Meet The Artists
Keep Kids Reading All Summer!
Meet this year's artist and web comic creator.
Audrey Malo
Meet the artist
My super space name is…
Astro Magnetic
I live in…
Montreal
Some of my favourite things to read as a kid were…
Goosebumps by R. L. Stine, anything horror or mystery, and comics such as Calvin and Hobbes, Garfield and Yoko Tsuno.
If I could live one day as a children’s book character, I would choose to live as…
Piglet from Winnie-the-Pooh.
My favourite thing about libraries is…
It’s a place to relax and take your time.
The happiest moment in my career as a book creator was…
Seeing my family collect my books and ask for copies to give to people they know.
You would never catch me…
Eating baked beans.
A great Canadian author or illustrator of kids’ books you should definitely check out is…
Emilie Leduc. I love looking at her work and process, it feels so soothing to me. I have recently acquired a small original piece of hers and it brings me so much joy to look at it every day!
My favourite thing about summer is…
Swimming in a warm lake with friends.
If I could travel to space, my first stop would be…
The moon.
My advice for kids who are interested in becoming an author or illustrator is…
(For illustrators) Don’t be afraid to trace or be open about your inspirations—lots of us professional artists do it and it’s a great way to learn and experiment!
Audrey Malo’s books
Kevin Sylvester
Meet the web comic author
My super space name is…
Kinetic Star
I live in…
Toronto (Secret space name – The Outer Rim Orion Nebula Terrestrial Outpost)
Some of my favourite things to read as a kid were…
Spider-Man Comics. Books about true sports stories (especially hockey and baseball). Then I fell in love with the Hobbit and the book versions of Star Wars and 2001: A Space Odyssey.
If I could live one day as a children’s book character, I would choose to live as…
That’s a hard one because I feel like I love the variety of living as different book characters when I read their books. When I was younger I used to pretend I was Bilbo Baggins, fighting dragons in the woods behind my house.
My favourite thing about libraries is…
Libraries saved me as a kid. The school library was the only place that let me just sit and explore, eventually finding the books I wanted to read… not the books I had to read for class. It was empowering and confidence building. And I was lucky enough to have a public library near my home that had a great kids section with comfy chairs, and stacks of Hardy Boys, Beatrix Potter and other books that I would fall into for hours.
The happiest moment in my career as a book creator was when…
I think it was when I held my very first published book and novel in my hands - so Sports Hall of Weird and then Neil Flambé and the Marco Polo Murders. After Neil came out I also saw a kid reading it on a bus, and that felt… perfect.
You would never catch me…
Riding a roller-coaster or ferris wheel. I hate heights. I have done both of those things in the past - once - and did not enjoy the experience.
A great Canadian author or illustrator of kids’ books you should definitely check out is…
There are SO many. Canada is the best in the world right now. But the ones who always make me smile would be Qin Leng, Debbie Ridpath Ohi, Sydney Smith and the Fans. But the list is MUCH longer than that.
My favourite thing about summer is…
Baseball.
If I could travel to space, my first stop would be…
The moon. I have been fascinated by the Apollo missions and the moon landings since I was a kid. It would be amazing to sit there and then stare back at Earth.
My advice for kids who are interested in becoming an author or illustrator is…
READ. READ. READ. You learn so much by seeing how other authors tell stories. Think critically about what you like, and don’t, about the books you read.
Kevin Sylvester’s Books
