Your Custom Text Here
Bun is looking so forward to her birthday on August 15th.
I drew the drawings and the words with a pencil, and the book's title, with pastel. My method? I practice, practice, practice until I'm happy with the way the words look. I want to be a great typographer!
I practice, practice, practice ...
This was the happy day that publisher Nancy Paulsen's lovely assistant sent me the first proof of the book cover.
See how the print proofs of the inside pages haven't yet been stitched or protected by a hard bookcover?
Last summer, I visited a Toy Museum in London that had a collection of American cast iron money banks made during the middle of the 19th century. That's almost 200 years ago. A lot of them were unkind portrayals of people and animals so I couldn't post many on my blog. I would like to design a Moneybunny bank. What kind of bank would you design?
This bank shows a scary man accepting a bribe. If you don't know what bribe means, ask a parent. I think you either put your coin in the man's right arm and it disappears into his jacket, or you put your coin in the man's left arm, and then pull down on his right arm, then, POOFFFF! The coin disappears! The man is modelled after a corrupt politician named William M. Tweed, nicknamed Boss Tweed, who ruled New York City in the late 1800s.
More antique banks, most of them box shaped. I like the glass house bank. Would the owner save money to pay for their house in that bank? I guess houses cost less money in those days! The bank on the top left looks like s an architectural copy of an old-style, life-size bank. Can you spot the three mailbox banks? Can you spot the fireplace bank? I don't understand why one would want to put money in a place that burns things. Another bank looks like a stove, but I think it's probably a safe. A safe is a strong box with a lock to put your important things in. That's why it's called a safe: It's supposed to keep things safe. Can you see it? It's halfway down on the right. Which of these banks would you like to keep your money in? But you don't have to buy a bank. If you go to the FREE STUFF page, you can print out some labels for an EARN IT! jar, and keep your money in that.
The happy day the advance copy arrived via post. My publisher's assistant enclosed a note: "Hi Cinders - Congratulations - it's a book!"
Designing the Booklaunch Invite on the Paperless Post site. Costs a lot less than postal invites and is kinder to trees. I lucked out on the carrot envelope lining and the bunny stamp!
MCLEOD, Cinders. Earn It!: A Moneybunny Book. illus. by Cinders McLeod. 32p. Penguin/Nancy Paulsen Bks. Aug. 2017. Tr $16.99. ISBN 9780399544446.
PreS-Gr 1–Carrots are money in Bunnyland. Bun, a young rabbit, earns carrots for helping her mother with household responsibilities and wants to become rich and famous by singing. But Bun’s mother reminds her that bunnies don’t get rich and famous overnight. It takes time and money, and the more you work at it, the better you will do. And after all that work, you will have earned your success, which is even better than being rich or famous. The cheery pencil and ink illustrations depict characters with large eyes and bursts of activity. Bun’s obsession with being rich and famous is a bit unsettling, but her mother’s gentle message about working hard is sound. VERDICT A sweetly simplistic introduction to financial literacy and taking personal responsibility for one’s success that should find a welcome home in most collections.–Jessica Marie, Salem Public Library, OR
CARROT CUPCAKES!
Queen Books, Toronto. EARN IT!'S birthplace!
Where am I? Clue: I have a white t-shirt and long hair ...
Three women cartoonist friends who came to the launch. Do you know how there are names for groups animals? A pack of wolves, a pride of lions, a gaggle of geese? Well, I have a collective (another way of saying group word) for a group of women cartoonists: a LAFF of women cartoonists! Where am I? I am the one wearing the t-shirt with Bun on it!
My daughter Anya did a lot of special things for me on the book launch day. She introduced me when I gave a speech, she made the food for the party at the house after we launched the book at the bookshop, and she made this terrific banner with the words from the book! She worked very hard to help me make the day special. She didn't have to but she did. She's a terrific person!
Isn’t this a brilliant bookshop? David and I have always said that the one thing that was missing in our neighbourhood was a bookshop and La Voila! Thank you Alex and Liz! I promised Alex my speech wouldn’t be long so she didn’t have to put chairs out … so if your legs get weary, blame me!
