I’m a children’s book illustrator, and I’m looking for a job. What can I do:

-Detailed illustrations with a special mood (for books\cards\prints\etc)

-cute portraits (you, your family or your pet)

If you are interested, contact me via katyannkuz@gmail.com

Summer with a friend 🐌

Afraid of the Dark 👻

A spread for a children's book I'm working on 🐻🐢

Character design progress for a children's book I'm working on :)

UFO, yo 👽

Kind to be cruel in the right measure. Kind to be cruel-- what will Snow White do? #inktober2018 #inktober #fairytale #witch #childrensbooks #artistlife #artistsoninstagram #spell #art #artchallenge #artcollector #sketch #artgirl #illustration #illustrator #drawing #doodlesketch #penandink #somerville #bosarts #boston #childrensbooks #magic https://www.instagram.com/p/BpEx4wghRFS/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1ubnaphusjbon

Twinkle, twinkle Little Star.....Can you guide me home? #inktober2018 #inktober #illustration #illustrator #ink #artistlife #artistsoninstagram #penandink #childrensbooks #creativeart #artchallenge #paintedlady #adventuretime #sketch #sailing #drawing #doodlesketch #fantasy #storytime #voyage https://www.instagram.com/p/BpCO2HmBvjs/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=qakdnxs2q2c6

The shaman returns. #inktober2018 #inktober #ink #sketch #penandink #mystery #magic #illustration #illustrator #artistlife #massartalumni #art #artistsoninstagram #drawing #somerville #childrensbooks #makeart #journey #bosarts #boston https://www.instagram.com/p/Botmy8VhGJT/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=12u2zvpv5zgb2

Portrait of chicken #inktober #inktober2018 #drawing #sketch #illustration #artistsoninstagram #somerville #bosarts #penandink #childrensbooks #artistlife #art #illustrator #massartalumni #artgirl #makeart #chicken https://www.instagram.com/p/BoozveiB5z0/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=186iu1ksodoql

Fairy spell #inktober2018 #inktober #illustration #zentangle #fairy #magic #artistlife #artistlife #drawing #sketch #boston #artcollective #inktober #penandink #childrensbooks #somerville #bosarts #artchallenge #artistsoninstagram #gallery #spell https://www.instagram.com/p/BojbE3wBT2O/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=vvfem0mm8yn0

Go Fish

Pru in Blue 

www.claireobrienillustration.com

The Medicine Shop

@claireobdesign

www.claireobrienillustration.com 

Hard times ahead - but books community is exactly that, and we help each other ❤️

‘The Year the Maps Changed’ by me, Danielle Binks! Coming out in 2020 with Lothian Children’s Books! https://www.hachette.com.au/danielle-binks/the-year-the-maps-changed

I am being published!

I sold a book.

I've actually sold two books.

Here's the official write-up from trade magazine, Books+Publishing;

Hachette Australia has acquired ANZ rights to a middle-grade novel, The Year the Maps Changed, and a yet to be titled YA novel by literary agent Danielle Binks. The two-book deal was negotiated by Binks’ employer, Jacinta di Mase Management.

Binks’ debut middle-grade novel, is set in the Victorian coastal town of Sorrento in 1999 during the events of ‘Operation Safe Haven’, when the Australian government welcomed some 6000 Kosovar refugees into ‘safe havens’ around the country, including the Quarantine Station on Point Nepean, on the Mornington Peninsula. The novel takes place over one year in 12-year-old Winifred’s life ‘when everything’s already changing at home, and then the outside world seems to come crashing in’.

Commissioning editor Kate Stevens said, ‘I’m absolutely delighted to be working with Danielle, who is not only a brilliant writer but also has an acute understanding of her audience and a whole lot of love for the #LoveOzYA and #LoveOzMG movements. The Year the Maps Changed is about the bonds of family and the power of compassion … I can’t wait to get it into the hands of readers around the country, I know they’re going to love it like I do.’

The Year the Maps Changed will be published in June 2020 and Binks’ YA novel is tentatively set for 2021.

So yeah - that happened! And one reason updating the blog with the news slipped my mind, was probably because for the last two-weeks I have been in the thick of my first round of structural edits ... which is a thing that is happening now, because I have a book coming out next year!

And also because between structural edits, I've been brainstorming and writing in fits & bursts for this other idea of mine ... the YA novel. Which is also going to be an actual thing you can buy and sit on your bookshelf one day or read on your e-reader or - I dunno! - listen to on audiobook, *maybe*! This all blows my mind. 

Because - here's the thing ... Last week I stumbled across this old interview with me, from 2012 over at The Writer's Burrow. I talk about how coming runner-up in the John Marsden Prize the year before, kinda changed my whole life. I didn't know how true that was, until I connected a few dots. Like how the John Marsden Prize is now called the The John Marsden & Hachette Australia Prize (still with Express Media!) and I have just signed a two-book deal with Hachette Children's. 

Back in 2011 I didn't win a writing-award. But I got runner-up and received praise for one of the first short-stories I ever wrote and shared with the wider world - beyond anonymous FanFiction or a private Word Doc on my computer. I got to tell John Marsden - one of my all-time favourite Australian YA authors - that Checkers changed my life and was my favourite book of his. And he told me that I'd come *so close* to winning, and that he hoped I'd keep writing. 

I did. And now here we are. 

You can buy my book next year, and the next one the year after that!What a world. What a funny, old world.