Children's Author/Illustrator Jamison Odone to Speak at Nov. 20th Meeting

The Ridgefield Writer's Guild welcomes guest speaker and Ridgefield resident, Jamison Odone, to the History Room of The Ridgefield Library on Tuesday, November 20th at 7:00p.m, where Mr. Odone will talk about the creative process of writing and illustrating his children's picture book, "Honey Badgers."

"Honey Badgers" received a wonderful review in Publishers Weekly.
(text version included below)

Publishers Weekly Review
(scroll down PW web page to view)

February 19th, 2007:

Odone's debut book makes a deep bow to Maurice Sendak, with its somber palette and heavily crosshatched, pen-and-ink and watercolor wash illustrations. But the affectionate, dreamy text is his own.

"I get along well with honey badgers," the boy narrator begins. "In fact, I was raised by a pair-Maurice and June. They are good parents," he adds. On the opposite page June, in a warm red overcoat, holds out her arms to a naked, Sendak-style foundling. (Honey badgers are carnivorous African mammals, making Maurice and June's solicitousness particularly heartwarming.)

Telegraphic sentences on the left-hand pages ("We have a small stream nearby to sip from") accompany framed pictures on the right; here, the boy and Maurice, sporting warm sweaters to ward off the chill, drink on hands and knees, surrounded by a forest of gnarled trees. Visual references to myth (empty boats), fallen civilizations (Mayan stone sculptures), and wealth and education (velvet drapes and leather-bound books) give the story elegant resonance without weighing it down. "It is late now," the boy says. "I think I'll go to bed."

Maurice and June stand guard as he sleeps under an enormous canopy. Odone, tapping into a powerful vein of fantasy (what child would not rush to move into a cozy den with two gentle, furry parents-) has created the kind of book certain children will cling to, years after they abandon the rest of their picture book collections.

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For further information concerning the event, please e-mail: rwg.info@yahoo.com.