As many of you know, I have two children of my own. When they were young, I tried my best to teach them about money. Whenever a commercial came on TV that had them hooked, I'd shout "What do they want?!" And they’d shout back "Our money!” It was our little joke. Diarmid says, during moments of consumer temptation, he still hears my voice. Anya says she was too young to remember … but I know it’s in there!
And as many of you know, I don’t come from a background of economics, personal finance, or anything well paid like that. I've had to be careful with money all my life because, first, I was an art and film student, then a musician, then a cartoonist, and then a single mum. But that’s ok because I taught myself how to collaborate with money and how to build my home with songs and cartoons.
Still, money wasn’t an easy path for me. Math was something I couldn’t master at school no matter how hard I tried. But when I started my own business and had to do my own accounts, I realized to my surprise, I could do them: I just had to think harder than most people. And if I imagined the ledger pages as diary pages, accounts could be a little tiny bit, well, fun. But don’t tell my accounts that. They take themselves are very seriously, you know.
Financial literacy for children was a subject that caught my imagination a number of years ago. I wanted to create a series of books that helped children understand not only basic money concepts like earning and spending, saving and giving, but also more abstract concepts, like why some children's parents had more money than others, or why some parents have to work. I went to school with children from the wealthy side of the tracks, and I could have done with a book that reassured me that having less money didn't make me less valuable. Helping kids understand what money is, and does … and how to see it as a friend … is the driving force behind the Moneybunnies series.
BUT, first books first! EARN IT! (or, for my Gaelic family in the audience, COISINN E!) features a little bunny named Bun, whose natural exuberance and excellent singing voice is inspired by my dear daughter Anya, whose nickname, coincidentally, is also Bun. Bun wants to be rich and famous overnight but her calm, gentle, fabulous mother reminds her that most good things, like the garden they are growing together, take time and work. Bun is at first disappointed but as she does the math and daydreams about her future singing career, Bun starts to like the idea of earning her way to stardom, a path that comes with its own satisfaction.
SPEND IT! is the next book in the Moneybunnies series and proving to be a little less Scottish work-ethic (I can say that because my background is Scottish!) and a wee bit more silly. SPEND IT! features wee, excitable Sonny, who, when his mother suggests he not spend his allowance without giving it some thought first, indignantly replies, “I don’t want to THINK! I want to SPEND!”
And now I’ve come to the thanks bit. David says that competitions are a loser’s game, and likewise, thank you's are a loser’s game, for how can you count everything your friends and family and strangers and even foes do to help make an idea a solid thing? I am of course grateful to my Penguin Publisher Nancy Paulsen, and my agent Samantha Haywood and Queen Books for letting us drink on empty stomachs in their bookshop, and my parents and Anya, Ceilidh, Diarmid and Dylan for their inspiration, and David for his constant support. But I am also grateful to everyone of you in this room tonight – for coming out and celebrating this moment, and for being my friends and family.
The cartoon in the back of EARN IT! is inspired by a lovely quote that is probably closest to something William Bruce Cameron once wrote, and is often wrongly attributed to Einstein: “Not everything that can be counted, counts. And not everything that counts can be counted.” Even more lovely is Oscar Wilde’s quote: “Nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing.” I value you all. You are all rich and famous to me.
My daughter Anya gives me away on the night (introduces me!)
I believe this is the first time she ever spoke to such a large crowd. And she touched all our hearts with her words. She is a brave young woman.
I was touched by her words. Can you see the tears of happiness in my eyes?
I bow to my rich and famous crowd
Happy me!
The book launch party in question was for the picture book “Earn It!”, the book one in a series called “The Moneybunnies”, by Cinders McLeod. This book is about Bun, a little bunny, who wants to be rich and famous (ain’t we all) but doesn’t understand that she needs to work hard for it. This series of books is intended to teach young children financial literacy, about spending and earning money, and why some families have more money than others.
I found the atmosphere at the party very welcoming and relaxing, even though I personally does not know Cinders, it was nice to see so many people come to celebrate the launch. The book was sold out, and everyone who was lucky to get a copy was able to get it signed by the author on spot
You know, you are friends with the right people when instead of going out for dinner, your friend invites you to a book launch party. So, this is how yesterday, August 15, I found myself at a new independent bookstore called “Queen Books”, located on (obviously) 914 Queen Street East. I had never heard of this bookstore before and learned that it just opened in April of this year ...The book launch party in question was for the picture book “Earn It!”, the book one in a series called “The Moneybunnies”, by Cinders McLeod. This book is about Bun, a little bunny, who wants to be rich and famous (ain’t we all) but doesn’t understand that she needs to work hard for it. This series of books is intended to teach young children financial literacy, about spending and earning money, and why some families have more money than others.I found the atmosphere at the party very welcoming and relaxing, even though I personally does not know Cinders, it was nice to see so many people come to celebrate the launch. The book was sold out, and everyone who was lucky to get a copy was able to get it signed by the author on spot
My friends line up and wait patiently as I scribble too-long messages in everyone of their books ... Just about half-way through the book launch, Queen Books ran out of books. Does that make me a sell-out?
Top three photos are from Fox Clouds blog. Lovely, candid shots. Thank you Mysterious Blogger!
Father and daughters reading The Carrot Diary EARN IT!'s companion workbook)
My mother and I take a tea break
It was a cold September day!
The Private Carrot Diary, money jars and colouring in pages
It's more important to put money in your EARN IT! bank than to spend money on a fancy bank. These are jam jars with labels that you can write your name on
Instagram's great site, Cracking The Cover, features EARN IT!'S cover!
Bayview Village Indigo places EARN IT! in the New & Hot, 3-5 table, and Bun rubs shoulders with Hillary Clinton and Lemony Snicket!!!
First signing at Indigo (Indigospirit), First Canadian Place, Bay & King, Toronto and the books sold out again! Wonderful staff and such amazing conversations with the customers.
2169 Queen Street East, Beaches (SW corner of Queen and Lee Ave, just east of Woodbine Ave and the park). 11- 12 noon
2901 Bayview Ave, Unit 132. Noon - 2pm (and possibly later).
View and inspiration from my studio window
It takes me a long time to find the character in my drawings - but I think I'm finally friends with Sonny!
If anyone is looking for copies of EARN IT!, I'm told that Coles, Beaches, just ordered another batch...
Wonderful day at Bedford Park Public School last week. Extra special day as this was my beloved primary school. I told the children that I had gone here when I was their age, and my grade 1 teacher was Miss Heeney. My first impression of Miss Heeney was that she looked older than anyone I had ever known. She was a great teacher, but I remember getting into trouble for drawing doodles in my math book. About 20 years later, I met her on Yonge Street just outside of Locke Library. She looked just as old as when she was my teacher. It was a very warm reunion. She remembered that I use to be a great artist and wasn't surprised that I had become a cartoonist. I had a laugh to myself, thinking "But you use to get mad at me for drawing!" I like to think Miss Heeney was sitting in a chair beside me, turning the pages of EARN IT! as I read to the Bedford Parkers, and chuckling at the fact that I was still drawing in my math (financial literacy) books!
The conversations I had with the children after each reading truly blew me away. I love how children view the world. They had so many great thoughts about what they wanted to be when they grew up and what they thought about money, earning, work, love and happiness. I love my job.
I was so excited when I saw this super sweet soft bunny bank from the Korea Design Challenge in a shop in the distillery district. I thought maybe I could sew my own Moneybunnies banks. But when I showed this to my grown up children and their partners, they all told me if they had one when they were little and were really mad at a brother or a sister, they would have taken the heavily-coined bunny bag by the ears and given their siblings a thwack. Why didn't I think of that? Would you have thought of that?
Bunny’s Private Carrot Diary up on the BIG SCREEN!
Colouring in time…
Apparently my young friend is really a sports person. But his left-handed intelligence lends itself proudly to art too!
